Day Four San Jose, Costa Rica

The National Museum was unexpectedly closed today so we went to the Jade Museum instead and got a lesson on Pre-Columbian artifacts. I really enjoyed learning about the history of CR's culture, artwork, and how the people lived. Ms. Provenzano would have gone nuts seeing all the artifacts! I filmed most of it and someday hope to put a clip together for her art classes. You've heard of Stonehenge and Easter Island statues? Have you ever heard of Costa Rica's stone spheres? (Click on each of the colored words to learn more.)

We had a great lunch at El Chicote, a very elegant barbecue restaurant. Yes, it was a fancy restaurant for what they called "barbecue". We are being fed too well!

The US Embassy visit was interesting. We could not bring cameras or other electronics and we walked through a metal detector. One person was allowed to get a group picture on the embassy's front steps, with strict guidelines. I will obtain a copy.The embassy is a beautiful building surrounded by much security--more so than the other embassies we've walked by. Three V.I.P.'s lectured on their jobs and roles in Costa Rica and Central America as part of the Foreign Service. We did not get to meet the ambassador, but the talk was nonetheless interesting. We really see a different view of the U.S.'s role when out of country.

We had about an hour to spare before dinner tonight so a few of us (3 women) decided to go get souvenirs at the open market, an artisan bazaar that one of our groups had visited earlier. While we knew about the dangers of pick pockets, we were warned by a lady on the street to watch out for our bags as she had seen a suspicious man eyeing us. Then at the market, a shop owner told us to take off our earrings (they were nothing fancy but were gold hoops) because thieves come from behind, grab both earrings and say something like, "this can hurt or not", and if you don't give them the earrings quickly, they tear them from your ears! Needless to say, we removed our earrings. This can happen in any large city anywhere in the world, but here, we stand out quite easily as tourists and therefore are good targets.

After dinner, we had a lecture entitled "Peace with Nature" by Dr. Pedro Leon, a scientific adviser to CR President Oscar Arias. He spoke about CR's initiative to be carbon-neutral by 2021. See an article in National Geographic about what carbon-neutral means by clicking here.

Tomorrow, we head out early to Tobias Bolanos International Airport, to visit NatureAir, the world's first carbon-neutral airline and alternative fueling station. Then we will go to La Universidad Para La Paz (Peace University) to tour the campus and hear a lecture by Professor Jan Breitling, "Climate Change and its Threat to Peace".

New photos are currently streaming to the right.