Daytripping to Cartago and Heredia

Uncle Marco is a great guide for impromptu trips around the Central Highlands outside Costa Rica's capital city.

This morning we met for coffee before setting out on a short bus trip to Cartago, another old colonial capital with an important shrine of a cathedral, roughly 15 miles east of San Jose, but quite a bit higher up the mountains.

We had a beautiful morning in front of us, but still it was not ideal volcano exploring weather because clouds begin to form around those mountains quite early in the day. By 10.00 a.m. it's probably too late to see very much up there at this time of year.

Cartago boasts some ruins from a few hundred years back. The town has suffered earthquakes and floods, but it has always bounced back from every disaster.

After snapping a couple dozen photos, we headed back to downtown SJ and caught another bus to Heredia, yet another colonial era city 10 miles north of the city, and again higher up.

With the National University and several multinational high tech corporations, it was clear right away that Heredia is a very happening place, and relevant in the 21st century. Practically every American fast food chain you can imagine has outlets there, yet there are dozens of local restaurants with the plato del dia, or casado lunch plate, and a couple old men recommended a spot for us to eat. Yes, it was delicious and filling!

Heredia also has dozens of internet shops and lots of bars and beer garden type joints.

And Heredia's Parque Central was very lively with music in the central gazebo, balloon and soap bubble clowns for the children, and everyone seemingly hanging out in this delightful little city on the Sunday afternoon post Mothers Day.

I have to reiterate that Costa Rica's municipalities really take care of their central parks. These are among the cleanest and most pleasant I've seen anywhere in Latin America.

Marco is an excellent companion, though he's somewhat a throwback to the 1970s. He and his siblings, an older brother and a younger sister *she's one of my Suzuki parents*, were born in Costa Rica but raised in Manhattan Beach, CA. While Marco's brother and sister both built lives and have been raising families in the U.S., Marco returned to Cosat Rica more or less permanently about 30 years ago.

A self described metal head, Marco is the proud owner of almost 300 LPs which include the complete discographies of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Jimi Hendrix. He claims also to have a collection of 8 track tapes.

Marco is now considering the possibility of returning to America at some point but admits to feeling somewhat ambivalent about the idea. In San Jose he works as a house painter and handyman, but he has also worked as a cemetary hand and as a hotel clerk.

With his fluent American English I suggested that he could work as a tour guide or in some other capacity in Costa Rica's booming tourist sector.

He agreed, but confessed to being perhaps a little too shy to succeed in the business. I think maybe he is a bit too modest, but I can relate to his indecision about returning to the States. He strikes me as the type of person who works to live rather than the opposite.

With ominous looking rain clouds beginning to form to north of us at about 3p.m., we headed back to San Jose on the bus and sure enough, the rains followed us about an hour later. This made for a nice cool refreshing end to the day.