San José Art City Tour
This afternoon/evening we took the train into the capital to take part in a (free!) tour of a few of the many museums there. I was surprised that the cost of the train is less than $1! After a short 20-minute ride, we got to the first museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design. Most of the work displayed was quite abstract, and several of the SOLmates that I was with decided that this kind of art was not for them. I had seen what I wanted to see, so I was okay with moving onto the next museum.
Unfortunately we only had time to walk through one more building, but I'm glad that we chose the National Museum. The first doorway in the entrance lead us to a mariposario, or a room suited to be a butterfly habitat. The specimen there were about the size of my open hand. I was engrossed in the exhibit. It definitely took me the longest to walk through that first room.
The rest of the museum was on the roof! This building was used as an armory when Costa Rica still had an army, but it had since been converted. One of the exhibits displayed fossilized plants and bones of animals, including the 6-meter, giant sloth, and also the giant mastodons that lived in Costa Rica. The last exhibit that we went through was of ancient Greek sculptures, and even had some living statues there! I was very wary as I passed them, but they were perfectly still the whole time, and they did a beautiful job.
I think this tour happens several times during the year, and I hope that I can catch some more museums before I have to leave.