Taking a 4 hour bus journey from La Fortuna via the town of San Ramon, I reached San Jose in the early afternoon, leaving me enough time to explore the city of San Jose after checking into Hostel Urbano Yoses.
Located on a quaint street of Yoses district, the owners had converted the house into a very modern hostel, with a beautiful courtyard and a great view. Strongly recommend anyone travelling into San Jose to stay here.
Hostel Urbano Yoses is located about a 20 mins walk into downtown. Upon reaching the city centre, I bumped into Liam and Sue and we explored the town together.
Many had said it isn't worth staying in San Jose for more than a day. For that reason I was expecting the city to look rather crappy and run down. But I was pleasantly surprised.
With the main street being a pedestrian only street, the downtown was bustling with activity, partially due to the festive season and celebrations.
Even saw a very proud and well trained cock, with an owner equally proud of its cock, taking it out for a walk on the street! (wait… that didn't sound too right! :p)
Liam and Sue were keen to explore a different district, located just walking distance from downtown.
While walking towards the direction, we were suddenly stopped by a local whom immediately said to us "Don't go this way. It's not good. Also don't go 3 blocks on the opposite direction. Red zone. Especially in the night."
It's the first time we were given such a warning and especially coming from a local, we were rather taken aback. Deciding to heed the lady's words to be safe, we made our way back to my hostel to meet up with Vincent, before making our way to Zapote for the Zapote festival.
Most of the activities is centered around Plaza de Toro (Bull Ring), where people from the crowd are welcome to step into the ring and try their hand at bull riding, and with numerous food stalls and a fairground with ferris wheel, bumper car, viking and other rides around it.
Arriving at 6pm, and just in time to catch some of the acts that were exiting from Plaza del Toro from the earlier show, we considered purchasing tickets to watch the 8pm show, but it was already sold out at the counter.
Our only option was to purchase them from the numerous touts that were selling them near the entrance.
The cheapest we could find was at CRC20,000 (about USD37), and even at that price, we found that on the slightly expensive side. So we decided to wait for a while and see if prices will come down closer to the show time. To our surprise, it was the opposite!
Half an hour later, the prices had gone up to CRC22,000, and after some debating among ourselves that we will agree to purchase the CRC22,000 tickets, it subsequently went up to CRC25,000 (USD46).
By this time, the prices had gone too high and we decided against it. It was fun trying to haggle, with Liam doing most of the work!
We ended up catching the action on a TV in a nearby bar, and the action was crazy! On one scene, there were at least 20 people in the bull ring with 1 bull, and as the bull rush towards them, they quickly jumped over the barricades.
At one point, they enticed the bull with a piñata. As it ran and smashed it down, dollar bills were seen peeking out of the area where the piñata had been smashed. The people in the ring rushed to the piñata and tried to take as much cash as they can, while keeping a watchful eye on the bull.
There were also dancing horses and riders on horses trying to rope the bull in. The whole show lasts for about 2.5 hours.
We called it a night just before midnight, especially as I have to wake up very early the next morning for white water rafting! Yay!
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