Its our last day in Costa Rica (for now) and as Im feeling pretty much back to normal, we can take an Uber into town for a wander. We decide to start to the north of the city centre in Barrio Amn, which Lonely Planet informs me is a pleasant, historical neighbourhood, home to a cluster of coffee grower mansions. Recently many of the areas historical buildings have been converted into hotels, cafes, bars, and offices, making this a popular district for an architectural stroll. Our driver pulls up at our chosen location. He looks a little worried and checks that we really do want to be left here! We do, so off we set on our architectural stroll. First, we head in the opposite direction as the old man has spotted a fire station with some fireman sculptures outside. A real fireman sitting outside points north and says; ‘that way is dangerous, go the other way.
We walk through Barrio Amon taking pictures of buildings and murals, finally reaching the more touristy centre of town without incident, despite the driver and firemans misgivings. Theres not a huge amount to do in San Jos on a Monday (all the
museums etc are shut) other than wander aimlessly through the city. So we wander and take photographs for a couple of hours. In a park, we find a sculpture of a man with a dangly willy holding out a hand. The old man asks me to photograph him high fiving the sculpture. I point out that for the sake of symmetry, he really ought to get his willy out and let it dangle, but he refuses. The old man has no sense of adventure!
I have a challenge for my running club which involves taking as many photos of cafes as possible in one hour, so that keeps me occupied for a while. Then I run out of steam and want to go back to the hotel, but the Uber App is down. So I just sit on a bench feeling sorry for myself for a while until we can finally book a car to pick us up.
After a restorative nap and some restorative chips, I go for one last swim before its time to pack for tomorrow mornings flight. We should have departed four days ago, so Im excited were finally (almost) on our
