Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

Glad to fit in a Tom Lehrer song as he is a favorite  of mine. Woke up to a sunny day in San Jose. We are back at Hotel Autentico and ready to explore this city of one million people. The city looks kind of shabby and is spread out with many suburbs. Traffic is beyond horrible most of the time.

I took a great, hot shower with good water pressure and had the buffet breakfast included at the hotel. Jeff called Uber and the driver arrived promptly and dropped us off in the central area.

Our first stop was a tour at the National Theatre of Costa Rica. Built in 1897 by the government as the showplace of Central America. It is impressive and the marble stairs and walls, statues and murals were brought over piece by piece from Europe and installed by local workers. It resembles the opera house of Paris. We had the same luck here as in Paris. There was a rehearsal, so no lights in the main auditorium. We never got to see the great chandelier, but we did get to sit in a darkened box and watch a bit of a rehearsal. The show is tomorrow night for a performing arts school.

We did see the grand foyer and reception area with women's and men's lounges. The ceiling murals were beautiful and painted from sketches sent to European artists.

The art is representative of the local agriculture and life. Sadly, the European artists were guessing about many things and put coffee fields next to the ocean and no birds or wildlife are seen. This piece was used on the Costa Rican money on the 1960's which is now sold as a souvenir.

 
This is the upstairs lounge with a beautiful ceiling mural.

Entrance to the President's Box

The lobby statues made me laugh. There is a Greek or Roman woman playing a lyre who is traditionally clothed. The Latin lady playing castanets has her breast exposed and her skirt is pulled up.

This is a famous sculpture in Costa Rica and very beautiful. Heroes de la Miseria by Juan Ramon Bonilla, 1907.

Next we visited the Catedral Metropolitano built in 1871. Luckily there was a mass and lots of people in attendance. Pretty stained glass windows and altar.

In the garden is a large statue of Pope John Paul II carved by Costa Rican sculptor Jorge Jimenez Deredia after the Pope visited the city.

We walked about two blocks to a pedestrian walk that houses lots of stores and restaurants.

Lots of chain restaurants here including Starbucks! Saw KFC, McD's, Subway, Quiznos and Pizza Hut just in two blocks.

Street vendor selling funny faces. The security guard in the doorway was laughing as it was so silly.

Next stop was the gold museum which is housed under the Centro Plaza in a bank building. Inside we literally walked through vault doors to enter the museum area.

I was very impressed with the exhibits. Floor two had ceramic and pottery art made by ancient peoples. Floor three had a movie with English subtitles and a terrific display about gold. Starting with the collection and processing and moving to the artistry and finished pieces. Also exhibits about the shamans and use of gold in ceremonial, burial and life. This is a typical village diarama.

An amazing neck piece.

A warrior adorned for battle. Note the arm bands (ankle bands also), Chest plate, head band and enormous spools in his ears. The gold hook below his mouth was sickening to me, but what do I know?

Women were very important in the ancient culture keeping the home and traditions. Many were allowed to perform special ritual duties.

We had a nice lunch on a terrace overlooking the walkway and now back at the hotel resting. I sat outside by the pool in a shaded lounge chair which was very pleasant.