Technical difficulties.

  San Antonio De Belen, Costa Rica
Thursday, June 28, 2007

We awoke to a crisp morning on June 28, 2007.  Since we had full water hook-ups at the Belen RV Park, Michael went outside after breakfast and grabbed the water hose.  It was time to give 'Nilla a bath.

Bathing ´Nilla.

Her last washing had been in Belize at the Old Belize Marina and she was starting to look her age.  The process took several hours as there was mud caked in the wheel wells that required a lot of scraping.

RV Park circa 1973.

With daily rains and driving on dirt and sand covered roads any material that kicked up under the vehicle had hardened like concrete.  It was quite an effort to painstakingly chip away chunks of hardened sand, not to mention it was rough on the hands.   Michael did a fantastic job and once completed, we took a few snapshots of our pretty girl as she sparkled in the early morning sun.  While Michael was hard at work outside, Geraldine was busy inside 'Nilla burning all of our information off of the laptop.  We intended to head into San Jose today to have the entire system checked and hopefully fixed, which may have required uninstalling all our programs thereby deleting any data left on the computer.  This process also took several hours as we had accumulated a lot of folders, pictures and random information.  Once both tasks were completed, we sat down to a hearty breakfast of potatoes, ham and eggs before each taking a lengthy hot shower.  It was around 1:30 pm by the time we were ready to leave the RV Park.
 
 
Thinking that it was now too late to go into downtown San Jose, we drove the short distance to the internet café to check up with people back home.  We were nearly reading to leave the café, when Michael decided to ask the clerk if he knew of a computer repair facility in San Antonio de Belen.  The clerk mentioned that they had a repair technician on staff and he was due to show up for work in one hour.  How fortuitous.  We sat back and waited a mere hour and a half before the technician arrived.  We immediately pounced on him as a lion would its prey and he had no other option but to sit down and have a look at our laptop.  He found a couple of issues and spent the remainder of his three hour shift juggling his clientele and working on our computer.  When the shop closed at 8:00pm, he proudly hit the final button and announced that our laptop was once again connecting to the internet.  We were both overjoyed with the news and when the technician said he only wanted $5 for his efforts, we became ecstatic.  This had definitely turned out to be a great day.  It was dark outside when we stepped from the internet café.  Looking at our parking spot directly across from where we stood, we decided it was as good a place as any to spend the night.  We jumped in the van, closed the curtains and took advantage of our internet capabilities by calling family back home.  Soon thereafter we curled up in bed with the street light shining down on us.
 
 
It had been a couple of days since we entered the San Jose area, and we had not yet explored the city, so on June 29, 2007 we drove into town with the intent of sightseeing.  Before we started our tour though, we needed to pick up our camera from the repair shop.  After a few test shots to make sure it was functioning, we paid our bill and started walking to places of interest.

Window shot of church in San Jose.

First stop was the Museo de Jade; however when we realized that their entry fee was way out of our budget, we walked around the corner and stumbled upon a quaint art shop named Andromeda.  The employee was very knowledgeable about Costa Rican artists and as we perused the various paintings on the wall, he followed behind and explained a bit about each artist to us.  It was a very informative time and we promised we would try to stop in on the way home and visit him again.  Andromeda also hosts art exhibits, poetry readings and local music evenings and we were asked to attend one if time permitted.  We were handed a schedule of events and internet contact information before shuffling out the door.  The next stop on our walking tour was Casa Amarilla.  Our tour book indicated that visitors were not allowed inside the building, however its grand exterior was worth seeing.  Neither one of us was too impressed with the exterior, so without even so much as snapping a photograph, we continued on our way.  On route to the Parque Nacional, we walked through the small Espana Parque., which is nestled between towering skyscrapers on two sides, Casa Amarilla to the front and a major inner city highway to the back.  Surprisingly, the large trees and flowering shrubs lessened the noise of the bustling city that surrounded it.  Trees and walkways in the park were dedicated to famous Costa Ricans and Michael found a bust of Rafael Barroetay to pose with.  Fountains, cobble stone pathways and massive trees rounded out this charming park.  Walking a mere two blocks down the street we could see Parque Nacional.  Just as we neared the park, it started to rain.  We quickly ducked inside a government building to put on our rain gear.  We had learned our lesson about afternoon showers in San Jose and this time we were prepared.  Not wanting to get our newly repaired camera soaking wet, we quickly took a few photos of the William Walker statue in the middle of Parque Nacional.  The statue depicts William Walker being chased out of Costa Rica by rifle and axe wielding Ticans.  Just as we packed the camera up, the skies opened and the rain started to pour down on us.  People all around us started to run for cover and umbrellas peddlers started to pop up everywhere.  Unfazed, we politely declined all offers for umbrellas and continued our leisurely walk down Avenida Museo.  The street is paved entirely with bricks in various colours and designs and is lined with palm trees and old-fashioned light posts.  It was picturesque.  We were now in search of the Mercado Artesanias.  We are not sure if it was the driving rain that played with our sense of direction, or if we simply did not read our map correctly, but somehow we had managed to overshoot our destination.  Doubling back, we found the market and looking in the distance we felt a tad foolish when we realized that we had parked exactly half a block away from the market entrance.  Waiting out the rain, we walked up and down the one aisle market looking for that one special item to buy.  We found it in an old $5 bill.  The old bills used to be printed in colour with scenes of typical Costa Rican life.  The $5 bill has the most vibrant colours and is sought by many as a keepsake as the bill is no longer in circulation.  It would be our only purchase of the day.
 
 

Grounds of Teatro Nacional.

Since we were so close to 'Nilla, it was the perfect time to stop and have lunch.  Within half and hour we had eaten, the rain had stopped and we were back on our walking tour.  The one and only item left on our checklist was the splendid Teatro Nacional.

Foyer of Teatro Nacional.

We had been eyeing the building for the past couple of days and were both anxious to see the inside.  Neither one of us felt disappointed as we entered the lobby  and were surrounded by marble pillars and white-washed stone sculptures.  The black and white tiled floors as

Flautista.

well as the intricately carved doorways and elaborately decorated ceiling added to the air of nostalgia. We did not venture past the lobby as the entrance fee was once again a tad to steep, but we did walk around the small one room museum and art exhibit that were on display.  The Teatro was built in the 1800's and there was a series of black and white photographs that lined one wall showing the changes over time.  The main building is basically original and filled with splendid beauty.  Back outside, we walked around the garden area.  The pathways wove through rows of flower beds that each proudly displayed vibrant coloured plants.  Scattered sporadically throughout the grounds were statues of musicians and great composers.  Having seen all we wanted to see, we trudged back to the van just as the rain started to fall...yet again.
 
 

At home it's duct tape...here it's packing tape.

Once more in San Antonio de Belen, we found our nice parking spot on the street in front of the internet café.  We pulled out our laptop and were very disappointed to see that once again it would not connect to the internet.  Thinking we were merely missing one simple key stroke, we walked into the internet café in hopes that the technician would be working.  He was not, however the guy that was working called the technician from his cell phone and let us talk.  Unfortunately, the tech was busy and unable to come to our rescue.  He was kind enough to offer his services at 5:00pm the following day, however that did not work for us.  At 1:45pm tomorrow we needed to be at the airport to pick up our dear friend Michelle as she was coming to Costa Rica on a four week medical study program.  So, we sadly thanked the technician for all of his help and resorted to using a terminal to work on our travelblog site.  As night approached we paid our tab and headed out to the van.  It was an early night for us as we once again fell asleep underneath the security of the streetlight outside the internet café.

Click the following link to see more photos:  http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=16xvaj2z.5b9u9qa7&Uy=-uf02fj&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0