7 Months of Pura Vida: Alajuela
My time in Alajuela has been almost the total opposite of my Samara experience. After 3 months of fun on the beach, and a work month in Guinea-Bissau, Alajuela has been the perfect place to get a taste of urban life.
For my SF Bay Area folks, Alajuela is like Costa Rica’s Daly City. It’s the city that the international airport is in, it’s very residential, and everyone passes through here, but no one (tourists, I mean) really stays here for the city itself.
What I love about the city is that it’s a Costa Rican suburb, so it gives me perspective into a whole different dimension of Costa Rican life. In Samara, I felt like I was back in college having some study abroad experience with other foreigners. Alajuela feels like a normal working-class town, where folks are just living their everyday life. I rarely ever run into another foreigner, which has been great for my Spanish.
So a bit about the city…
Alajuela is really beautiful. It is surrounded by mountain ranges, but also slightly elevated, so you get this feeling you are living amongst the mountains instead of at the base of them.
Alajuela is both a city and a province, which I learned at the immigration office at the Nicaraguan border. When I crossed back into Costa Rica from Nicaragua, I was telling the immigration officer that I live in Alajuela, and he responded with, “Where in Alajuela? That’s like saying you live in California.”
I was already a little nervous so of course I panicked and stumbled over the name of the neighborhood. Haha I made it through, though!
Alajuela Province has a lot of the amazing nature that Costa Rica is known for. There are active volcanoes like Arenal and Poas, waterfalls, and both tropical rainforests and dry forests. The difference between the two is that the rainforest receives rain year-round, and the dry forest has a dry season and a rainy season.
In Samara, I honestly didn’t feel the need to go anywhere, because, despite being a tiny town, everything you need is central to the city and the beach is the main attraction that keeps on giving.
Because Alajuela is a residential town, there's not a whole lot going on, so most people go to other cities or other parts of the country for activities or adventures. For example, during Holy Week (the week before Easter Sunday), Alajuela felt deserted because many families go to either of the coasts for the week off.
It was at this point that I really started to use public transportation, and also started to recognize that this is also a very car-centric country.
The public transportation system in Costa Rica, I have to say, is pretty efficient. You can get just about anywhere in the country via their charter bus system, for about 10 bucks. San Jose is the main hub, which makes sense because it’s in the middle of the country. But a 4–6hr bus ride will literally get you to any corner of the country from there. And for closer to 30 bucks you can get a bus that takes you across the Nicaraguan or Panamanian border.
That said, the buses aren’t always on time, and I have had experiences of buses breaking down on the road and needing to wait for another one to arrive to complete the trip. But outside of that somewhat common issue (this has happened to a friend too!), it does the job if you don’t want to invest in buying or renting a car.
There are also other options. You can get just about anywhere in the country on a 10–15 person shuttle for about 50 bucks. There are small charter planes that cost around $120 that turn a 6 hr bus ride to Samara into an hour and a half flight. Uber is also an option for most of the major cities like San Jose, Heredia, and Alajuela. And they tend to be a bit cheaper than taxis.
The nice thing about Alajuela is that you are still really centrally located, without being in all of the chaos of a big city. I’ve spoken with a few digital nomads about this and we all tend to agree that it's a nice balance to be in the city or suburbia during the weekdays and then go off on adventures in the mountains or to the beach in other parts of the county on the weekend.
The Urban Centers
The city’s design is a combination of old and modern. The city center has narrow roads and consolidated housing and shops that have a colonial and European style. And then more modern development has happened outside of the city center, typically going south towards San Jose and the airport.
There are two big shopping centers in Alajuela, one is a plaza that has restaurants, some shops and a movie theater. The other is an actual 3 story shopping mall that has an Office Depot right smack in the front.
The first time I went to the mall I experienced culture shock because I hadn’t been to that kind of urban development, outside of an airport, for like 4 or 5 months. Despite the literal DEATH of shopping malls in the US, shopping malls here seem to be doing pretty well. My sense is that it’s still a popular pastime for folks living in the cities, especially on the weekends because they can get packed.
The nightlife is more laid back here. It's a much more family-oriented environment so the vibe is a lot more dinner and drinks or ice cream than it is a night club and party scene. There are really only two bars that are the center of the nightlife for the city. One is a small, standard dive bar. And the other is a gay bar, Ricks, which is so much fun. They have drag shows, karaoke nights, and DJs and other groups come up from San Jose for performances.
Other Life Things
Here I’ve been able to practice my Spanish a lot more. While in Samara, English was my default language (mostly because I was around so many other travelers), here is only Spanish. And even though many folks can speak English, I try my best to bring us back to Spanish once they realize I am not a Tica.
When I first arrived, my Spanish was mostly Portuguese, with some sprinkles of Spanish that I knew. Now, I am pretty solidly speaking Spanish, occasionally using Portuguese words when I don’t know a word in Spanish. But it's also that awkward phase here I cannot quite switch between Spanish and Portuguese without mixing the two. So I know I still have some work to do.
I am also getting to learn more about local foods. There are things like Chan and Pejibaye, which are unique to the region. Chan is like a chia seed that is made into a drink. The texture is kind of like what you would expect when you eat soaked chia seeds, but it's a little minty, and they add a little sugar to make it sweet.
Pejibaye is the fruit of the peach fruit palm tree. It's typically boiled for about 3 hours and then eaten with mayonnaise as a snack. I had it with cheese, and it was pretty good. It has the texture of Cassava, only a little more dense. It's also mango season!
Housing here is significantly cheaper than in Samara and other coastal towns. I am paying just about half of what I was paying for a month’s rent in Samara. And Samara is no joke, in the high season a one-bedroom studio could run you over $1,000 a month.
Between Escazu, Alajuela, Heredia, and San Jose, though, you can find a one-bedroom apartment for anything from $350–650 USD. So really affordable especially if you are traveling with a family or traveling as a backpacker.
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