San Jose, Costa Rica

I met my violin student's Uncle Marco today, and he gave me the whirlwind walking tour of central San Jose, a surprisingly compact capital city where everything important seems to be within walking distance. Marco, an amiable man who is a very young looking 50 years of age, is a delightful companion of an afternoon.

We walked down the grand boulevard Paseo Colon from my hotel's La Sabana neighborhood onto Avenue Central which leads to a fine, long pedestrian street which was full of life on this busy Saturday, the 15th of August, Mother's Day in Costa Rica.

We checked out the Mercado Central, a market with everything from hammocks to hardware, where I spotted a busy espresso bar. This turned out to make the best cafe con leche of my entire trip.

Then we hit the Parque Central and its attendant Catedral Metropolitana, and I was busy snapping photos all afternoon.

Later Marco took me to a hole in the wall ceviche joint. Ceviche is a national dish, often compared to sushi because it's a marinated raw fish. I found it delicious but more comparable to Thailand's som tam salad because of the lemon and other seasonings. The ceviche we had was bass or carp and was served with fried plantains.

After the walking tour, we piled onto a rush hour bus which took us to his home in the suburb of Desemparados. In a quiet neighborhood of clean, modest dwellings, Marco's house is the legacy of his parents, and he has added his own special touch to the premises with his mural artwork. Again, I was snapping photos like mad.

I discovered that Marco and I have plenty in common besides our close ages and similar outlook on life. He, like me, was once a big Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd fan. He actually has a whole Led Zeppelin Room, and some of his wall mural artwork is a colorful riff on Dark Side of the Moon themes.

Like me, Marco is unmarried with no kids, but unlike me he has a few pets as companions in his household, notably a large boxer named Buster, another smaller dog, Lola, and a big green parrot, who was shy around me and at a loss for words for much of the time.

Later the parrot did say "Hola!" to me, and when she felt lonely she would call out "Marco!"

Marco says she's fairly fluent in both English and Spanish, including some vernacular curses.

Toward the end of the day the rains began to come down hard, but it was a beautiful view from Marco's home as you can see the nearby cloud shrouded mountains to the south of the city.

In fact, it's been raining fairly steadily now for about three hours.

Weather permitting, Marco and I may take a day trip tomorrow to one of the nearby volcanos and perhaps one of the outlying colonial towns of Heredia or Cartago.

I have only two days left here, and I wish I had another week. I think I need to have a new rule, no more two week overseas holidays!