4 Best Sights in San Jose, Costa Rica

A whimsical statue of John Lennon sits on a small, slightly out-of-the-way plaza across from La Soledad church. Sculptor José Ramón Villa's work marks the spot where, in 1966, Costa Ricans smashed Beatles records in protest of Lennon's statement that the iconic pop group was "more popular than Jesus." The official name of the statue is Imagine All the People Living Life in Peace, evoking the lyrics of Lennon's song “Imagine.” After more than a half century, bygones are apparently bygones: residents and tourists alike enjoy having their photos taken sitting with the casually seated figure.

At the city's nucleus, the tree-shaded Central Park is more plaza than park. A life-size bronze statue of a street sweeper (El Barrendero) cleans up some bronze litter; look also for Armonía (Harmony), a sculpture of three street musicians. In the center of the one-square-block park is a spiderlike gazebo donated by onetime Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza.

President Óscar Arias built this terraced space west of the Museo Nacional to mark 100 years of Costa Rican democracy and to receive dignitaries during a 1989 hemispheric summit. The view west toward the dark green Cerros de Escazú is nice in the morning and fabulous at sunset. The Jade Museum lines the plaza's western edge.

A widening of Avenida Central, this plaza is popular with hawkers, money changers, and retired men, and can be a good place to get a shoeshine and listen to street musicians. Outside the western end of Costa Rica's modern federal reserve bank building, don't miss Presentes, 10 smaller-than-life sculpted figures of bedraggled campesinos (peasants). La Chola, a bronze statue of a buxom rural woman, resides at sidewalk level on the small, shady plaza south of the bank. It's public art at its best. Beware: the money changers here are notorious for circulating counterfeit bills and using doctored calculators to shortchange unwitting tourists. Avoid them.