{"id":66073,"date":"2017-11-02T10:39:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T09:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=66073"},"modified":"2017-11-02T10:39:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T09:39:15","slug":"costa-rica-grand-vert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/costa-rica-grand-vert","title":{"rendered":"Costa Rica: lush greens and cloud forests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report <\/span>Serge Barret, p<\/span>hotos<\/span> Alain Parinet.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/span>hen you get back from your trip, the only thing you'll remember about Costa Rica is the great outdoors, the towering forests and the ever-present volcanoes... Animals too, and fabulous night-time walks in the tropical jungle. The only thing we'll remember is what we expected, and why we came to this pioneering country of ecological conservation, home to nearly 6 % of the world's biodiversity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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But for the moment, as soon as you get off the plane, it's the traffic jams in San Jos\u00e9, the capital of Central America's smallest country - 10 times smaller than France - that really grab your attention. It's a hallucinatory chaos of cars, the very opposite of the slightest idea of ecotourism; hundreds of vehicles almost at a standstill in an urban plastic couci-cou\u00e7a. You gradually come to appreciate the aesthetics of the city, but never the traffic. In any case, like almost all visitors who generally only spend the night of their arrival, you won't linger long in this very recent capital, founded in 1823; it's also very low-rise - with a few rare exceptions, the buildings are only four or five storeys high, not much more - and clearly built in a hurry.<\/p>\n

It would be a shame, however, to spend so little time there, as a day, or even two, is not too much time to discover a few pretty spots here and there, in the Amon district for example. well-preserved colonial buildings<\/strong> or to visit the city's finest institutions. And there are plenty of them. \u00e0<\/span> To begin with, the Teatro National, a delightful building inaugurated in 1897, the construction of which was the whim of an Italian diva, Adelina Patti, who, during a South American tour, refused to perform in San Jos\u00e9 for lack of a setting deemed worthy of her talent. Good luck to her, because at the request of the local coffee barons, who were very offended, the European architects and decorators of the time worked wonders.<\/p>\n

The result today is a delightful Italian-style theatre inspired by the Garnier opera house, a beautiful jewellery box that doesn't skimp on marble, gilding, crystal or precious woods. The highlight of the visit is the foyer, one of the most beautiful rooms in the theatre, decorated with the famous fresco Alegoria del Cafe y el Banano<\/span>representing work on the plantations.<\/p>\n