After the bus driver dropped us off we walked around the downtown area to the Central Market. We were shown the first McDonalds ever to appear in Latin America in the 1970s.
While in the market area, we were shown a booth of different medicine that make natural remedies for every thing from the common cold to a case of pneumonia.
I also witnessed a man wearing Delcambre Reeboks, but wasn't quite fast enough to snap a photo... Bummer! Who would have thought those fancy white boots would be so popular over yonder?!?
Our next view was of the National theater and then the National Museum. Both were beauuuutifull buildings, as are most of the old buildings here in Costa Rica. The theater was built in 1897. The museum is the building where the army was abolished, as there is no army in Costa Rica. Peace be with everyone here!
Theater
Museum 
After losing one of our classmates (and finding her again, of course), we were taken to the Congress building. We were greeted by a nice gentlemen and taken to a meeting room where he explained to us a little bit about the government here in Costa Rica. It's basically the same as government in the United States. They model their government off of U.S. government and the government in Mexico. In 1920, there were senators but things changed because of financial and political problems, so to make things simpler they got rid of the senators and now have congressmen for each of the seven provinces in Costa Rica, president of the Congress, and a president of the country. In San Jose, where we have been this week, there are 21 congressmen. All in all there are 57 throughout the entire country of Costa Rica. Forty percent of the top political positions must be filled by women!
The building we were in was build originally as a home for the president. For about 20 years, it was abandoned and then used as a cheap hotel. Story has it that a woman was killed in that building and her spirit roams the second floor... CREEPYYY!!!
It was then lunch time. Today we were served good, old fashion bacon cheeseburgers with a side of fries! HOLLA!! Then came the amazing dessert!! I would definitely be 500 lbs. if I moved to Costa Rica.
After lunch, we were allowed time to pick up a few souvenirs, a lot of which were hand crafted wooden jewelry, bowls, etc. Post checkout, we were taken on a tour of the place where all of the wooden items are made. Small pieces are laser cut. The shine comes from a machine that contains sand paper. It is spun really, really fast and comes out looking very beautiful!! There is a room filled with many women working on hand crafting the jewelry and belts and bowls and what not. I could never have the patience to do such a thing day in and out.
The bubble gum factory was next and boy was that amazing!! They add table sugar and corn syrup and which ever flavor the bubble gum will have. They heat it and machines mold it into the shape of which they desire. The gum then freezes for 24 hours and the temperature is checked every hour. Humidity is considered the worst enemy to bubble gum. If the temperature is not right then the gum will be ruined and the process will need to be restarted. Ten percent of the product produced stays in Costa Rica and 90% is shipped to other countries (North America, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean). When the color is added, it can take up to 20 minutes or 2 hours depending on the color. It is then placed into another machine to make it shiny then put into a machine to be wrapped. A machine can place up to 400 bubble gum pieces into a wrapper per minute. Before we left, we were each given a bag filled with different flavors and types of bubble gum. Thank you bubble gum factory!!
No comments:
Post a Comment