Finding Our Way Around San Jose

Being that there are no formal street addresses in Costa Rica, everything is described in relationship to something else. For example our hostel is across the street from the KFC (yes they're all over San Jose) and next to the UAMC (one of the many private universities that dot the city). We quickly discovered that those who do not know where all the hospitals, universities and KFC´s are, must take taxis or endeavor to walk to places that are visible (e.g. on the same street which may or may not have a formal name.)

We visited the Jade Museum and the Gold Museum which each discussed Costa Rica´s brief ethnohistory. We were told two stories about how Costa Rica got named. One was that Christopher Columbus sailed towards the east coast and noted the beautiful-resource rich coast and named it, costa rica. The other, which sounds more believable to me, is that the Columbus and his crew came upon a band of natives who were decked out in gold everything (necklaces, earrings, nose pieces, etc) and thus with gold on the brain, named it costa rica. Apparently the Spanish were so smitten with the gold that they rapidly exterminated the wearers and thus many of today´s Costa Ricans are light-skinned peoples of Spanish ancestry who participate willingly and readily in world market trade. Thus far I have yet to meet anyone who wears what might be considered indigenous clothing. The very closest we saw was a photo in the gold museum of people wearing elaborate masks and tunics, but the contemporary giveaway was that underneath they were all wearing blue jeans!

Is this good? Bad? Are there judgments one might make about a country that has chased the dollar (locally the colon) and has minimal roots into its Indian past? As for contemporary cultural expression, one taxi driver told us he listens to Mexican and American music in that there are no singers of note in his own country! We did visit the Grand Theater which features a massive ceiling mural painted by a Spaniard, featuring light-skinned very Spanish looking peasants in an 18th century bucolic setting. Diego Rivera would have rolled in his grave.

As for contemporary artistic expression, San Jose is filled with creatively decorated cow-statues, each very feminine with gleaming udders and bright paint-jobs. (As soon as I can access a computer in which I can post photos, I´ll send some of my favorites.)