Day Downtown

We kept hearing about the experience of going downtown and we just hadn't gotten around to it yet. So we decided to try it on Saturday. The main thing we've always heard is about all the sketchy people down there and how you have to watch for people stealing your stuff. Then others said it is awesome. We just had to go for it and see for ourselves.

Before we left, Emma decided she needed to wash dishes. She loved it! She is now our official dishwasher and is actually pretty good at it. I absolutely will not discourage her from this. She said she would charge me 10 colones each time she washes dishes....ummm, that's like a penny, so sure.

It was a really easy bus ride downtown and only costs us about $1 total for all of us to ride (Jack is free). The bus is very crowded and crammed with people in the seats and standing up. Every time I get on the bus I carry Jack so we won't have to pay for him, and every time someone stands up so I can sit down with him. This time it was a teenage girl with her friends who immediately jumped up to give me her seat. Costa Ricans are so polite.

Walking down the cobblestone pedestrian street...such cool things for sale...including pirated movies

Pigeon Park

After asking lots of people who almost all told us different directions, we finally found the Central Market. It was quite the experience for sure.

Aisles absolutely crammed full of stuff! Fire codes are for wimps.

One lady dressed up Jack with a wooden machete, hat and bandanna. We just had to buy the wooden machete with the holder. Jack wore it all day and protected us from thieves.

Random animals for sale...I think we were looking at a mouse

Costa Rican dress

Jesus statue in the middle of a crammed aisle...because that makes sense

Jack and his wooden machete

Emma and her little coin purse...she has agreed to wash dishes for two weeks for this purchase...score

Kids day was Friday so there were all kinds of people dressed up all over the place for entertainment. They love kids here....never seen anything like it. We told Emma and Jack that kids day is every day so this is why they didn't get a present. Don't feel sorry for them...they got tons of candy at church on Sunday.

Gross dead rat

Horse trailer in the middle of downtown...a truck up ahead just backed into a taxi and people were honking everywhere. They love to honk their horns for everything!

We had found this restaurant called Don Wang online that had great reviews. We were so looking forward to eating there and we ended up wandering the streets downtown for about an hour trying to find it. Once again, everyone was telling us different directions to get there, and we somehow ended up finding it. We should have brought a map downtown with us...live and learn.

Some streets were quite questionable, but we tried to stick to the most crowded ones. Will says he needs an umbrella with a sword in it. If anyone can find one of those, please let us know.

E&J by the Koi pond at Don Wang. We were so happy to eat at an awesome restaurant. It was probably the best Chinese food we've ever eaten. Not sure if that's because we haven't eaten at a good restaurant in 6 weeks or not...but it was worth the wandering....sketchy streets and all.

Then we walked around in this insanity trying to find our bus stop to take us home. It was getting really hot and we were so tired, but determined to find it. Jack asked, "can we just get a taxi?"Once again, the locals were so nice and helpful and they finally directed us to the right one. We just kept asking "Dos Rios"? "Bosque"? and we finally found it. We were way off.

Next time we will be downtown pros and we hopefully won't wander the streets again. We will study the map intently before we leave and carry it with us. Maps do not have street names, but just knowing some landmarks would be helpful. Now to find a map that's actually correct.

We actually loved it downtown and look forward to going again soon. We've heard about a great Children's Museum down there we might try this weekend. I'm sure it's full of all the unsafe things from the States they had to get rid of! Just couldn't fit it in since we spent so much time on our unplanned walking tour.

Who knows...once we get good at directions, maybe we'll be mistaken as Costa Ricans....maybe.