Las Cañitas, aka. Bar Villalobos, Tres Ríos

Las Cañitas is a classic, one of the places where we learned to drink back in the 20th century. Although the bar is currently under a different administration, the atmosphere is much the same as always, its main ingredients consisting of heavy metal, a friendly clientele and bamboo walls. It's located about 700 m north of la municipalidad de Tres Rios, the sign says "Bar Villalobos".

La Verbena, San José

"Let's paint the urinal fuchsia. Men love fuchsia."

La Verbena, somewhere near la Clínica Biblica in downtown San José, struck us as having no ambition; boring decor, a boring bar lady who spent her time with her back turned against the clients in order to watch TV novelas and generally very little entertainment available. On the positive side, there was a decent, although way too loud, jukebox by the door.

Alajuela Safari 5:La Porteñita

The gentleman chucking down his beer on the left of the picture did not agree on the billed amount, as he claimed he could not possibly have had that 13th beer. Loud arguing was the result.

Classic decor

Bathroom detail

Ladies' room. Kudos to MJ for risking her life taking this picture.

Located somewhere in downtown Alajuela, near some bus station, this was our first stop on our Safari in Alajuela. La Porteñita is a classical downtown chinchorro of the kind every costarican town has at least one or two. It's not necessarily the kind of place where you'd want to hang out for extended periods of time, but it's good for a guerrilla style beer; fast in and fast out again. The bartender was friendly enough, though; chatty, and he even gave us complimentary mints upon leaving his establishment.

Bar La BohemiaAvenida 12, Calle 5, San José

According to the IWCRP counter statistics, a lot of people visit our blog after having googled phrases like "WC porn". Well, here it is: a naked lady in the bathroom. Pubes and all. Enjoy.

La Bohemia is our new favourite bar in down town San José. Despite its slightly dodgy surroundings, this bar has managed to maintain the same cozy atmosphere it must have had when it opened in 1946. The furniture and decor certainly has not changed, and a lot of today's clients were probably present at the opening over six decades ago.

La Bohemia is located at Avenida 12, Calle 5; that's 100 m south of the Cartago bus stop and Bar la Nueva Lira

Erick's Copas, San Pedro

Erick's Copas, formerly known as la Araucana, is one of few decent options for the thirsty around the University of Costa Rica. Over the past couple of decades, large, noisy, crowded bars with a very young and silly clientele have taken over la calle de la amargura, where students traditionally went to seek inspiration.

Erick's Copas is about 100 m east of the northern end of la calle de la amargura, and offers good bocas, cheap beer and a friendly staff and clientele. Highly recommended, along with the nearby Bar Copas.

Alajuela Safari 4:El Rinconcito

Not much to say about El Rinconcito, it's one of those bars that simply appear in the right place at the right time for a little beer. Not a place we would actively look for again, nor one we would do anything to avoid.

Alajuela Safari 3: Bar el Galeano

The bathroom at El Galeano is a monumental masterpiece of costarican engineering. That's all you need to know about the place.

Alajuela Safari 2: Bar Centro de Amigos

Lovely decoration

Bar with mirrors, fruits and slutty looking, inefficient girls.

WC with a barrel of disinfectant on top

Bar Centro de Amigos has one of the most common bar names in Costa Rica, and does not stand out in any way. Slutty looking and unbelievably inefficient girls in the bar (we had to order our first beer through all three of them), few but drunk and confused guests. The one next to us in the bar tried to explain an address to us for half an hour, a wildly annoying experience. Bar Centro de Amigos is worth a short pit stop, though.

Alajuela Safari 1: Bar Chaves

Classic chinchorro exterior

Classic chinchorro ladies' room, sealed off with a padlock.
Thanks to MJ for valuable research.

Classic chinchorrero. Friendly and not exceedingly sober.

Bar Chaves is IWCRPs official first choice in Alajuela. It has all you expect from a typical costarican chinchorro; cheap beer, elderly drunks, posters with scantily clad ladies and local football teams from the 1970s, hand written threats to mutilate any client who does not pay and a padlock on the door to the ladies' room. It appears that the owner played on several of the football teams depicted on the wall.

Bar El Cruce, Tibás, Costa Rica

From the outside, El Cruce appears to be a classic hole in the wall.

On the inside, El Cruce is not much more fun than visiting terminally ill elders in the hospital.

Bar El Cruce in Tibás is one of those places we've driven past several times, always wondering what's inside, imagining the most deliciously horrid shithole of a bar, filled with the most depraved scum society can offer. So we were greatly disappointed when discovering that, despite its uninviting exterior, it's just a regular bar with no personality and no ambition. A few middle aged people, only half drunk, watching the news on one of the TV screens. No hysterical hookers stabbing customers, no shady business going on in dark corners. A terrible disappointment indeed.

Bar La Tranquera,Liberia, Costa Rica

Being an important tourist destination, most places in downtown Liberia have little personality, La Tranquera being a very welcome exception. In order to keep costs at a minimum and thus be able to sell the beer as cheaply as possible, they do not have any light in the WC. Fortunately, we have a camera with flash, and hereby present to you a rare picture of a urinal never before seen by man.

Bar y Restaurante La Puerta del Sol, Cartago, Costa Rica

La basílica de los ángeles. La Puerta del Sol is located on the left side, across the street.

La Puerta del Sol. 2nd floor has rooms for rent.

The Urinal.

La Puerta del Sol is one of the most famous bars in Cartago, given its strategic location next to la Basílica de Los Angeles. Approximately one million people walk to this church every august 2, hoping that this will be sufficient to get their lives back on track. Our guess is that a lot of these people have had a meal and a beer at La Puerta del Sol upon arrival.

Nevertheless, we must report that the food was a disappointment and the beer expensive. Add to that a non-smoking policy, and the sum is a severely unrecommendable place. For good places to visit in Cartago, see our report from the alternative pilgrimage arranged by IWCRP back in 2008

Bar El CevichitoCartago, Costa Rica

No hay paso my ass. I'd rather say there's no going back.

Classy decoration: a tie rack

Classic urinal

El Cevichito is one of the finest bars we know, and worth visiting Costa Rica for. It's located on the north west side of la Basílica de los Angeles, sort of hidden behind the more famous but much less appealing Puerta del Sol. Costa Rican bars tend to have a rather random decoration, but this one takes it a bit further. On the walls hang perhaps 15-20 ugly old ties, a beach towel from San Andres, the usual pictures of football players and ladies, plus an old Huggies poster. The shelves have their guaro and whisky, plus a little collection of toys, including a policeman with a huge sombrero on a motorcycle. The bar has one table and a few bar stools, plus an old couch by the entrance; allowing more than ten guests at the same time would be to push the limits.

Playa Sámara, Costa Rica

Playa Sámara is an OK beach, not too spectacular, we stayed for one night before moving on to Playa Guiones about 1 hour north.

Tutti Frutti, one of several bars / restaurants on the beach. This one is italian and has a nice outside area under a big tree on the beach.

Tutti Frutti ladies' room, thanks to MJ for valuable research

Rest. Las Brasas by the football field in Sámara. The food was not particularly good, and not as plentiful as we had hoped for. The service was just weird.

First and fanciest bar on the beach, we think it's called Snacks. They have a relatively impressive list of drinks, and prices are not bad compared to the alternatives.

Snacks WC

Bar Las Olas, perhaps the least fancy of the bars on the beach, but with a pool tables and a Fussball table which kind of works despite certain missing key players

We stayed at the Tico Adventure Lodge. Basic rooms with a/c and a balcony cost $40. The reviews at tripadvisor generally express satisfaction with the rooms and hatred towards the owner, who is claimed to be a very rude person. We talked to him for about 2 minutes, and although it was a very uncontrovertial conversation, he did appear to have a quite unpleasant personality. The rest of the staff were great, though.

Turrialba day 2: Pejivalle & Humo

Río Pejivalle @ el Humo

Río Pejivalle @ el Humo

Thriving automotive industry in Pejivalle

COOPEJIBAYE R.L.

Rio Pejivalle @ Pejivalle

Young baptists

La Cueva del Sapo, Clandestine bar in el Humo

La cueva del Sapo, interior details

La cueva del Sapo, WC entrance

La Cueva del Sapo WC

El Humo: cooking ladies and former football hero attending some kind of fund-raising.

WC @ el Humo

Little effort was made to find WCs on our second day in the Turrialba area. Partially because we spent a lot of time by the very clean Río Pejivalle, aka. Río Pejibaye, Río Pejiballe or Río Pejivaye. Spelling rules are somewhat diffuse, but it appears that Pejibaye is a fruit, Pejivalle is the town and that the name of the river can be spelled any way you like. The river is apparently a good one for rafting and kayaking, and the area is a new favourite of ours in Costa Rica.