June 27, 2007 - Alajuela

Ahhh - Alajuela! We took the bus from Grecia to Alajuela yesterday.

It is pretty good weather now (sorry Mark, I didn´t know!); apparently, the few days around the "Festival of San Juán" (last Sunday) is known as the summer of San Juán - usually somewhat overcast in the morning, but not much rain at all. In a few weeks, we expect the "little summer" that usually lasts a couple of weeks.

We finally figured out the right direction to walk from the Grecia bus stop - I´m getting less shy about asking shop-keepers for information :). We walked all along the pedestrian walkway to the central park - most of it is still dug up, but the block next to the park has a nice brick pattern, and looks ready for light posts. It looks like it will be a very pleasant way to shop soon. But, of course, the car traffic is pretty bad - lots of people don´t yet expect the closed roads.

We said good-bye to a few friends and places - we got reacquainted with the central park (we sat a lot), then got coffee :D in the lovely courtyard of Café Britt, then lunch at Jalapeño´s, and dropped in on Vida Tropical.

Then we walked down to see the progress on the Juán Santamaría park - it was torn up on our last trip, and they were just getting it started at the beginning of this trip. Now it is nearly done - certainly usable; it has the same nice brick pattern as the pedestrian mall by the central park, and the statue of Juán Santamaría is now surrounded by a stage-like area. The benches and lights are not in yet, and we suspect that the stage will get a roof as well.

We very nearly stayed to get dinner at Cugini´s, but decided we were a bit too tired. So, we headed back to the bus stop. I forgot that the stop is 2 blocks from the central *market,* NOT 2 blocks from the central *park!* Ugh! Well, we asked more shopkeepers, and the police (who asked a taxi driver), and made it :). That's what I get for thinking I know a city pretty well - overconfidence got us lost (-ish).

We had heard that there was a scheduled increase in the police force, and we sure saw more in Alajuela, mainly near the parks and central market.