Our room was quite spacious but lacked any windows to the outdoors – just a couple of openings onto a stairwell privatized by frosted glass. Turned out that was an advantage because the rooms facing out onto the streets caught a lot of traffic noise. Urban Green was the hotel name and it was rated four star. The rest of our group had a variety of room shapes and sizes and amenities.
Jan and I opted out of the hotel breakfast and headed for the Central Market to find a restaurant recommended by the front desk. Turned out it was closed but we got to trek through a busy marketplace full of colour and smells. We ended up backtracking to a bakery we had passed and had a couple of pastries with our cafe con leche.
When Jan and I returned the rest of the group wanted us to show them the market so we headed out with group in tow for a tour of central San Jose. Somehow, while wandering among the market stalls our group lost four members. Turns out that our decision to forget getting local sim cards and just rely on Whatsapp isn’t a reliable way to communicate with each other unless we have internet. Happily though, we ended up reuniting at the Children’s Museum about an hour later. Meanwhile we unknowingly hiked through one of the seamier and more dangerous areas of the city to get to the museum.
Next to the museum was a wooded area that was full of interesting bird calls which Merlin was able to identify like the Great-tailed grackle, the clay-coloured thrush, the rufous-collared sparrow, the blue-gray tanager and a great kiskadee, amongst others.
We did end up returning to the hotel unscathed. Jan headed off for lunch with her friend Joanne who lives just outside the city while the rest of us wandered towards the pedestrian area of the Avenida Central where we ended up at Spooners – a slightly pricey restaurant with quite good food. Diane was actually able to find a solution to her damaged bag along the way. She found a store that sold luggage straps. Problem solved.
We all made our way back to the hotel after lunch. One group went off to check out a museum. Dave and Barb Young decided to lay low to try and recuperate from a bug they both seemed to have picked up. I rested in the room until Jan returned with her friend Joanne. Joanne wanted to meet me to tell me about micro-dosing as a method to control essential tremor. I will have to talk to my doctor when I get home.
Diane and Rick invited us all to cocktail hour in the 5th floor lounge and then we went off to another lounge to get our G-Adventures briefing from our guide Criss. This trip is full of possible activities – lots of hiking, birding, swimming. Jim was hoping to be able to go deep sea fishing but he needed some others to join him. If the cost hadn’t been so high I would have loved to do it but it was out of my league.
Supper was a group event at a restaurant chosen by our guide, Criss. The walk there and back proved a bit of an obstacle course avoiding gaping holes in the sidewalk – not the most accessible area. Table discussions were lively as we all were getting to know each other. Too bad Dave and Barb were still not feeling well enough to join. It was late when we returned so we all retired to our rooms for an early start the next day.