San José, along with most Costa Ricans, is located in a deep bowl scooped out of the mountainous spine that divides the country top to bottom between its Pacific and Caribbean coasts and lowlands.
Beneath the coffee plantations, wealthy suburbs and cloud-enshrouded villages that cling to its sides, the capital spreads out over a grid; its tin roofs glittering under a haze of smog and heat.
Poás and Irazú, live volcanoes on the rim, and the fog and forest of Braulio Carrillo National Park just beyond it, are reminders that for all its modernity and theme park appeal, there is wilderness here that demands respect.
The tourist loop takes in Monteverde cloud forest and Arenal Volcano, the beaches of Manuel Antonio and the canals, boats and nesting turtles of Tortuguero.
Off the circuit things are both grander and simpler. Defending your gallo pinto (rice and beans) from a pet parrot at a roadside stall is the quintessential Costa Rican experience, but there are others. You can walk for days along the beaches of Corcovado without meeting anything other than monkeys, fishing bulldog bats and the occasional ranger, and be alone on a mountain above the hundreds of hectares of rainforest canopy.
For all the space and emptiness (25 per cent of the country is protected as parks and reserves), it is the people that make this 'Switzerland of the Americas' so very special. There is much to learn from this nation of inspired and sentimental idealists.
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