Again, central San Jose does not look like that picture... but I can dream...

So, making the most of free internet access by updating now in case I can't get on for the rest of the week.

Breakfast at the hotel was fantastic - the best scrambled eggs i've ever tasted, and tea (which is a real luxury over here, let me assure you). If you ever need to spend a couple of nights in San Jose, the Hotel Rincon de San Jose in Barrio Otoya is very highly recommended indeed!

Ventured out into central San Jose just before midday today (banking on intense sunlight and heat to deter thieves), to find that it actually seems to be a pretty safe place. There weren't any particularly dodgy-looking areas and nowhere near as many 'unsavoury' characters as in Havana - no more whistling, hissing and calls of 'Where you from', thank god. First stop of the day was an ATM, and no hold ups there so figure i'm safe - probably safer than London anyway.

From there walked a short way to the Museum of Jade, which is actually owned by a bank. Bit dubious about paying the $8 entry to a huge financial institution, but curiosity got the better of me and in I went. The collection was completely astounding. If I'm honest, I have pretty much no interest in jade, but seeing the intricacy with which so-called 'primitive' tribes had shaped, carved and polished it was fascinating. What was more interesting was the fact that huge amounts of jade jewellery and ornaments has been discovered in Costa Rica, particularly in burial mounds, but that there has never been a natural source here - it was all traded in. Reading about all the symbolism was also good, as was the revelation that in pre-columbian Costa Rica, women had a very prominent role and were often de facto heads of tribes, in the form of shaman. Very good, well done us.

Next stop was Plaza de la Cultura, right in the middle of San Jose. It's a very strange location, because despite it's name on the face of it there is a huge absence of culture. It's a square which is surrounded on all sides by American fast food restaurants - Taco Bell, Burger King, MacDonalds, KFC, Wendy's, etc etc, everywhere you look. At the centre of the square though is a pretty ugly 70s looking building, which actually houses several museums. So in I went, stiffed for another exceptionally high entry fee, this one again going to the Bank of Costa Rica - capitalist society to the max here.

First port of call inside was the Numismatic Museum. For those not in the know, that's a museum about coins and money and things like that. Again, not a huge interest of mine, but worth a go. Again, it actually proved to be a very interesting museum, documenting the history of the use of money in Costa Rica, which is pretty exceptional. Up until fairly recently (2oth century), Costa Rica still accepted not only Costa Rican coins and notes, but coins and notes from all over Central America, and incredibly old (ie up to 100 years) old currency as well. Even coffee tokens were still accepted! Any coins from other countries were simply stamped with a tiny 6 point star to show that they were then accepted as official currency - crazy. Also interesting were things about the origin of money and currency itself. For example, the word 'salary' comes from the latin word for salt, because that's what people were paid in. Similarly, 'pecuniary' comes from the word for a sheep in some language or other, for the same reasons. I know, mind blowing stuff.

Next was the slightly less intense temporary exhibition on Manuel de la Cruz Gonzalez, a cubist/abstract/i'm-not-sure-what-the-difference-is-painter. Again, not the biggest fan of art, particularly art which i'm fairly sure I could create myself, but there was a big section on the golden mean and how you draw a golden mean spiral which was very interesting.

Finally, on to the actual reason for my visit - El Museo Del Oro Precolombino. Another huge display of Precolombian ritual gold, which was both impressive in its size (it literally went on for ages, at one point I was really praying it would end) and in its intricacy and skill. Before us Europeans came and decided to wipe out/enslave the indigenous populations over here, they were really onto something.

Last stop of the day was to grab an empanada (basically a pasty) from a sandwich shop for the bargain price of 1000 colones (about $2, extortionate) and leg it back to the hotel before night fell and the drug dealers and prostitutes came out.

As for the rest of the week, I transfer to my tour group hotel tomorrow and then we leave San Jose the day after. First place we go to is La Fortuna, a town a short distance from the Arenal volcano - still active, and has regular small eruptions. Apparently you can see it glowing at night from the town, so fingers crossed for that. After a couple of days there, we head into the rainforest at Monteverde, and spend a couple of days riding horses and trekking and doing other rainforesty type things. I'll keep an eye out for an Aids cure while i'm there. After that it's on to Quepos on the coast for some surfing and general lazing around in the sun, before coming back to San Jose for the last few days. Will try to update as often as possible, but until then, hasta luega amigos!

PS - for the benefit of mum - the stars are completely different in the Southern Hemisphere! Still unable to work out if the toilets flush a different way, as can no longer remember which way they flushed back in Blighty. Oh well, the mystery continues!

And for Harvs - the diet coke mission has begun. Am also attempting to photo a postbox in each country. Not sure why, Lonely Planet told me to.