Alajuela, Costa Rica

Please see the first post on Costa Rica for important details about this post.

Even though our flight was originally supposed to arrive in the early afternoon, the inevitable schedule changes resulted in our arriving in the late evening and having to deal with navigating an unfamiliar country at night. The fact that the hostel we were staying at did not send someone to pick us up, as they had promised that morning, did not help the situation. In any case, a short taxi drive later resulted in our arrival at the Mango Verde Hostel, which at least still had someone who was willing to check us in to our (somewhat) dirty and uncomfortable room. Still, for $30/night it was not bad for something in the center of Alajuela and was at least reasonably safe and secure. Alajuela itself is the location of Costa Rica's primary airport and a much smaller town than the capital, San Jose, which is not too far away.

One of the great things about Alajuela was the rather large central market. Not quite as big as San Jose's, but definitely quite large and full of delicious, fresh tropical fruit. As usual with tropical countries, the bananas, pineapple, mangoes, guavas, and papayas were much better than anything that can be found in the US. The other interesting area in town  was the central town square and church, both rather important in a Central American town.

Just a bit north of Alajuela is Zoo Ave, a zoo and conservation society that specializes in Central American and Costa Rican animals and plants. We were lucky enough to see many of animals later on, but it was still a good opportunity to get a preview and is definitely worth a visit. The best photographs from Zoo Ave are already in the main gallery, specifically the Red Macaw and the rather interesting tree that I have not yet identified.