We had to get a 5:00 AM start the next morning to catch the 5:49 AM bus back to San Jose. We lugged our baggage down to the bus stop shelter across from the little row of restaurants. As we waited we talked to an Asian guy who had been to Costa Rica several times. He gave us a list of budget hotels near the Arenal Volcano and the Monteverde Cloud Forest, both places we had planned to visit.
Our trip back to San Jose seemed a lot quicker than coming, even though the time it took was the same. This time there were no clouds obscuring the high country we traveled through, allowing us to see some of the coffee plantations.
San Jose was still as noisy, smelly of diesel, and chaotic as we had left it. We carried the burden of our bags back to the Pension Costa Rica Inn and got a room before heading back out for breakfast. My wife can’t think before breakfast, but she soon was refueled after a Big Mac. I had Chicken Fajitas, and managed to squirt the hot sauce all over the shirt I had just gotten cleaned yesterday.
After breakfast we headed down to the Gold Museum. We were quite surprised at all the security measures we had to go through as we entered. We walked through a powerful metal detector which went off when it detected my Swiss Army Knife, that I then had to check in. No purses or cameras were allowed into the museum.
The first area we entered featured an art collection, which didn’t impressed me too much, although I did like some of the more contemporary paintings. From there we entered the money collections, which certainly didn’t seem to justify all of the security we had to go through.
We then went into 3 Level of the Underground Bunker, and WOW! It was really impressive. I didn’t know so much Pre-Contact gold artifacts existed. There were 1,600 gold objects. We certainly didn’t see that much in Mexico. There were gold collars, bracelets, ear tubes, beads, and frogs and birds with characteristic flattened feet and tails. It was an extraordinarily dazzling display of gold.
You can see my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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