Day 62: San Isidro (aka Shoe Capital of Costa Rica)

The first Christmas decorations we've seen.

Surprisingly not a shoe store...but surrounded by 'em.
Mike thought the name of the store was fun.

Matt and I enjoying real cushions.
We spent a little longer than necessary here.

I ordered a tortilla con queso.
I got a cheese pancake (aka instant heart attack).

With 45,000 residents, San Isidro is referred to as a “big city” in comparison to places like our home that boast about, oh I don’t know, 45 residents? So we decided to take a day trip to check out big city life.


It didn’t start as well as we thought it would, of course. Mike dragged me out of bed before 7am (I’m proud to say I’ve actually been able to maintain a steady snooze until 8am most mornings) to catch a non-existent morning bus. With the next bus not being until 1pm – so happy about that unnecessary wakeup call – we opted for a taxi ride. It took under an hour to drop us off in the city filled with nothing but shoe stores.

When we had driven around the complicated city streets on the way to pick up Matt at the airport, we didn’t pay close attention to what was shelved behind all the windows of the stores that lined the streets. We expected cafes, restaurants, boutiques, shops, souvenirs, etc. Instead we found shoe store after shoe store after shoe store. Matt was in luck since he needed new flip flops. At least our trip now had purpose.

The stores range from thrift store selection to Steve Madden knock-offs and amid the unrecognizable stores there was even a Payless. Matt had strict rules with his shoe purchase. They needed to be comfortable, durable and no employee could come within a foot of us (no pun intended). Apparently each store’s security system consists of immediately greeting you upon entering the door and then tailing you while you browse. It annoyed Matt enough that he almost immediately left any store when approached by an employee. They could have had the flip flops of his dreams or offered him a 99% discount and it wouldn’t matter. They irritated him therefore they would not get his colones. After about the 17th store with the same selection under a different name, he finally found his pair. And that concluded the need to stay in this big city any longer.

We headed to the bus station an hour early to catch the 1:30pm bus home only to find out it was also non-existent. With a three hour wait for the next one, we headed to an internet café and surrendered to our recent urge for pizza after their menu seduced us with a tantalizing photo. Unfortunately, the picture of the pizza probably tasted better than what we were given to eat. As Mike so accurately described it, it tasted like it was freeze dried for a few months and meant to be shipped to soldiers overseas. I’m now craving East Longmeadow’s Pizza Shoppe pizza even more than before.


San Isidro did make me smile as I got my first glimpse of Christmas decorations. It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas…which doesn’t feel quite right while walking around in shorts and tank tops and searching for the perfect pair of flip flops.