Day Two - Party in San Jose

Yes! We had another wild day today. Thankfully, however, it started out nice and slow. We we able to sleep-in and sat outside at Molino Rojo to eat our traditional Latin American breakfast - coffee and and bread with jam. Fruit flies were SWARMING the table, but thankfully someone had smartly put a towel over the food, and we were able to wade through the little guys. Then we headed over to what was originally to have been our hotel, Cinco Hormigas Rojas.

Mayra, the owner, is wild, but the place is quite nice. She has made it into a sort of bird fortress that you can't see in to from the street. It has thick walls of tree branches and a staircase that climbs up through the trees to a small deck where you can watch birds and bats eat the bananas she leaves out for them. She has additionally decorated the entire place with her art work, most of which is breast-themed. If I were to name a few pieces for the purposes of sale, they would probably be called things like "Waterfall of Breasts" and "Buxom II." Our room is very cozy and has a window looking out on the rich, if not small, bird/bat paradise.

We then headed out for a stroll around the city center and through some very nice parks. The sky was beautiful and you can see the mountains rising all around the city. We had a delicious lunch in a cafe downtown that makes traditional Costa Rican food, including coffee brewed at your table by pouring very hot water through a sock made of t-shirt material filled with ground coffee and suspended with a wooden frame over a metal pot, which is then used to pour the coffee. We will clearly be bringing one of these home. From there we went to Avenida Central, a pedestrian walkway, strolled some more, and then made our way to a little cafe (several hours later) for some beer and pizza. Costa Rica's national beer is Imperial, and it is healthier than water.

I would like to make a note that Jason's Spanish has improved in leaps and bounds from a starting place of no Spanish to "dos cervezas mas," and "la cuenta por favor," and much more. He is doing awesome.

Then, after a short respite at the hotel, we headed out to a jazz club, which we arrived at about four hours early. We tried to kill some time by walking up and down the very busy highway-like street looking for somewhere to have dinner, but weren't hugely successful. Additionally, when we left the jazz club initially, we were told the surrounding streets were filled with thieves. So we eventually returned to the jazz club to eat dinner and sit for three hours waiting for the show to start. When it did, it was well worth the wait. This will be hard to describe so I will just say a few words and phrases: Costumes, four percussionists, wildness, noodle dancing, 8 foot tall puppets, sweat, awesomeness. The band, whose genre I'd describe as party latin, was super good and Jason and I danced with a rather cool group of people for quite some time.

We did have a bit of trouble with the cab on the way home, first being detoured by halloween houligans, the policia, some trash on fire in the street, and finally a cab driver who was going in circles. Finally we had to get serious, and thanks to all our walking, were able to direct him to the hotel, where we are now. Tomorrow morning we are getting up VERY early to head for one of the most active volcanoes in the Americas.