Obviously, this is a place for touristas, but people out of their usual milieu are just as interesting to watch as the Ticas/Ticos (the female/male version of the name the locals call themselves). Particularly, the interaction, or non-interactions, between them.

We arrived this morning on-time at 8:30 am on United Airlines, despite circling Guatemala City for a while. A scheduled stop there was canceled (eventually) due to incessant fog. I was sleeping through most of it, knowing we would need energy for our one full day in San Jose.

Our flight was long due to our milk route from Pasco, Washington to Seattle to Portland to Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica. But the comfortable leather chairs, fire in the fireplace and warm drinks during our long layover in the Portland airport made for a nice transition from work to holiday. It didn't sink in that we were really going until we stepped off the plane into the warm moist air in San Jose. Wonderful!

So, we spent our first morning without the benefit of a decent night's sleep, shopping in a department store and touring the pre-Colombian gold and modern art museum. The figurines were beautiful--no, they were detailed, old, and charming, if that is not an insulting word. Animals and men and insects with all their details, all in miniature. The Costa Rican love and reverence for nature revealed itself even in its widely various and lovingly made ancient art.

Funny how one relates where you are to where you've been. The more one travels, the more connections there are in the mind. This cafe makes me think of a tourist hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. Parts of it remind Glen of Los Angeles, California. Imagine how sad it would be to not have traveled and to have no connections....