San Jose in the rain

We turned in our car today - we had made arrangements with the rental agency to pick it up at the hotel.  Had a lazy morning, put our luggage in the check room at the hotel, and went out for more exploring of downtown San Jose.

Richard wanted to get more Oficial hats - we aren't too sure who the Oficials are, but we've seen older men doing sort of neighborhood watch stuff, and helping people park on streets, wearing these hats.  Richard bought one last time we were in CR, so we spent some time asking policemen (who all look like they're about 15 yrs old) where to find this store.  We finally found one "armeria" (weapons store - armory?) but it wasn't the one with the Oficial hats - so we asked, and finally found the store we remembered.  We bought a number of hats, laughing at the pink handcuffs, pink rifle, and my personal fave, the bright pink Derringer pistol - just a little tiny purse-sized pink pistol.  (WHAT would one do with that?  It looked like a cigarette lighter, just totally ridiculous.  If someone pulled that on a would-be mugger, the only use it would be is that the mugger might die laughing!)

We also found an eyeglass place that, while they couldn't re-fit Richard's lenses into a new frame, could make a new pair of glasses for $42 - a great price, including seeing an optometrist and getting a new prescription.  Not the most stylish glasses, but not bad.  And red-tinted lenses.

Eventually we made it back to our hotel (having gotten headed in the wrong direction for a bit) - walking in Costa Rica during a rainy day is not easy.  Or safe!  Ticans tend to be short - even I tower over most of the women and maybe half the men here.  So all the umbrellas passing by are at about eye level!  I had to keep ducking and weaving, like a boxer, to avoid those little spiky ends of the umbrellas - and poor Richard was bonked in the head a few times by umbrellas.  At any rate, we got back to the hotel safely, with our eyes and ears intact.

Taxied up to the B&B we knew from our last trip, only to find that the owner, Kurt, had sold the place.  Donna, the new owner, seems very nice (and has an adorable tiny kitty, Perla, who is grey like our Cleo, but with little white paws and a white chin).  We settled into our room, enjoying the king-size bed and the free wifi - and eventually decided we were ready for dinner.  It was still pouring, but we bundled up and headed out.  The nice thing about being back in a place we've been before is knowing where to find things - we headed up the road to Bagelman, a kind of deli-ish place with, yes, bagels.  Jewish comfort food.  I had the combo named Irving - seriously!  Here I am in San Jose, Costa Rica, ordering an Irving!!!!!  Cracks me up!  Irving is a scrambled egg with cheese on a bagel, with orange juice and coffee on the side.  Yup, enjoyed my Irving!  (I have to add that breakfast was tropical fruit and banana bread, and lunch was an open-face fish taco smothered in pico de gallo and guacamole - so I felt justified in having an egg-on-a-bagel for dinner.)