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San Jose - Culture |
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Festivals
The Festival de la Luz was also initiated in 1996 as a Christmas parade highlighted by the "Parade of Lights" from Parque Sabana along Calle 42, Paseo Colo, and Avenida 2 to Calle 11, with floats trimmed with colorful Christmas lights (6-10 p.m.). In 1997, RECOPE, the state petroleum company, had a "locomotive" with 38,000 lights! Excursions/Cruises Tortuga Island Cruise (offered by Calypso Travel) Whether you're on your nr 2 or nr 92 visit
to Costa Rica, your visit is incomplete without a trip on Calypso's world famous
Tortuga Island Cruise. The day begins at your hotel where you will be greeted by
a bilingual guide, seated on an air-conditioned bus and served a continental
breakfast. The bus ride takes you to the pacific port of Puntarenas. Includes:
Punta Coral Private Reserve Cruise (offered by Calypso Travel)
The day starts when the tour's air-conditioned bus picks you up at your hotel in San José, Jacó or Quepos / Manuel Antonio. A light breakfast is served as the bus rolls along the Inter-American Highway toward Puntarenas and a guide explains the scenery, interspersing his comments with anecdotes from Costa Rica's history as well as facts about the country. Upon arrival in Puntarenas, you will board the State-of-the-Art Catamaran Manta Raya for the 45 minute cruise to Punta Coral.
Calypso's One Day Adventure is a tour-de-force of everything that is magical about Costa Rica's magnificent pacific coast and is necessary before one can say he has explored Costa Rica completely. Includes:
What to Take:
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As a drawing card in its own right, the capital has been subject to regular disparagement. Even Anthony Trollope, passing through in 1858, observed that "there is little more interest to be found in entering San Jose than in driving through ... a sleepy little borough town in Wiltshire." Things have improved since then (and continue to do so). While San Jose has nothing to compare with the Smithsonian or the Louvre, it does have a number of excellent museums that provide a good perspective on the history and culture of Costa Rica. Baroque or Renaissance-style buildings are few. And excepting the Teatro Nacional, San Jose's late-19th-century belle-epoque theater, the city is wholly lacking the grand colonial structures of, say, Mexico City or Havana, Cuba. Thus,
some people say that San Jose can be "done" in two days. That is true - bona fide tourist attractions can be counted on one hand - although you can certainly occupy a third day. After two or three days you'll know it is time to move on.
Although San Jose lacks a predominant central square such as Mexico City's Zocalo, several small parks and plazas lie at the city's heart, oases of calm amid the incessant hubbub of traffic. The once-nondescript parks have been given spic-and-span liveries in recent years. The capital city also has a block-square Mercado Central (Central Market), a dark, century-old maze of stalls where vendors hawk everything from T-shirts and chickens to medicinal herbs and Christ figurines. At sunset on a Sunday evening, San Jose's small parks fill with strolling families and youths.
The Festival de las Carretas, begun in 1996, celebrates traditional rural life with a parade of dozens of oxcarts (carretas) from throughout the country. It's held in November in downtown San Jose, passing along Paseo Colon and Parque Central.
enger suggestions since 1975. Manta Raya
features fresh water showers and full bar. The spacious main salon combines with
an expansive deck area which includes 2 deck pools, offering a level of cruising
luxury and comfort in 100% Calypso style.
Spend
the late morning on the easy to walk nature trails. The many varieties of trees
and interesting plants are labeled and the ocean views are spectacular. There
are numerous producing fruit trees on the property which provide food for the
wild animals native to the area. Troops of howler monkeys, yellow naped amazon
parrots, a variety of humming birds and butterflies call this special place
"Home". 
One
of Calypso's family members, "Abuelo" (Grandfather) will play live marimba music
for the guests, while you enjoy a
Gourmet
Seafood Lunch served with Chilled White Wine 
