San Jose and a Real Filibuster

I joined most of our group on a tour of Costa Rica's capital city, San Jose, but Julie stuck with her decision to relax at the hotel.

An expert on San Jose and Costa Rica's history joined our group for the short bus ride to the historic downtown, where we proceed to walk between sites.

He did a great job describing the historic significance of buildings.  I took many photos, most of which I will not share because months later, as I write this, the specifics are vague.

I don't feel like looking up random details based on unidentified photos, which otherwise would be rather non-descript.  I will just say there is a good mix of old and new on what proved to be a pleasant walk through lovely areas with interesting descriptions. 

In addition, I'm never 100% sure of what I heard.  For example, we walked past a blue building that came with a story about the coffee plantation owners building this first opera house to attract world class cultural entertainment.

Our guide's story as I remember it was that an internationally famous opera diva refused to sing in such a shabby place, which was a terrible insult, so the plantation owners built a better one.

Reading online, however, it says the first theater burned down.  So, what was that blue building?  Perhaps built on the site of the original theater?  I could find nothing about the snobby singer snub leading to the new theater being built, though I didn't dig that deeply.

In any case, San Jose's new opera house, Teatro Nacional, is a gorgeous, world-class structure.  Trump will have trouble beating it with his Whitehouse Ballroom, but my guess is that he will, unless the project is stymied by political opposition.

I think the underlying truth, regardless of the details, is that coffee plantation owners became extremely wealthy in the 19th century by exploiting underpaid labor.  The practice of bringing in Nicaraguans to work for lower pay in the fields seasonally helps maintain the coffee industry.

As you may recall if you've followed my blog posts, Costa Ricans are very proud of the fact that they haven't had a military since 1948.  Essentially, Costa Rica has relied on the United States Monroe Doctrine to deter invading militaries.

However, we were told about Costa Rica's only war, a victory over William Walker's "filibuster."  Not the kind of filibuster where a Senator talks nonsense for hours upon hours to delay voting on a bill.  This was an attempt to take over the country of Nicaragua, which Julie and I initially learned about on our Panama Canal cruise a few years ago.

I don't recall Costa Rica being prominent in that Nicaragua-centered telling of the story, but Costa Rica's military joined Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transport Company to oust William Walker, a Tennessee doctor-turned-journalist-turned-mercenary.

Walker was like a nemesis James West might face in the old TV show Wild, Wild West.  Obviously brilliant but a bit off, Walker graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Nashville at age 14, then earned a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania at 19, continuing his medical studies in Heidelberg and Edinburgh. He also studied the law.

He taught himself sign language when he fell in love with a deaf woman. Upon her death, he became recklessly ambitious in defiance of the fickleness of fate.

In the telling of the story by our guide, Costa Rica's military had a great victory over Walker.  So, I'd say they retired from wars undefeated, with a record of 1-0.

As an aside, the Monroe Doctrine was established in 1823, so the American Walker went against his own country's policy in the 1850s.  This led to condemnation by the U.S. and most of the world.  Then again, Vanderbilt, whose company stood against Walker's filibuster, was also a U.S. citizen, and significantly Vanderbilt was the richest American of his era.

A highlight of our tour was a visit to the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Museo del Banco Central, where we spent an hour exploring exhibits, both guided and on our own.  This is one of several large museums in San Jose.

Perhaps the focus on pre-Columbian gold is primarily a marketing ploy among museum choices, but there are great examples of gold jewelry and artifacts, with amazing, intricate workmanship from pre-historic people. 

In most ways, I would call it a museum of history or anthropology.

There's also a special exhibit by a modern sculptor that's a surprising counterpoint.

At the end of our tour of San Jose, we boarded the bus and headed for dinner at the other Hilton in La Sabana (not the Hilton Garden Inn La Sabana), where our driver had initially taken us from the airport when we first arrived in Costa Ria.

Julie walked over from our hotel and was there to meet us for dinner.

We proceeded up the elevator to the The Cloud, a beautiful restaurant with panoramic views on the 18th floor.  This time, not wanting to miss the views, Julie and I grabbed seats at a long table looking out the window.

The other folks at the table were part of the California contingent, which I mentioned previously happened to all have been born in China.  By this point in the tour, their numbers had thinned, just as the similarly sized Pennsylvania contingent had when travelers on shorter tours had departed.

All but one couple were born in Shanghai.  We discussed how much we enjoyed our vacation there, and the story of the kindness of the storekeeper who helped us find our hotel when we wandered around that huge Chinese city one night.  They were delighted that we enjoyed our stay in what they seemed to still very much consider to be their home country.

Dinner was delicious, a final exclamation mark on the culinary delights of farm-to-table found in Costa Rica.

I had the Catch of the Day, which was outstanding.

Julie's Chicken Caprese was also good, but the Tiramisu dessert was her favorite part of her meal.

It was a festive evening to close out our Costa Rica tour.

With a 6:30 AM flight the next morning, we got in the elevator extremely early to meet our taxi.  It was too early to eat, so we turned down the boxed breakfasts rather than discarding them at the airport.

Leo was waiting outside the elevator to make sure the early departure folks like us made it safely on our way.  We told him that wasn't necessary, especially considering it had been his birthday the day before.  Nonetheless, it is good to know that tour companies take care of their clients.

We enjoyed our terrific vacation in Costa Rica.