I recently had the opportunity to spend some time in downtown San Jose. The area that I visited is known as La Sabana. La Sabana itself is a large park (0.72 km) located right in the middle of the city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Sabana_Metropolitan_Park

At one point in time it actually included the first international airport in Costa Rica, but that was later moved and La Sabana returned to the beautiful parkland that it is now. Determined to see it all I set off to walk all the way around the park, but eventually I couldn’t resist taking one of the intriguing pathways into the center of the park itself. Regardless, the walk took me close to an hour and left me with sore feet.

There are some really interesting features that I would like to explore further so I will definitely go back…but with much better footwear for walking…my feet didn’t thank me for my travels.

Here are some of the photos that I took along the way…

As you can see, the park has a little bit of everything and would be a great place for a picnic lunch. Since I didn’t know that beforehand, I had already gone to a little hole in the wall soda and treated myself to a casado.

It had grilled chicken with grilled onions and peppers, some cold veggies served with pico de gallo instead of dressing, plaintains grilled in something sweet, rice and tortilla chips…I opted out of the beans that would normally go with a standard casado.

I am hoping that the next time I go back, the little gated racetrack area will be open and running. I can’t wait to see if it’s for GoKarts or bicycles or what…

I should mention that the main feature of the park which I have yet to mention is the national Stadium which appears in the first photo. There is also a large lake with several fountains (which weren’t on at the time), some interesting sculptures, a little island which seemed to have caveman-like dwellings on them, a sculpture that seemed to represent a whale skeleton, a humongous fire pit and a variety of huge trees and other flora as well as horses for riding, and vendors selling treats as well as kites for the kids.

If you happen to be visiting San Jose, I would recommend a visit to La Sabana… just make sure you have left yourself enough time to thoroughly explore all the little hidden nooks and crannys of this amazing park.

I’m gonna go soak my feet now…

Toodles and Pura Vida!