After Mexico City, we decided to take an exciting detour and spend a few days in Costa Rica before heading to the Yucatán Peninsula. Although the country is primarily known for its nature reserves, we started our acquaintance with this special Central American world in the capital, San José.
San José is located in a beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains, which offers a stunning view, but also has its own challenges. As soon as we arrived, we were immediately faced with one of the most pressing problems of tropical cities, the huge traffic jams. Since there are few alternative routes due to the terrain, traffic is sometimes slower than we expected, but this is also part of being a local.
After checking into our accommodation and unpacking, we immediately set off for the city. San José is a medium-sized capital, but it still had plenty of things to see and do for a meaningful day. The pedestrian streets of the city center, the area around the National Theater and the bustling squares gave us a great insight into everyday life in Costa Rica. What immediately struck us was the expensiveness. We experienced a significant difference compared to Mexico City; prices were often double, especially in restaurants. Costa Rica is not by chance one of the most expensive countries in the region. Despite the high prices, the atmosphere of the city was captivating. We walked a lot, enjoying the pleasant, tropical climate and the friendly style of the locals.
Although San José was only a short stop on our program, we are glad that we were able to see this side of the region. We felt good and are leaving the next morning for our adventure to Isla Tortuga.
The history of San José is fundamentally different from that of most Latin American capitals, as it was not founded in the early stages of the Spanish conquest, but much later, in the mid-18th century. The city’s rise is due to agriculture, especially tobacco and coffee cultivation.
The town was founded in 1736 under the name Villa Nueva de la Boca del Monte, after colonial authorities ordered that the settlers scattered throughout the valley build a church and settle in a central location. Compared to the then capital, Cartago, San José remained for a long time an insignificant village, where the inhabitants lived in mud huts.
The city’s fortunes were turned around by tobacco cultivation: in 1782, San José was designated the center of the Spanish tobacco monopoly, which boosted trade and attracted immigrants to the area. After Costa Rica gained independence in 1821, political tensions arose between the conservative Cartago and the liberal-minded San José. The conflict culminated in an armed conflict (the Battle of Ochomogo), which ended in 1823 with San José emerging victorious and officially becoming the country’s capital.
In the mid-19th century, coffee became the “golden eye” that laid the foundation for the city’s modern image. The wealthy coffee barons exported their goods to Europe, and in return brought European architects and styles to the city. The most beautiful monument of this era is the Teatro Nacional (National Theater), inaugurated in 1897 and built on the model of the Paris Opera with the money raised from the coffee tax. San José was also a technological pioneer at the time: it was the third city in the world to introduce street lighting in 1884, after New York and Paris.
In the 20th century, the city continued to expand, but it retained its peaceful character. In 1948, after the Costa Rican Civil War, the decision was made here, which is unique in the world, to disband the country’s army. The former military headquarters, the Bellavista Fortress, was converted into the National Museum, which remains a symbol of peace and democracy to this day.
Today, San José is a bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis, where remnants of Spanish colonial architecture, former mansions of coffee barons and modern glass palaces mix. The city is not only a political center, but also a technological and educational engine of the Central American region, while the old buildings of the Barrio Amón district still evoke the elegance of the “golden age of coffee”.
