We spent about 4 hours today in a museum. In one single museum.
Yup. Geeks. And proud of it.
Today is our only "free" day, in the sense that, starting tomorrow, all the rest of our days here are regulated by some kind of schedule. Tomorrow and Wednesday we have reserved tours. Then the conference begins Wednesday afternoon, and goes all day Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday, we have a three-day tour scheduled to take us to the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. Essentially, starting tomorrow, our time is no longer our own to waste as we wish.
Having yesterday to catch up on sleep and today to do whatever we wanted was great planning. I am so happy that it worked out this way. We had a tentative plan today to start out around 9 a.m., then walk down to the Jade Museum, and maybe also catch one of the butterfly farms. But my phone for some reason has not automatically adjusted to the local time (as it usually does when traveling), so I woke up an hour later than planned.
One of the things I really appreciate about my travel companions is that they were totally fine with my phone's deviousness. I really appreciate people who can just go with the flow when that's what the situation calls for.
We got started around 10:00, and walked from our hotel into town. This was when I noticed for the first time that all the hotels in this area are guarded by locked gates. In fact, we couldn't depart from our own hotel until the concierge came and unlocked the gate for us.
Yes, this might be a comment on the society in this city, but it also doesn't say the same thing that the same situation would say in America. I don't really know how to explain this, but traveling in "third world" countries (I so dislike that label) is different. Just because there's a gate around the hotel doesn't necessarily mean that the area is unsafe. But it does mean that you should probably watch your belongings.
We walked around the city for less than an hour in search of the Museo de Jade. In that short time we encountered three large parks, all with several statues in them commemorating some kind of historical or public figure, or some kind of historical event. I took pictures of some, but this one is my favorite:
Yah, they seem really proud to honor Coronado.
As a Hawaiian, I imagine they feel the same way about him as we do about Captain Cook, or President McKinley.
I loved how many parks there were along the way. The variety of plant and bird life is just amazing, and we even saw a woodpecker along the way. Apparently those are not all that common in town, so that was a good find. (It flew away before I could take the picture.)
We actually ventured much farther than we needed to because we were working off of an old map. We found the closed Museo de Jade, which looked like a small, tucked away room in the corner of a financial building. The New Jade Museum, as we found out, was located a few blocks back in the direction that we had come from. So we had another leisurely walk and found more interesting things along the way, like this mosaic under a bridge:
I have no idea of what it depicts, but I was impressed with the fact that they created a mosaic...under a bridge.
When we finally found the museum, it was well worth the walk. As stated earlier, we spent about 4 hours in there. It spanned five floors, with each hall addressing a specific theme. The first was mainly a display floor for all the jade objects one could imagine. The second floor was about the jade itself - where it comes from, how the indigenous people used it, and how it was sculpted and carved to their purposes.
Most interestingly, the kind of drill that the natives used to make indentations and sometimes even holes is the same structure as Hawaiian drills.
I created a photo album on Facebook with just the museum pictures, so if you're my friend you can view the whole thing. If not, look up the Museo de Jade. I don't know if they've posted pictures of their collection, but if they did, it's worth browsing.
Anyway, after leaving the museo we searched for food and drink, and while we were getting that it started to pour.
Apparently it rains every afternoon here in Costa Rica. And it's not just a light rain. It was pouring.
So, overall, although it is also a tropical place, it's a lot colder than it is in Hawai'i. Plus, it is their winter here (rainy season). I was not prepared. I wish I had brought a couple of long-sleeved shirts...
But the rain also gives us time in the middle of the day to relax...like a siesta. That's always a good idea. Americans need to learn how to siesta.
That's about it for day 2 in Costa Rica. We're heading out to dinner soon, and after that, turning in early. We have get up around 5 a.m. to be ready in time for our tour tomorrow.
Aloha!
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