San Jose - Centrally Located Capital of Costa Rica

All over San Jose you will find examples of modern, as well as traditional architectural design. Monuments, plaques and statues located throughout the city offer interesting insights to the history of Costa Rica. The Plaza de la Cultura is the heart of the city, as this large square is a popular meeting place for traders, artisians, street musicians, painter, actors and just about anybody and everybody. If the plaza is the heart of the city, then the Teatro Nacional is the pride of the plaza, as it’s without a doubt the finest building in San Jose, if not all of Costa Rica.

Staying in San Jose will afford you access to many services that cater to the eco-tourist needs; providing an array of day trips and adventures into the surrounding areas. A visitor has an opportunity to take guided walking and/or guided horseback tours into nearby rainforests. If you’re looking for more thrills, there is always the more extreme option of bungee jumping off a nearby bridge into the depths of a rushing gorge or white water rafting down some serious rapids.

San Jose is home to most of Costa Rica’s museums. They include the National Museum, a former army barracks, but now a traditional colonial-style building with breezy tiled verandas that offer a good view of the downtown area. Inside the museum you will find displays on Costa Rican history and culture from pre-Columbian times to the present day. There are many interesting artifacts in the museum, from pre-Columbian gold jewelry and figurines to a 2,500 year old jade carving that is shaped like a seashell, an assortment of grinding stones- some the size of a small bed, and in the courtyard, you’ll have the opportunity to view some of Costa Rica’s mysterious stone spheres.

The Gold Museum, located directly beneath the Plaza de la Cultura, houses a remarkable collection of pre-Columbian gold pieces and is one of the largest in the Americas. There are more than 2,000 gold objects on display.

Located on the first floor of the National Insurance Company building is the Jade Museum, which has the western hemisphere’s largest collection of jade sculptures. In the pre-Columbian cultures of Central America, jade was the most valuable commodity, worth more than gold. The museum also displays a broad collection of pre-Columbian vases, bowls, and figurines. One of the more fascinating pieces incorporates human teeth into the vase itself.

A former airport terminal, the Costa Rican Art Museum sits at the end of Paseo Colon in Parque La Sabana, and displays artwork of all media types done by the most celebrated of Costa Rica’s artists. The collection consists of extraordinarily beautiful pieces in a variety of styles, expressing how Costa Rican artists have interpreted and imitated the major European styles through the years.

Smaller museums include the Insect Museum, on the University of Costa Rica campus, and Barrio Amon’s Museum of Contemporary Art and Design.

Shopping is always fun when visiting a different country, and Costa Rica is no exception. If you’re looking to purchase that special something, San Jose is home to many master craftsmen of various trades. If it’s a fine wood carving you’re after or a beautifully handcrafted guitar you’ve been wanting or meticulously crafted silver and gold jewelry, you’ll find it in San Jose.

As always, be aware of your surroundings, like all cities, there are good areas in San Jose, and there are not so good ones as well. Like many larger cities around the world, San Jose has its downsides, but San Jose’s pluses far out-weigh any of the negatives.