Jardin Botanico Lankester

We had a nice, chill night at Galileo yesterday. We rose this morning feeling refreshed. Having unlimited free internet access at this place has really lifted a load from our shoulders and we were able to figure out and take care of some logistical planning. We wandered around the neighborhood of the hostel for a while, looking for this one Mediterranean place that supposedly existed. It didn't, so we ended up eating a large portion of huevos rancheros at a place we circled a few times on our search. The menu was hilariously translated from Spanish, saying things like "Meat our chicken" and a section titled "Snachs" for snacks. Every time we sit down to a meal we have a little giggle sesh, trying to be sensitive but truly appreciating the butchering.

The service industry is quite funny here, as we've experienced in most of Central America. There is little concern to move fast, take orders, or bring bills. Our breakfast ended up being way longer because of this, but we had such a great spot outside on a main thoroughfare that it was hard to actually care. Then we swung by the hostel to pick up some things and started on a rather long walk to the city center. This place was like Chinatown, but in San Jose with no Chinese people. People shouting and selling things on the street left and right - "No, I don't want your bootleg DVDs, electronic puppy dogs, or lottery tickets. But thank you for asking over and over." We walked through totally overstimulated, this being our first major city since the beginning of the trip. It was strange seeing soooo many people in such a concentrated area after coming from Monteverde where we were the only people in a cloud forest. Come on! That's a hard transition! City life is so different, we kinda forgot.

But we made it to the other side of town and after asking numerous people, found our way to the bus that was going to take us to Cartago, a smaller city about 45 minutes away. This place was like the New Jersey to San Jose. It is cleaner and quieter with lots of families and residences. It was really nice being the only Gringas around - literally, did not see one other tourist. Thank the traveling gods! Then we got on yet another bus to Paraiso that took us to the entrance (500m walk there after) to the Jardin Botanico Lankester. This place is beautiful. Mainly promoted as an orchid garden (Orquideas), there were thousands of species of trees, flowers, cacti, shrubbery, etc. It was incredible, kept very well, and was basically a pleasant stroll through various gardens. Wonderful! We obviously took tons of pictures and marveled at nature for a while. We also saw a ridiculously long and impressive line of leaf-cutter ants, who were working hard carrying small pieces of leaves from one side of the garden to the other. Literally, 30 feet long! Hundreds of them. From afar, it was a strange sight to see small blades of grass moving independently across the way..."Sooooooooophie, get over here and look at this!" It was crazy, but we just wanted to tell them to slow down and take it easy. It's Saturday!

After the gardens we went on a fruitless search for a small craft brewery that was supposed to be super close by, but ended up being nowhere and known by no one. Oh well. Maybe next trip to Costa Rica. Eh? On the way back to San Jose we stopped in downtown Cartago and went into an incredible church that was unlike anything we've even seen before. Stone and unassuming from the outside, the inside is covered in wood panels, ornate altars, and beautifully painted columns. There was a wedding wrapping up so we just went inside and helped to send them off down the aisle. They walked by probably thinking, "Who invited these two sunburnt gals here?" Then we made our way back to San Jose, again overwhelmed by the bustle that we had to comb our way through the crowds to a bus we hoped was going where we wanted it to. And it did! Who knew it was that easy, as if we've never taken public transit before! We grabbed some aguacates and tomatoes on the way back and cooked up cup o noodles and guacamole for dinner. Delightful!

Now we're internetting it up, soon to venture to the other side of the city that is supposed to have good night life and a university crowd. We'll try and catch some live music if we're lucky, and perhaps meet up with some Aussies that we met in Nicaragua. We shall see.

Over and out
Sophisticated Koala