Costa Rica - San Jose

Checked in to the Grano de Oro, a truly grand hotel. First stop: Lunch.  Pat was thrilled to see a favorite dish on the menu: cassoulet. It went well with a nice Cote du Rhone. 

We  walked around the neighborhood we headed to the nearby paark which is the forer airfield. It is now home to soccer games and facilities for family outings. Thn we head toward the city center and our evening with Enaid. a friend we first met in SMA who recently moved to CR.  We arrive a little early as planned and wandered the Asian neighborhood near the restaurant, La Esquina de Buenos Aires. 

We had a excellent meal with Enaid - La Esquina has an extensive Argentine grill and Italian selections (lasagna for Bill and Black Fettuccini with salmon for Pat & Enaid).Excellent.  We chose a Pinot Noir from Patagonia to accompany the meal.

Below

• Iglesia de la Soledad (Church of Our Lady of Solitude)
• Sculpture represents 
• Argentine musician Cerati ,widely considered by critics and musicians as one of the most important and influential artists of Latin rock
• Enaid
• Bill's lasagna
• The wine from Patagonia
• The Black Fettuccini and Salmon

Next morning we joined Enaid for a tour for the Teatro Nacional a fine finish to a very pleasant visit.

The National Theatre of Costa Rica is located in the central section of San José. Construction began in 1891, and it opened to the public on 21 October 1897 with a performance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust. It has capacity for 1,140 people. It ifeatures impressive European design. 

After the theater we visited the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) that features historic gold artifacts, including figurines, pots & coins. It is located in a modern and interesting underground space. 

Below: The artwork depicts numerous extinct giant animals, including mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, and glyptodonts. These animals lived alongside early human populations in the Americas before becoming extinct roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The detailed illustration was created by artist Sergio de la Rosa, who specializes in prehistoric animals.

We walked back to the hotel enjoying the sights and sounds of San Jose. After lunch we started getting ready for our return to Mexico and 2 weeks with some Stanford GSB friends. We enjoyed the bouquet that was just outside of our room.