Category: San Jose

Vendors

Vendor walking along moving traffic selling bubble making machine.

People do a lot of things to earn money in Costa Rica. For example, it is not uncommon for someone to board a public bus and hawk food. I don’t think they pay and they don’t stay on long. They must sell things or they wouldn’t keep doing it.

Vendor between lanes of traffic selling a variety of things, probably cell phone accessories.

Another curious thing was vendors (and beggars) standing between lanes of traffic selling everything from food to cell phone chargers, toys, sun glasses, etc. The main bridge in and out of San Jose was under construction for a number of months and we had the “pleasure” of experiencing the delays caused by a reduced number of traffic lanes (aka sitting in traffic barely moving…kind of like it is in Austin now). Above are a couple of pictures we took from the taxi at vendors.

Street Drainage and Sidewalks in San Jose and Other Parts Of Costa Rica

While there is some regular under ground drainage in San Jose, many of the street have a dropoff (lower area) on each side of the street, presumably for drainage purposes. This makes the roads narrower and I am sure that they sometimes are a hazard for the vehicles…not to mention the pedestrians. On one of the buses from San Jose to Santa Elena one day we were met by another full sized bus going the opposite direction. The road was so narrow that one bus stopped while the other one very slowly inched (and I mean inched) along until it was sure it could pass the other bus.

Last night while we were walking with friends to go to dinner (the weather was perfect!) Dan started to fall because he didn’t realize that the drainage was there as he stepped off the sidewalk. Fortunately we were holding hands and I was able to counterbalance him enough that he didn’t actually fall. Cheap drainage but not so safe.

There are lots of obstacles as you walk around as well. Sidewalks are in varying states of repair or should I say disrepair. Sometimes something sticking out of the sidewalk or lots of holes. This must not be the litigious society that the United States is or they wouldn’t remain.

Sidewalks are busy with people, vendors, shops and windows to look into so between all of that and the hazards, you really have to pay attention when you walk.

Weather has been cooler in San Jose than I anticipated which is nice. Must be in the 70’s and the humidity isn’t bad. Not a fan of big cities but I am getting more comfortable with San Jose now.