Tourists to Costa Rica usually spend as little time possible in San José. It’s crowded, hectic, and—I’ll just say it—ugly. Which is why I spent my last night in the country prowling its most disreputable streets.
Saturated by two weeks in the beautiful interior, my phone’s photo gallery was full of every sort of lush nature-scape. And so, a few hours before my flight out, I booked a cheap hotel in a sketchy part of town. Pentax in hand, I roamed the central business district for a while, but when the long afternoon shadows turned to dusk, I set out for the area known for love hotels and immigrant prostitutes.
Night in San Jose's red-light district is a bustle of crossed lives. There are people out shopping for groceries, silent men working, loud men playing pool with friends, solo men slouching into strip clubs, and tired public transit riders moving through it all.