Tour of Costa Rica - First stop at San Jose

I joined a "Costa Rica - Coast to Coast" trip offered by Grand Circle Travel Feb 16 - 28.   This is my first solo trip without knowing any other folks going on the same tour.  It turned out to be a lot of fun as I was able to make some friends and truly enjoyed myself. 

San Jose is located in the "Central Valley" of Costa Rica.  The city is surrounded by hills (some are volcanoes, as Costa Rica has about 120 of them).  The mountains reminded me of Taiwan when I looked out from the hotel window.

Unfortunately due to many earth quakes, not many old buildings still remain.  The theater which we visited was built in 1897, probably the only "old" building one can still find in San Jose.

I liked the colorfully painted sculture doves scattered all over city's main squares and streets.  Other than that, San Jose strikes me as a city of barb wires.  That sadly reflected people are very fearful of many thief's driven by poverty and drugs.  The Costa Rica government also deliberately not to build infrastructures which may allow drug dealers from Columbia to gain easy access to Costa Rica.  

Below are pictures of some of the painted dove scultures.