Vzdycky kdyz stravim vecer a noc v San Pedro, musim rano projit centrem hlavniho mesta, abych se dostal na svuj autobus. Cely stred hlavniho mesta je priblizne stejne velky a ma podobny tvar jako Vaclavske namesti. Presneji – je to 13 bloku.
Clovek po ceste potka spousty ruznych lidi, kteri se navzajem lisi barvou pleti, vzrustem, vekem a samozrejme taky duvodem, proc jsou zrovna ted v centru San Jose. Behem 15 minut muzete potkat uplne vsechny typy, na ktere si vzpomenete. Malou starsi domorodou zenu oblecenou v tradicnim odevu ze severu zeme, vysokeho statneho cernocha z jihovychodu, devce puvodem z Asie nebo turistu – belocha, pravdepodobne z USA. Uz proto potkate na kazdem rohu prodejce cehokoliv, od skakacich gumovych kulicek pres tamagoci (ano! 🙂 az po napriklad destnik, ktery vam nabizi chlapek hned jak vystoupite z autobusu za destiveho odpoledne. Podivoval jsem se nad legalnosti poulicniho prodeje a usmevne prchani pred zahlednutou policejni hlidkou me presvedcilo, ze jsem mel pravdu 🙂
Co me ale obzvlaste prekvapuje, je poklid, s jakym mistni ziji svuj zivot. Kostaricke heslo “Pura vida!” totiz najdete schovane ve vsem, na co narazite. Jak uz jsem nekolikrat zminoval, tyka se to obzvlaste nedochvilnosti (“sraz jsme napsali na 8.30, protoze tam mame byt kolem deviti”) pres bezne porusovani domluvenych dohod (“ahoj, cekam u McD, sraz je za 10 minut, jsi na ceste?” – “ahoj, neprijdu”) po neexistenci jizdnich radu (muj osobni rekord je 46 minut nez autobus prijel, behem odpoledni spicky, a 54 minut v patek vecer, nez jsem to zabalil a vratil se). Nemuzete si stezovat, kdyz neni na co. A priroda okolo vas jenom presvedcuje o tom, ze je tady vlastne krasne.
Kdyz uz jsem u te prirody, na okraji San Jose je obrovsky park La Sabana. Najdete tu dva sportovni stadiony, dve hriste na baseball, hromadu placku na basketball, nekolik jezirek a snad desitky kilometru bezeckych trati, asfaltovych nebo lesnich pesinek. O vikendu dopoledne musite docela davat pozor, abyste nahodou neprekazeli ostatnim sportujicim, je jich tu vazne plno. A navic jsem tady videl zdarma predcvicovat aerobik. Nemluve o cyklistech, ktere potkate i pres tyden, jak ve sportovnich uborech krizuji silnice, vyhybaji se vymolum a uhybaji pred kamiony. A to mi v Cesku rikali, ze jsem silenec, kdyz jsem prohlasil, ze jsem zvykly jezdit po cestach pri beznem provozu.
Tady proste nic neni problem, pokud se zivota tyka, a vsechno je problem, kdyz nahodou neco chcete 🙂 Ale to asi vsude na svete. Pri pohledu z okna na uzasne hory je uz pak cloveku jedno, ze ta sprcha je nechutne studena a ze jste se na teplou vodu nebo prestehovani ptali uz pred 2 mesici..
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Everytime I spend evening and night in San Pedro, I have to go through the center of the capital to get to my bus stop. The whole center of the city is more or less the same size and shape as ‘Vaclavske namesti’, one of the squares in Prague. To be exact – it’s 13 blocks.
During the way you can meet a lot of various types of people, that could be distinguished by skin color, height, age and also by a reason, why they are right now in the center of San Jose. In 15 minutes you can really meet any type you can think of. A small older indigenous woman dressed in a traditional clothes from north part of the country, a big muscular black guy from southeast, a girl with roots from Asia or a tourist, mostly white man from USA. Maybe also because of this factor at every corner there are sellers of basically anything – jumping gum balls, tamagochi (yes! 🙂 or even an umbrella that you are offered just after getting off a bus in a rainy afternoon. I was wondering about legality of street sellers but I was persuaded by a little bit funny running away from a police guards 🙂
The thing that really surprises me a lot is the patience of life of the locals. The Costa Rican slogan “Pura vida!” – Pure life – is hidden in everything you have the opportunity to experience. It’s mostly about unpunctuality (“we set the meeting time to 8.30 because we need to be there at 9”), not keeping agreements (“hi, the meeting is in 10 minutes, I’m waiting at McD, are you ont he way?” – “hi, I’m not coming.”) and no existence of timetables (my personal record is 46 minutes before the bus arrived and 54 minutes before I returned back). Well, you can’t really complain where there is nothing to complain about. And the nature around is only telling you that it’s just nice piece of the world.
Talking about nature – at the edge of San Jose there is a giant park called ‘La Sabana’. Here you can find two stadiums, two baseball pitches, a lot of basketball playfields, several small lakes and probably tens of kilometers of running tracks, asphalt as well as forest paths. During weekend morning you have to be quite cautious not to be a constraint to the people running around, there’s just so much of them. And – I even saw a free aerobic classes, not mentioning the bicycle riders that you can meet also during the weekdays cruising the streets in sporty clothes, avoiding road holes and trucks. And I was considered crazy when I said I was used to ride my bike on normal traffic roads back in CZ.
There’s just nothing problematic, concerning your life, and everything is a problem if you coincidentially want something 🙂 But this is probably everywhere around the world. Looking out from your window at the mountains you don’t really care that the shower is so damn cold and that you asked about hot water or moving place 2 months ago..