This morning we woke up with the intention of visiting some of the more popular museums in San Jose, but after doing a bit of research, we narrowed our list to a few museums that seemed most interesting to us. Before we head out, we have to wait for a special delivery to our hotel, so let’s backtrack a little. If you know us or have followed our adventures, you probably know how much we LOVE craft beer. We almost love it as much as traveling! One of our favorite aspects of craft beer and traveling is the idea of sharing something handcrafted with the local artisans. So, when we travel around the world we often seek out these locales. It’s really no surprise that we found a favorite while here in Costa Rica.
The brewery is called Treintaycinco, and we began following them on social media soon after we tried their beer in Monteverde (check out our Day 14 post). We saw they were doing a raffle that followers could enter just by reposting their beer, so we did and…drumroll please…we won a free 6-pack! They messaged us to ask what beers we wanted and where we were staying. We requested one of each obviously (they brew six different beers). How lucky are we!?
After the beers arrived, we threw them in the fridge and headed out for the day. Before we get into it, we think it’s worth noting a few museums on our list that we didn’t end up going to…the Museo del Jade and the National Museum of Costa Rica are two of them. We really think if we had another day in San José, we probably would’ve ended up in both…we’ve heard great things about them! We actually still ended up walking by both of them (which are right next to each other) and ended up seeing a familiar ancient spherical rock from our Finca 6 adventure (check out Day 20 and see for yourself).
While we walked around the city, we noticed so much awesome street art, which is another form of artisanal craft we love to seek out. We had no intention of doing this today, but we found that a lot of the city’s electric boxes were painted with different animals, so we turned it into a game of trying to “catch ‘em all!”
We worked up an appetite after all this street art hunting, and decided to stop at Q’Empanadas for a quick bite. We got three different kind of empanadas. Keeshia picked the chicharon, Joey picked the frijoles con queso, and we asked an employee to recommend the third…he picked the Mexicano. These empanadas (and their homemade chipotle sauce) were absolutely delicious and exactly what we were craving…highly recommend.
After a quick empanada stop, we were ready to continue our city adventure. We made our way to the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum to learn more about the storied history of gold in Costa Rica. When we did our hike in Corcovado National Park, we passed through a cemetery in the middle of the main trail. We learned from our guide that this was a burial ground for gold miners that was found there when the forest was turned into a national park.
This museum actually sits below ground (under the Plaza de la Cultura) and extends 3 levels below street-level. The entrance led us to the coin section of the museum. There were so many coins to see, many of which were made of gold, but others made of different precious minerals as well. This section leads you to a real vault where a more permanent coin exhibit is housed. Visitors can read the history of how money evolved here in Costa Rican. They even have the very first gold coin that was made in Costa Rica!
After learning about Costa Rica’s monetary history, we made our way down the stairs to find a temporary exhibit. One memorable portion was about toads. Here we learned about the significance of these amphibians to indigenous Costa Ricans.
The bottom floor is where we found the main gold exhibit. The artifacts were organized chronologically, so we were able to follow the history of significant gold objects in Costa Rican culture. We learned so much about how gold was used in ceremonies, status, war, and even healing.
After we learned about the historical significance of gold in this country, we made our way out of the museum and back to street-level. We weren’t hungry per se, but we were craving some sweets. We heard great things about a craft donut shop a few minutes away, so we hopped in our car and drove to Sugar Charm Donuts.
They had so many unique donuts available! Luckily, they also offer “mini” versions of their regular-sized donuts. Needless to say, we used this as an excuse to try them all! We ended up with 6 different flavors: crème brûlée, pie de limón (lemon pie), maracuya (passion fruit), s’mores, apple pie, and tres leches.
As they handed us our half dozen box, they also gave us a mini box as a regalo (gift) of “sugar charms” which were like little donut holes! We definitely didn’t eat everything right away, but when we did, we were blown away by all of the amazing flavors!
When we got back to our hotel, we ate the donut holes and put the other donuts away. We still wanted to explore San José a bit. We walked around and stumbled upon what looked like a little Chinatown.
(china town pics)
Just beyond the gates, we found a really beautiful city square and church, called Iglesia de la Soledad. It was built in the early 1800s and has stained-glass windows all the way from Switzerland!
Before it got dark, we stopped at a place called Comida Coreana – Fritos for some delicious Korean cuisine. We ordered beef bulgogi, fried dumplings, and ramyeon (a Korean version of the Japanese instant noodle, ramen), and highly recommend it all!
The restaurant was pretty close to our hotel, so we decided to get it para llevar (to-go) and enjoy our own in-room dining with the beers we won this morning and donuts for dessert! Tomorrow is our last day here in Costa Rica, so we plan to squeeze in a few places we have yet to see here in the beautiful capital city of San José…so stay posted!