Butterflies and Toads

This day we decided to skip the hotel breakfast and try our luck out on the street. Oddly enough there were several Columbian bakeries between our hotel and the National Museum. Maybe we were in little Columbia?? We decided on one of them and ordered a bunch of different things to try both savory and sweet and washed them down with the biggest and hottest cappuccino ever.

Then it was off to the National Museum. From the entrance you are guided directly into the butterfly habitat. 

There were butterflies everywhere and they were very active. I may have deleted 50 or more shots of partial butterflies, but in the midst of those I found these few to share LOL

After the butterfly habitat we were funneled into a section where I took this photo of the ceiling as I am apt to do. I found out later that it was part of the ceiling of the old Congress building that was demolished in the 1950s.

Congress building

They also had an exhibit of pre Columbian artifacts.

I found the explanation of the piece above interesting. The border around the seat being trophy heads of fallen enemies is a little gruesome. And the person in the center wearing an alligator mask is curious also.

Mamita or Sculpture in the Round

Mamita sculptures I learned were characterized by certain recurring elements, such as reclined women with containers or vessels for stomachs. They surmised that the reclined position might imply a connection to nature. And the stomach vessel may have been a nod to women being the food of life. 

After the National Museum, we still had time to kill before our favorite restaurant was open, so we decided to check out the Museum del Oro Precolombino, or the Pre Columbian Gold Museum. It is located in a subterranean building under the 'Plaza de la Cultura' and is owned and curated by the Banco Central de Costa Rica.

Vault doors at the entrance

Clearly they took security of the gold artifacts seriously. Why wouldn't you keep the national treasures inside a vault? Though there were hundreds of artifacts, I gravitated to these ones.

Toad and Frog sculpted in gold

In indigenous mythology, toads and frogs are known as assistant undertakers, protectors of the remains of the dead and predictors of storms and weather changes. They are also associated with shaman rituals of transformation and fertility.

As a little girl I used to collect tadpoles from the neighborhood pond so I could watch them swim. Then as a teenager I had a collection of ceramic and stone frogs. I still like frogs, but lost the desire to collect. It's more enjoyable to look at other people's collections!

Fancier frog

I thought this museum did a fantastic job of explaining now versus then. Throughout the exhibit they had videos comparing current techniques versus what they surmised to be the ancient methods. 

By the time we were done we had a little more time to waste so we poked our heads into the National Theater. We had just missed the tour, but it was free to go into the lobby.

National Theater lobby

They were in the process of restoring the ceiling art in the room adjacent. They had scaffolding set up Da Vinci style.

Restoration set up

Then it was time to head back to our hotel for one last meal at Azotea Calle 7. We already knew we were going to order the homemade tomato soup with grilled cheese and pesto and the empanaditas. The surprise was this drink called Agua del Sapo, or Toad Water, again with the toads. It was citrusy with ginger, very tasty and it came in this fun ceramic.

Agua del Sapo

Our waiter Kenneth let us taste it before he added the alcohol so we could compare. It was delicious both ways. He explained that the mugs were made by a local artist. The masks were representative of the traditional masks used on the National Day of the Costa Rican Traditional Masquerade celebrated on October 31st. He brought us the other ones to compare.

The Collection of Masquerade mugs

Eventually it was time to make our move to the Marriott by the airport. We had a very early flight and to avoid any stress, we had decided to spend our last night close to the airport. 

As it turns out they had a shuttle leaving at 4:00am sharp, so no need for a taxi, which was perfect. We relaxed in the room for awhile. I even had time to watch the Flintstones in Spanish. 

Fred Flintstone

The Flintstones were a staple of my childhood. Every school day I would come home for lunch and watch it while I ate. Lunch was either a cheese sandwich or pb and j and chicken noodle or tomato soup. Not unlike what we had for early dinner today LOL.

Ira wasn't able to check in online, so we were poised for adventure the next day. Since the alarm was set for 3:30am the next morning, we pretty much hit the sack. We had a long day of travel ahead of us.

A dopo!