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| Jaguar at Centro de Rescate Las Pumas, Canas |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
There are lots of things to see and do on day trips from San José, Costa Rica's capital city. You can stay in a San José hotel and drive to several attractions and back in a single day.
Centro de Rescate Las Pumas, in Canas, is the farthest away. A three-hour drive northwest of San José, it is located between Palo Verde National Park and Lake Arenal, northwest of Monteverde.
Cougar Rescue Center
Don't expect a zoo. This animal rescue shelter rehabilitates orphaned and injured Costa Rican animals. Those that can't be returned to the wild are housed in large enclosures with plenty of vegetation where they can hide.
We saw well-cared-for pumas (mountain lions or cougars), a peccary that resembled a wild pig and a magnificent jaguar. An oncilla (little spotted cat), also called a tigrillo, watched us from a hole in a tree trunk.
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| American crocodile in Carara National Park |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
Carara National Park
Located 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of San José, north of Jaco, Carara National Park is a great place for birdwatching. The rainforest shelters wood storks, great egrets, black-necked stilts, Northern jacanas, little blue herons and scarlet macaws.
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| Boiling sugar cane juice |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
At the northern edge of the park, we noticed several stopped cars and people peering from the road into the Tarcoles River below. Stopping to investigate, we spotted a massive American crocodile sunning on the riverbank.
Sweet tea
Glimpses of rural life highlighted our drive back to San José. We watched workers squeezing sugar cane and boiling its juice in huge vats. A vendor sold brown chunks of the cooled and concentrated sugar syrup, molded into flowerpot shapes.
"We grate it into hot water to make agua dulce, a sweet tea," he explained. He also showed us a nearby tree bearing large green fruits. "It's a calabash tree. We use the hard shells to make bowls, vases and maracas (pebble-filled musical instruments)."
Driving past large palm oil plantations, we watched workers harvest clumps of kernels and load them onto trucks. They explained that the palm oil was used to make margarine and cosmetics.
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| Hand-painted oxcart wheel, Sarchi |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
Hand-painted oxcarts
Sarchi, located 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of San José, is famous for workshops that make traditional oxcarts (carretas). Once used for transporting coffee, the carts are now used during festivals and parades.
The town displays the largest oxcart in the world. In one of the factories, we watched artisans paint the wheels with vibrantly colored geometric designs. Souvenir shops sell miniature models.
Prehistoric stone spheres in National Museum
Although ecotourism is Costa Rica's big draw, our most enduring memories are of the Ticos, or local inhabitants. In San José, opposite the National Theater (Teatro Nacional), there is a small park where families gather on Sunday afternoons.
Although few people spoke English, they nodded and smiled when we asked permission to take pictures of their children feeding the pigeons.
In the courtyard of the National Museum, we viewed some pre-Columbian stone spheres, larger than the one that we saw at Marenco Beach and Rainforest Lodge in the Osa Peninsula. Researchers believe that the creators used hammer stones to carve them between 600 and 1000 AD, before the Spanish conquest.
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| Ancient stone balls in National Museum, San Jose |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
Around 300 orbs have been found, ranging from orange-sized to more than two meters in diameter. They looked familiar. Then we realized why. A replica of one of the petrospheres nearly crushed Indiana Jones in the opening scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Zapote Agricultural Fair
In San José's eastern suburb of Zapote, there is a popular farmers' market and agricultural fair. Friendly vendors gave us recipes for their tropical fruits and organic vegetables.
Sometimes they were in Spanish. No matter. They were always accompanied with smiles. All of the Ticos that we met were proud of their country and delighted to show us its natural wonders.
A local phrase that we heard often was pura vida. Although it translates as "pure life," the expression has several meanings — hello, good-bye, wonderful, take-it-easy and live life to its fullest.
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| Ticos at Zapote farmers' market |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
It's easy to experience pura vida in San José and on day trips to surrounding areas. Happiness is inevitable when you are surrounded by so many wonders of nature.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
More things to see and do in Costa Rica:
Costa Rica Trips for Nature Lovers
Costa Rica Adventure Tour
Finding the Resplendent Quetzal in Costa Rica
Manuel Antonio National Park - Hiking, Beaches and Wildlife
