La Paz waterfall was noted as one of the few places where there is enough room to pull over off the road to spend the night. The road turns sharply to the left across a one-lane bridge that crossed over the water in front of this pool at the base of the falls. No real parking area on the mountain road as it was hemmed in by rocky cliffs on one side and the water on the other. It's a beautiful waterfall.
It was raining and soon the waterfall turned brown and grew with the runoff from above. It literally doubed in size/volume in a couple of hours. We parked and slept just left of this shot, listening to the pounding water just beyond our windows. You can see the power of the water in the roiling pool at the base of the falls.
A fruit vendor woke us early the next morning, wanting his place back to set up his stand. The rain had stopped overnight and tthe falls were once again white and pretty instead of brown and angry.
A man tending to his oxen. Signs on the road warned of ox carts; there are still some in use here.
The big letters SJO for San Jose.
Jason near the national stadium at Sabala Park.
A whimsical statue in the park. This place is huge!
The green stripes in the gold bamboo is so pretty. Several big stands of this bamboo provided hiding places for kids to play in.
One of the old churches we passed. This country is still Catholic by constitution.
YOLO backed into the cavernous bay of the brake shop, Todo Frenos (All Brakes). These guys had us in and out in three hours, even though we didn't have an appointment. We just parked in front of their shop until they opened, hoping to get a quote, but they handled our issue immediately and for a great price! We'd needed new front brakes as they'd started to squeak after all those mountainous miles.
A painted cow statue that squirted paint from the teats.
Karen in front of the wings sculpture in the central park. The bronze wings are a traveling exhibit that started in Mexico.
A huge sculpture in the park next to the wings, this one made of CDs. Their changing colors in the shifting light was gorgeous.
The oldest theater in the country. It's abandoned as nobody can figure out what to do with it but they don't want to let it be torn down as it is one of only a few buildings from that era (late 1800s-early 1900)s still intact with its ornate facade.
The large Neo-Classical National Theatre, from 1897. It has three statues on top that represent the arts. Below the checkerboard square plaza (Plaza of Culture) is the museum, with three levels underground.
A wild sculpture along the walk on our Free Walking Tour in San Jose.
This church is supposedly cursed, dating back to a wedding where someone stood up against a marriage and was ignored. He cursed the couple and the church, and the marriage ended in divorce. So the church will perform any services
except weddings now.
This statue is in the front right corner of the church yard. The local priest visited England and admired the propellor on a similar statue. The British priest gave him a propellor and he incorporated it into this statue.
Three of the famous Diquis Spheres. No one knows exactly who made them, or why, but they are chiseld, chipped, and sanded out of solid granodiorite (like granite) into perfect spheres. They date back to 500-1500 AD and are usually attributed to the extinct Diquis culture. Several hundred of them have been found over the years and some of them were dynamited to see if there was a hidden treasure in them--a nugget of gold or a coffee bean? Nope. Just huge stone spheres. Pretty cool.
A crenellated tower in the middle of the city, part of the National Museum of Costa Rica.
All those people on our walking tour above were looking back at this ugly building, touted to be the 'greenest' buildings in the city. There was a mention of it including a convent, but I'm not sure if it was a joke or not. Jason thought it looked like a prison. Apparently it's easier to cool concrete than glass, so there are several windowless buildings in town.
A mural painted on an obscure wall of the national museum looks like an ape smoking a joint to me.
Women and men in a sculpture representing the freedom of Costa Rica from the United States of America. The man on the left, covering his face in shame as he runs away is William Walker, a man from Tennesee who wanted to tke over Central America. His band of supporters was known as the Filibusters and they were driven back out of Costa Rica in 1857, thus 'saving' the country from being overtaken. This is the National Monument for Costa Rica. They had a hard time finding a 'hero' to represent the country. Costa Rica has no military force.
The old government distillery. People were getting sick drinking homemade moonshine, so the government took over making the cacique that is the national liquor It is made from sugar cane, sort of like white rum.
The Buenaventura Corrales School, an historical girls' school made of metal. It dates back to 1886 adn has been an active schol ever since. It was made of 1000 tons of metal manufactured in Belgium and shipped here, making it the first metallic building in Costa Rica.
Jason standing among the metallic sculptures of people.
We stumbled onto this block-long ornate building while looking or a new hat for Jason.
I went to the museum to see the Pre-Columbian gold exhibit. This bronze sculpture of a couple of old men on a bench was the first thing I encountered as I descended the three floors underground from the Plaza of Culture.
I was quite surprised at how intact all the exhitbit items were. No cracked or broken items on display here.
Some hammered gold chest plates.
Frogs and toads were a popular theme in the gold items.
Fancy filligree was include din many of the designs. They used waxed threads to create the intricate designs.
Birds in flight were another popular design.
A few people pieces were also included.
An example of how the gold was worn.
A stylized crocodile. Remember,this was all done before 1500 AD.
A couple more crocs. Different metals mixed with the gold to create different alloys make the different colors in the finished product.
A fancy gold frog.
Some painted ceramics were in the displays, too
I'm pretty sure this is a painted ceramic bat, but it was identified as a bird in the museum. Looks like a fruit bat in flight to me.
The contemporary art section was quite interesting. This is a photo of a guy who sunburned the shape of Central America onto his chest.
These are all cast replicas of people's fingers and thumbs....
The human digits were sheathed in black plastic gloves and dipped in ink or paint....
Each digit printed was then pinned onto this huge wall....
A closeup of just a few of the hundreds/thousands of fingerprints from the wall. A very odd but interesting series of displays.
This display is an audio/musical one.... touch any of the individual metal squares and a sound plays.
A closeup of the little metal squares attached over thin metal wires. Each of the wires emits a different sound--music or bird calls or such. Touch only one square at a time for one second to make the sound play.
The museum also showcasesa history of all the coins ever minted/used in Costa Rica. This is the oldest coin ever minted here. Only a few remain, so it is quite valuable. Costa Rica had a hard time finding skilled mint workers and often ran short of coins, so they stamped over other countries' coins and punched a hole in them to make them Costa Rican. They call this process 'overstriking'.
These five exhaust pipes provide fresh air into the underground museum.
We were told the fourth pipe is yellow just out of whimsy.
Our Free Walking Tour guide and our group It was the Fourth of July, but nobody even mentioned Independence Day to us.
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