1 day in San Jose, Costa Rica 🇨🇷

Hey, so this is my third and final night here in Costa Rica. All the video that you saw right now was everything that I could salvage from my cell phone. My GoPro, my main source for recording footage. I don't have it anymore because I dropped it in a waterfall, but I still have six more hours in San Jose tomorrow. I'm going to try to make the most out of it. I'm going to try to make a good video of what I can in San Jose. It's 6 a.m. I'm trying to start off the morning with some dark Costa Rican coffee. Coffee has been historically the biggest Costa Rican export, although I think it's number three at the moment right now. So I'm starting with Parque de la Sahuana, which is Costa Rica's largest urban park. A few years ago, Costa Rica was ranked the greenest country on earth for being the most environmentally friendly. And I'd say it's fair to say that they're definitely trying to preserve as much of the greenery as they can, even in the city. So it seems like Costa Rica is a very developed country. It's actually ranked higher than any other Latin American country on the Human Development Index. In fact, Costa Rica is also the most peaceful country in Central America. It abolished its army in the late 40s and is one of the only few sovereign states that doesn't have an army. In fact, Costa Rica is also one of the more stable countries in the region. It's enjoyed almost 70 straight years of continuous democracy without interference, which is a bit of an anomaly considering the neighboring countries around you. So apparently I was standing on some place that I was not supposed to be on, so the cops just told me to get off. Anyways, this is Plaza de la Cultura, which sounds a lot like Plaza de las Tres Culturas if you remember from my video in Mexico City. But this one's a bit different. I'm guessing this is basically a cultural center in San Jose. I see a lot of people just chilling here with their friends or having a quick bite. One thing I noticed that pretty much any other developed city in San Jose does not have a lack of McDonald's or KFCs or Taco Bells. There's a McDonald's right there, a Taco Bell right there. I'm sure I can go a block and find a KFC. One of my favorite things to do when I go to a new country is to check out the menu in the McDonald's because it's crazy how much that can vary from place to place. Over here they had something called, I think a nachos burger, where they literally put the chips and the nachos cheese in the middle of a chicken burger. So I tried that out last night. It was pretty interesting I have to say. Now I'm going to try to find myself some good old Costa Rican breakfast. I found a place that at least looks like it has some really good food called La Hacienda. My experience with Costa Rican native food has been interesting so far. The first thing that I got my first night was a Quesada. You have the option of combining rice with beans with fried chicken with macaroni and cheese. And I'm not sure how I felt about that. Next morning I got a taco because you can't go wrong with a taco. But in this case they gave me this thing that looks more like a taquita so they just called it a taco. I'm not sure how I felt about that either. So I got something called Pollo a la Blanca with a drink called Miranda. It doesn't look like soda to me. This should be fun. Now this food is absolutely delicious. The chicken is amazing. It goes really well with the rice and beans and the rest of it. If you happen to know what this drink is, I think it's called Miranda. But if you know more about it feel free to let me know in the comments or just send me a message because I love this. So my next stop for today is the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum. The person who came up with the name Costa Rica was this Portuguese explorer that you might have heard of whose name is Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was on his third and final voyage to the Americas I believe in the year 1504 when he came across the eastern coast of Costa Rica. Over there he apparently met natives who possessed a lot of gold. They decided to call this place Costa Rica which is the literal translation of the rich coast. Pre-Columbian Costa Rica was a very very sparsely populated area. Now because it's so sparsely populated that explains why unlike other Latin American countries like Mexico, Belize, Guatemala or even Peru and South America there are so few if any remains from the civilization of the Pre-Columbian era. Entering the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum. Pre-Columbian Gold Museum Alright everyone, thank you for watching the video. So this video didn't exactly go as planned. Initially I wanted to do a first person point of view adventure video with cinematic footage of me doing all the things that I ended up doing like climbing up a volcano, swimming in the crater, jumping out waterfalls, going horseback riding. So it was not supposed to be a lot of my face in the video, just the experience. But I lost my camera so that went down the drain or down the waterfall to be more accurate. For the last day I had to improvise and I decided to do a vlog. Because I think that's more interesting and that's more fun when you're visiting a city. So that's why you ended up seeing a lot more of this in the video. A few tips for visiting Costa Rica. If you come here you're probably going to go to Arenal Volcano, arguably the biggest attraction here. And you're probably going to stay in La Fortuna. If you do, I strongly recommend Arenal Hostel Resort. It's only $15 a night and probably the best hostel I've ever been to. It's got it's own pool party. It's got it's own heated jacuzzi by the bar with a heated waterfall on the side and hammocks all over the place. So it's unbelievably good. If you don't like noise though this might not be for you. It's definitely for people who are fond of some nightlife. Another big thing is check the seasons before you're going. Because Costa Rica has a dry season and a rainy season. And during the rainy season it can rain a lot. And it can be very difficult to do a lot of the hikes that are otherwise not as hard. And it might be impossible to do some of the hikes. You just can't do it when it's raining too hard. That being said, the weather forecast is not always 100% accurate over here. Coming in I saw that it was supposed to thunderstorm all day, every day. And that had me a little stressed. But I didn't even see a thunderstorm in all three days that I was here. It only rained at night which was not that big of an issue when I was here. Don't lose your video camera. Don't try jumping off a waterfall. If you've never done it in your life, put the selfie stick in your hand. Because it's almost instinctive to let go of whatever you're holding and swim up once you hit the water. If you're in the city, do use Uber instead of taxis because it's a lot cheaper. If you don't have data, that should not be an issue because a lot of the places have free wifi. And San Jose is a very safe city. And the country is generally a very safe place. On a final note, any feedback over the video and any constructive criticism is highly appreciated. So if you think there's something I could do better, please let me know. I learned a lot from the feedback that I got in the Mexico City video. I got a GoPro which I lost. I tried to get a gimbal which is more expensive than the GoPro to get the cinematic effect. But unfortunately, you're not seeing any of that in this video. Thankfully, I didn't lose that one. I also got an external mic to get the sound better. But unfortunately, I broke that during this trip. So sorry about the distant or muffled audio that you're hearing. So in terms of not losing my technology, this trip has not necessarily been the best one for me. But in terms of everything else, it's just been freaking amazing. Costa Rica is so beautiful. It's unbelievable. I'm definitely going to come back here again to visit the East Coast and the West Coast that I haven't even seen yet. And even just to go back to Arenal and do the things that I didn't get to do this time. So thank you again for watching the video. If you liked this video, do hit the like button so I know that you liked it. If you want to follow more of my videos or stories, feel free to subscribe to my channel. If you have any questions or anything else you want to know about the trip, just leave a comment or send me a private message. Once again, thanks for watching.