Sunday 23 September 2012

photographs of San Jose

I thought we might have a wander round San Jose, so first we'll drive into the city...keeping our eyes well open...




 
 
and yes, that is indeed a train you see in the middle of the road. Narrow gauge trains run through the streets at rush hours, transporting commuters  to and from their places of employment.
 
There are no level crossings, gates, or lights, the trains advertising their presence by ringing bells, blasting sirens or hooting mournfully depending on the engine involved.
It does not do to be listening to your music player, plugs in ears, while crossing the lines unless you harbour a death wish.
On the other hand they are a great incentive to drivers not to tailgate in heavy traffic, thus alleviating the gridlock that is the curse of San Jose.
 
The gridlock could have been eased had the  council not taken it into its head to revamp several of the main traffic arteries at the same time and had it thought to instruct its sub contractors not to allow their diggers to break into the water mains as the gridlocked driver is not noticeably comforted by the sight of the resulting fountains.
Nor by the presence in the road of concrete manhole covers (the metal ones having been stolen for scrap) pushed up by the force of water.
 
Still, it will all be over soon. The mayor will either be selected as his party's presidential candiate...in which case the money will be diverted to campaigning...or he won't......in which case he will prefer the city to be a bit run down so that he can point the finger at the new regime.
 
San Jose is pretty compact...look down almost any street and you will have a view of the mountains which encircle it....so a morning's walk will take you over most of it and if the legs are weary the buses are cheap.
Pensioners travel at reduced cost or free, the idea being to encourage people to get out of their houses and keep lively, thus free admission to museums and galleries and reduced entrance to the theatres.
Balm to the decrepit Scottish heart....

There is the public architecture...like the central Post Office
The National Theatre

Or the National Museum, originally a nineteenth century fortress built to control the turbulent 'Josefinos' as the inhabitants are called. These days, instead of being greeted by sentries you enter the buildings through a cloud of butterflies in the plant filled entrance. Pure magic.
 
Religious architecture, like the Merced church
Or the domes of HolyTrinity floating over Barrio Mexico
A stunning contrast to the tin sheets covering the facades of the buildings below. Which do not exist on the upmarket Barrio Amon, where the coffee barons built their mansions and which now is home to sex tourists and druggies. Still looks good though.


Or here...
And
Before walking away into Barrio Otoya, past the Foreign Ministry building, Casa Amarilla.
 

I lost my heart to a house in Barrio Otoya....from the outside....but it was not to be!
 
Time for lunch down in my Barrio.....at the taxi drivers' caff, open from morning to night. Good cheap food, freshest possible ingredients and a cook who can astonish you with her versatility.

 
And just yards away from my house.......so off for a siesta before resuming the tour another time.
 









 

 











 
 
 
 
 

 

 

30 comments:

  1. Oh!I love that yellow casa with the blaze of (I think) bougainvillea. Casa Armarilla?
    Super tour.Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is some stunning domestic architecture, not just in Amon but dotted all over the city.

      Delete
  2. A fascinating glimpse at the city. Love the trains on the road - elfansafety would have a field day with that here!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would give a few jobsworths a run for their money!
      One tip...never get on a train with the President...it always derails!

      Delete
  3. more, more, more..............please

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those coffee baron houses are beautiful! Love the glimpse into life there in the city.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love San Jose. I have come across photographs from the twenties showing a really elegant place. It became run down through the sixties but it looks to be making a come back.

      Delete
  5. I love the architecture here it is gorgeous and the idea of entering a building through gardens full of butterflies really appeals.
    The council sounds a bit like the ones I knew in Africa, not too much thinking ahead!!
    I hope the trains keep their speed down while travelling through the town, I have visions on an express throwing people and cars in all directions as it passes by! Take care Diane

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The trains are distinctly slow moving...which is just as well if you don't know the city and find one emerging just ahead of you!
      It's not at Bulawayo level yet...no mass flushing of the loos at 7.30 pm to clear the sewers....but give them time....
      The buildings are wonderful and now there's a big effort to restore ones that have become eyesores.

      Delete
  6. hope you had a relaxing siesta
    does the city have a european feel to it
    nice to get to know it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looked very European from the photographs from the twenties...then became down at heel. It's a curate's egg of a city, but it's on its way up again. No pavement cafes, though.

      Delete
  7. Narrow gauge trains for depositing commuters and their private JCB’s right at their doorsteps? Brilliant idea!! Just what our little village needs. No more laborious three minute walks up the lane every morning to buy a paper. Let the parish freight train take the strain. Fancy a quiet ten pints at the Dog and Post after a late nights shop at the abattoir? Stagger home on the train… still slumped astride your tractor. We’ve just gotta get ourselves one of those. Be an instant cure for the giant Tesco truck that parks smack in the middle of the High Street and causes traffic mayhem every day around school chuckout time. Just shunt it right out of the village with your little old hundred & fifty ton narrow gauge community train. Game over. No more of our psychopathic, control freak of a lollypop lady who defiantly plants herself, her razor edged lollypop and that deranged, triumphant leer of hers, bang in the middle of the zebra crossing from dawn to dusk, including school holidays. Just roll right over her… ‘then’ sound the horn. End of story.

    I had to chuckle at the part on the video where the driver of the second train starts gesticulating irritatedly out the window, presumably at some determined suicide laying prone in anticipation across his tracks. Never seen an act of train rage in the high street before. Excellent.

    Thanks for the architectural tour of San Hhhose-ay an all. That Central Post Office of yours is about twice the size of our village. And we don’t even have a post box let alone a post office. Sighhh.

    Off to Ebay to check out second hand freight trains…

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Train rage...wonderful!
      Yes, I think the urban train system of San Jose could be duplicated across the world....and it would dispose of the lollypop lady faster than a threshing machine could swallow Walter Gabriel.
      They could market the concept...which would brng in some money for their plans to extend the network to neighbouring towns. The train carrying the President derailed a couple of days ago. Trains carrying Presidents always do...must be quaint local custom...or very disgruntled railwaymen.

      Delete
  8. The trains remind me of big city trollies of my childhood. So many tracks to cross in the street; your parent anxiously looking left and right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the fear of your heel being trapped in the tramlines....or your bicycle wheel....

      Delete
  9. Wow. Absolutely stunning. Not sure why that took me by surprise but it did!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean....San Jose took me by surprise too, and keeps on doing it.

      Delete
  10. It looks like a lovely city: vital, compact and with some beautiful buidlings. I'd say you're there at the right time. Once you've got street cafés, pedestrian zones and horse drawn carriages for the tourists, you'll look back on those crazy trains and the taxi driver's caff with nostalgia...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right. We chose our Barrio for ease of walking to the centre on flat ground and good transport for carrying the shopping back...with the bonus of several pretty houses....already the first signs of 'gentrification' are setting in. May it be a long drawn out process...

      Delete
  11. This looks fabulous, Fly. Absolutely envy you this city...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first couple of times we holidayed in Costa Rica I hardly visited it and when I did it was the then dirty commercial area I went to.
      Over the years the place has been picking itself up....in some ways too much. I don't like the street vendors beikng hassled even if it is like dancing the military twostep to get round them on the pavements, but the cleanliness, the reduction in crime and the sheer pride in the place is wonderful to see.

      Delete
  12. Love the photos. That video...the train was so noisy. LOL! Fascinating post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good job it is noisy....otherwise more accidents!
      I still can't get used to a train on the roads....

      Delete
  13. Catching up a tad, so saw the Art Deco buildings before these. Like these so much better. And the train is wonderful. My son is always saying he wants to go to Argentina. Perhaps I can persuade him to change that to Costa Rica and I'll come with him.
    Axxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I fancy Uruguay myself, but have missed the boat there for picking up something nice in the old quarter of Montevideo!

      You'd both (or all) be most welcome...and I think you'd have fun.

      Delete
  14. Oh, interesting. Felt as if I was there, although I don't think I'd really like to drive. In fact, if I ever go to San Jose I will make a special note to WALK.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Each has its hazards....until they manage to exchange all the metal manhole covers for concrete ones it pays to keep your eyes on your feet!

      Delete
  15. Replies
    1. Those are the more modern ones...occasionally I see one of the old ones from the sixties.

      Delete