Sunday Is Numero Uno in Costa Rica’s San Jose

If you come to Costa Rica sans organized tour, set aside one day for the city. If you’re on a tour, do the same. Tell the leader you’re ill. Tell him you’re tired. Tell him anything, but stay in San Jose for one day--preferably a Sunday, preferably alone.

Some people make San Jose their home base for exploring Costa Rica, but are so busy white-water rafting, visiting the volcanoes and cloud forest, riding the jungle train to Puerto Limon and picnicking on deserted beaches that they never get to see anything of San Jose. (A quick city tour by bus does not count.)

Why San Jose is so special remains elusive. It’s not big, bustling or cosmopolitan. Maybe that’s it. It’s small, filled with friendly people and incredibly walkable, with its many flower- and fountain-filled parks, wide sidewalks and practically non-existent street crime.

Yes, I know the whole country is special. Costa Rica is one of the best working democracies in the Americas. Three ex-presidents still live here; name three other Latin American countries where that’s true. Other Latin American countries have been off-limits to Americans at one time or another, but never this one. It’s very safe to travel here.

Costa Rica has the highest literacy rate (more than 90%) in Central America.

Miles of Beaches

It’s also environmentally aware. Eight percent of the tiny country (it’s the size of West Virginia) has been set aside for national parks and reserve systems. Its three mountain ranges have active and inactive volcanoes, tropical rain, cloud and dry forests, 800 miles of beaches and one-tenth of the world’s known bird species, 850 (to compare, the United States and Canada together have 350).

But with all that, you’re missing Costa Rica if you don’t explore San Jose.

Don’t make any plans for the day. Just walk leisurely through the downtown streets. Around 10 a.m. you’ll see lovely preteen girls outfitted in gowns as white and lacy and ribboned as bridal costumes. Most Costa Ricans are Catholics and the girls are taking their First Communion. Beaming parents accompany them.

Aim a camera their way, say “Con permiso” (with your permission), and shy smiles light up the young ones’ faces, proud smiles the older ones.

Slowly find your way to the National Theater (2nd Avenue and 3rd Street). The Renaissance-style facade, built in 1897 and patterned after European opera houses right down to a statue of Beethoven, is Costa Rica’s outstanding building. Peek inside at the parquet flooring, marble-lined lobby, grand staircase and ornate gold-leaf woodwork.

With more than 300 official functions a year, you might want to catch a dance performance, musical work or play.

Probably not today, though, because while tickets are inexpensive (usually under $2), they are tremendously popular and go fast. It’s said that Costa Ricans love their National Theater so much that they don’t make revolutions for fear of breaking the panes in its windows. So a little planning is necessary. See what’s on later. Today just a glimpse will do.

Your real destination is the Cultural Plaza adjoining the theater and facing the Gran Hotel. This is the place to wile away Sunday’s slow hours. It seems that every citizen of the city appears here at one time or another to see what’s going on.

No Promises

It’s a catch-as-catch-can sort of place. No promises. Follow the crowd to see what they’re watching. Maybe it’s a mime walking an imaginary tightrope inside that circle of laughing children, perhaps a fire eater devouring his just deserts, possibly Punch and Judy drawing the kids’ giggles or a musical group singing folk songs.

For sure you’ll see stalls with trinkets and flowers and vendors hawking popcorn, lemonade and hot dogs. Talk to the Ticos (Costa Ricans). Don’t hesitate to use your rusty high school Spanish. Even the most Anglicized pronunciation of “Como esta usted?” will be greeted with a warm smile and response. Many Ticos also speak English.

When a place to sit down and a cool drink or a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) become the order of the day, walk the few steps to Cafe Parisienne on the porch of the Gran Hotel overlooking the plaza. The hotel, downtown’s most elegant, offers drinks for under $2, and the accompanying live music is free.

But around noon, when the stomach seriously calls for service, head for El Pueblo. A taxi will cost about $2. El Pueblo was built about 12 years ago as a shopping center, but didn’t catch on. It’s a group of lovely white Spanish-style buildings with thick orange tile roofs and lots of wooden beams.

Comes Alive at Night

Some parts have two stories and the complex rambles on like a miniature village. Some buildings are connected; some walkways lead to dead ends. Now it’s practically all nightclubs, piano bars, discos, reggae clubs and restaurants, certainly the place for the active to frequent at night.

But we’re not forgetting why we made the journey. On Sundays the bars are closed but Restaurant Lukas remains very open. We’ve come here because, oddly enough, few Costa Rican restaurants feature native food. But at Lukas you can start with sopa negra , a special black-bean soup seasoned with cilantro (under $1). Cilantro is not a hot spice and Costa Rican food generally is barely warm.

Even the side dish of pico de gallo (hot sauce) tastes mild to a Texan used to Tex-Mex cooking. Gallo pinto is the national dish, a simple combination of rice, black beans and a fried egg ($1.50), but more delicious is corvina a la Parilla , a flaky grilled sea bass (under $5). One bite and you will know why we came to Lukas.

After a pleasant dinner, probably on the front porch, and a few pleasantries exchanged with the waiter, it’s time to leave. Head back to town by taxi and consider walking off the meal by visiting one of San Jose’s three main museums. Days and hours are always changing but one of the three is bound to be open.

The Jade Museum (11th floor INS Building, 9th Street and 7th Avenue) features many prehistoric carvings of jade and stone, along with ceramic and gold articles. The Gold Museum (Cultural Plaza and Avenue Central) contains one of the finest and most valuable gold collections in the world, with more than 1,600 artistic gold pieces in varying sizes and types from burial objects to religious art.

The third, the National Museum (17th Street and 2nd Avenue), houses an excellent collection of pre-Columbian artifacts, historical displays and colonial religious art.

A fourth museum, rather offbeat, features bugs. The Entomology Museum on the University of Costa Rica campus features thousands of the crawly, flying things. The most notable are beetles the size of footballs and the world-famous “love bug,” whose bite, they say, makes one enamored of the first person met.

A Rest for Weary Legs

All right, enough culture. Back to the plaza at the Theater National. Who knows what we’re missing? It might be a kids’ sidewalk coloring contest, a chess match or informal art show. A park bench warmed by the sun provides a rest for weary legs and a good place to watch strolling lovers, couples pushing carriages and kids blowing and bursting soap bubbles from 20-cent jars bought from the strolling vendors.

Catch the open-air train for some passive viewing on a larger scale (30 cents). Complete with canned music, the train takes a 20-minute round-trip run through downtown streets.

For a little Sunday shopping, try the Mercado Central between Central and First avenues at 6th Street. Pass the fruits and vegetables, pass the baskets, pass even the hardwood salad bowl sets from the neighboring town of Sarchi if you must, but do not pass by the Costa Rican-grown coffee.

Coffee growing is a rather new industry here, but the volcanic ash-covered fields were a natural for it and Costa Rican coffee’s good reputation has grown quickly. When you see airline pilots carrying 20 sacks of the aromatic beans back to their planes, you know you’ve found a deal. And at prices under $1 a pound you can become a hero to every coffee-loving friend you have.

Don’t forget, though, to earmark a couple of those sacks for yourself. Weeks later, after you’re home and you’ve fought city traffic for two hours, argued with your boss or been treated rudely by a clerk or public servant, fix a cup of Costa Rican coffee.

Sit back. Relax. Leisurely, slowly sip some of the world’s best brew and let your thoughts drift back to your special, soul-satisfying Sunday in San Jose.

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Hotels:

--Cariari, Cuicad Heredia, 160 rooms. Ten minutes from downtown. Lighted tennis court, 18-hole golf course, pool and health spa. $79 double. Phone (011) 506-39-0022.

--Balmoral, Central Avenue between 7th and 9th streets. Modest but central, two blocks from the National Theater. $58 double. (800) 223-9868.

--Gran Hotel. One Central Avenue and 3rd Street. Best location in town, right next to the National Theater. $55 double. Phone (011) 506-22-7737.

For more information contact the Costa Rica Tourist Board, 3540 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 404, Los Angeles 90010, phone (213) 382-8080.