San Ramon: City of Poets and Presidents…or Graffiti and Drunken Cowboys?

Apparently, San Ramon, Costa Rica is called “The City of Poets and Presidents” because several Costa Rican poets and presidents were born there. While I was there, I didn’t see any poets or presidents, but I did see plenty of graffiti and drunken cowboys. To their credit, both were spectacular in their own rights.

So why did Elani and I end up there in the first place? Well, because I had a “good idea.” Basically, we had two options for getting from La Fortuna to Samara. We could take the shuttle bus, which would have cost a bit over $100, or take public transport, which would be about $20, the down side being that it was supposed to take a couple hours longer and we’d have to changes buses at San Ramon. So I figured we’d take the cheap bus, and turn the stop into a couple of nights in San Ramon and explore a new city. Win win, right? Well, not really. The public buses were slow and crowded, and on one leg we had to stand up during the bus ride for about 4 hours, not awesome. Also, the bus leaving San Ramon was actually stopping outside the city, and figuring out where it stopped was kind of an ordeal, one that involved our lovely AirBnB hostess making a lot of calls to the bus company on our behalf. On top of that, the one we were supposed to catch never showed up, and we ended waiting another couple of hours on top of the hour early we got there in the first place. Was it all worth saving $80 bucks? Not even close, that had to be the hardest I’ve ever worked for $80 in my life, and I had some pretty crap jobs before heading off to college. Long story short, if it’s a straight shot from one city to another, the public buses work well, but once you need to transfer, it’s probably best just to pony up the dough. Unless your time is really worth a lot less than your money, that is.

Anyways, back to the drunken cow boys and cowgirls. I’m not talking about a couple of dudes in big hats stumbling around after having a few too many, either; I’m talking about hundreds of people on horseback, riding around the city. They were actually about the first thing we saw on arriving, or really before arriving, since our bus had to stop and wait for the parade of equestrians to pass before pulling into the depot. This was around 3 in the afternoon, and they looked moderately tipsy at worst by then. Next, we grabbed a taxi to where we were staying and spent a couple hours relaxing before walking back into town. By this time, the number of riders had decreased but there were still enough to stretch out for two or three blocks and a lot of them were getting pretty hammered by this point. It looked like this for a couple of city blocks:

On top of that, the horse were pretty clearly getting a bit tired and stressed, and not all of them looked particularly inclined to go where the drunken humans on their backs were telling them to go. Fortunately, everything seemed more or less under control and the whole mob was being followed by some rather sober looking police officers on what looked to be rather calm and well trained horses, at least to my inexpert eyes. After getting tired of following the drunken mounted revelry and the smell of what I’ll generously assume was horse urine, we went off to find a place to eat and were lucky enough to run across a gastro pub (it had been awhile since I’d seen one of them) that specialized in pizza and micro brews. It was honestly one of the best meals we had in Costa Rica.

Well, I didn’t see any poets while I was in San Ramon (at least, as far as I could tell), but their graffiti was stunning. Well, I should really say street art, because this wasn’t the usual “so and so was here” or crudely drawn phalluses, there was some really good stuff, and lots of it. Here are a few of the best ones Elani and I were able to find and photograph:

That pretty much covers it for San Ramon. The day we left was mostly spent waiting for a bus and then waiting to get off of the bus. After that, it was time to settle into our last real destination in Costa Rica, the cozy little beach town of Samara.