Few people live in the city center but it is still the most important working area of the entire country. More than a million people come to work in San José daily from the surrounding areas. Despite its problems, according to studies in Latin America, San José is still one of the safest and least violent cities in the region. In 2006 the city was appointed Ibero-American Capital of Culture. San José is also the sixth most important destination in Latin America, according to "The MasterCard Global Destinations Cities Index 2012". In the global ranking, San Jose obtained the 15th position among the world’s top 20 fastest growing destination cities by visitor cross-border spending.
San José was founded in 1738 and became the capital of Costa Rica in 1823. It is one of the youngest capitals of Latin America.
San José has at an average elevation of 1,161 m above sea level.
The climate is generally the same throughout the year. The city has an average temperature is 23C gets about 150 mm of rain each month.
Costa Rica developed high literacy rates and education levels. Most of the people are literate and many have high-school level diplomas. Costa Rica has the best education levels of all the Central American nations, and one of the best in Latin America. This is especially true for San José, because it is the nation's main education center. San José has many education institutions; including public and around 51 private universities.
University of Santo Tomas was the first university of Costa Rica. It was established in San José in 1843. This university had close relations with the Roman Catholic Church and was closed in 1888 by the anti-clerical government of President Bernardo Soto Alfaro. The schools of law, agronomy, fine arts, and pharmacy continued independently, but Costa Rica had no other university until 1940, when those four schools (law, agronomy, fine arts, pharmacy) were united to form the University of Costa Rica (UCR), during the government of President Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia.
San José's public education system is made up of pre-schools, elementary and high schools (from grades 7 to 11), which are in all of the city's districts and are under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Education. There are also private schools. These private schools go from pre-schools to universities. Many are bilingual, teaching subjects in foreign languages such as German, French, or English.
San José city is one of Latin America's safest cities. On June 19, 2012, the city and nation reduced their respective criminality indexes. Criminality, nationwide, was reduced from 12.5% to a 9.5% (per 100,000 inhabitants).
In 2012, new police equipment was given by the nation government; as well as receiving an increase in security budget. President Laura Chinchilla's government has donated vehicles and other equipment to the police department in at least two occasions.
The city also serves as the headquarters of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
It can be said that San José is Costa Rica's cultural center, having all the main theaters, museums, parks, and historic buildings.
San José has many beautiful theaters which are mostly inspired by European architecture. These buildings also serve as main tourist attractions; not only because of their beauty, but also because of cultural, musical, and artistic activities which happen regularly.
The most well-known are:
The National Theater ("Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica") and the Mélico Salazar Theater present drama, dance performances and concerts year long. Also, there are other 'smaller' theaters in the city and provide other types of entertainment.
Teatro Variedades is San José's oldest theatre.
There are many different museums in the city:
There are several special buildings that have historic importance in San José. Some of them are:
San José has many parks and squares (plazas in Spanish); where you can find gazebos, open green areas, recreational areas, lakes, fountains, statues and sculptures by Costa Rican artists as well as many different bird, tree and plant species.
Some of the main Parks are:
San José's largest park and is La Sabana Metropolitan Park. It is in the western part of the city, in the district of 'Mata Redonda'.
Plazas, or squares, are very prominent in San José. La Plaza de La Cultura ('Culture Square'), is one example.
Simón Bolivar Zoo is the city's only zoo and has a many species of animals and plants, both national and international.
CowParade
CowParade is one of the largest public art events of the world. First it began in Chicago and New York. This was in 1999 and 2000. The Cow Parade runs many cities of the United States up to the year 2001. In 2002 it moved to Europe, in London. This Parade has covered a lot of countries through all the five continents. In 2008 they moved to the fourth Latin-American country, Costa Rica. The Cow Parade has been in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, also.
This public art event is about painting cows with some cultural messages. It doesn’t need to be a professional sculpture. You can find urban and crazy sculptures too. This exhibition is taking place on the principal parks and boulevards of San José, Costa Rica.
The principal purpose of this event is to auction each cow and then the proceeds go to charity.
In San José there are a total of one hundred twenty cows, each one with their topic. There is an amazing level of creativity from the national sculptors who painted and sculpted the cows. They are a lot of beautiful cows made of several material including the rice and beans of the traditional breakfast. Some of the cows have the message of doesn’t forget the traditional customs. Also, some cows have a message to make a country with more love, generosity and with more solidarity.
Some cows also encourage people to take care of Costa Rican nature and all the biodiversity that this small country has. The principal message is just to create a better planet for the future.
Poás Volcano
The Poás Volcano is an active volcano near the town of Poás, Alajuela, Costa Rica. Poas Volcano has two craters. The larger crater is one of the biggest crater in the world. It is in diameter and deep. The biggest known eruption was in 1910.
The area around the volcano is a national park. It is a place where many tourists from Costa Rica and other countries visit. At the bottom of the main crater is a lagoon. The lagoon is an acidic lake with boiling sulfuric gases. The temperature of the lake varies between and . Because of changes in the chemistry of the lake and its temperature, the color of the lake also changes. The second crater has a cold water lake in it. This lake is connected to the nearby river, Rio Angel.
Gandhi (band)
Gandhi is a rock band from Costa Rica. They play music using distorted guitars and rhythm. The band members are Abel Guier (bassist), Massimo Hernández (drummer), Federico Miranda (guitarist) and Luis Montalbert-Smith (singer and pianist). The lyrics of Gandhi songs are written mainly by Montalbert-Smith. Some of the bands that influenced their songs are Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Queen and Soda Stereo.
Montalbert-Smith is a very important part of the band's performances because of his charisma and stage presence. These characteristics makes the shows very interesting and full of adrenaline for their fans.
The band began when Miranda and Montalbert-Smith met in high school in the mid 1990s. The complete group of four members started playing at universities and local bars. One of the things that made their shows so well liked was the many different types of art offered. The fans could not only listen to the music, but also see very good scenery design, body painting and their performance.
The band won the Costa Rican award "Album of the Year" in 2004 for the album "Ciclos". The album “Páginas Pérdidas” got three local awards in 2000. They have played in Costa Rica but also in Central America, Mexico and the United States.