Costa Rica
Tennis
As a clay tennis fan, it doesn’t help me (but I already knew this) that public tennis here is almost only on hard courts. Some more places for tennis:
- Private clay tennis courts can be found at the Academia de Tenis Naranjo, in San Antonio de Desamparados (tel. 276 9012/3), behind the Escuela Republica de Panama.
- One day I raced by another Academia de Tenis, not sure what’s happening there. It’s on the way past Santa Ana de Belen towards Cariari (stay on the left, that’s all I’m saying - good luck finding it huh !)
- The (also private) Country Club in Escazu has good hard courts, both indoor and outdoor, just too bad that if you’re not a member yu can’t get in - even if you know someone who’s a member you’re only allowed in once (but hey, you can use many different names and as many disguises since they’re not too insisting on ID .. ). You can always try on the courts on the west side of the Country Club though. It seems they allow guests.
- The Costa Rica Tennis Club has hard courts (didn’t go there myself so can’t advise you how it was).
If you just want to stay in shape or (worse) meet people that are in shape or shapely:
- Multi Spa, in the residential area of Trejos Montealegre, Escazu: good equipment, lots of space. The one in downtown San Jose is even better and I heard that the one in Sabana has a sauna and jacuzzi.
- Arena Trek, in Paco Mall in Escazu: supposedly full of nice chicks working their abs and what have you but the bottom line here is less/older equipment for more money than the Multi Spa
Shopping
There are various “plaza’s” and “centros commerciales” to do your shopping. Two big ones are Multiplaza and Terramall, they have a lot of the high end shops (so beware, everything is more expensive there) . Others are Pedro Mall (much more varied selection of stored than Multiplaza), .. For foods, there is Mas por Menos (medium selection), Automercado (medium to good selection of foods - the one in Santa Ana is really good because it passed one of my tests: stocking of Nutella was good), Perimercado (a bit better that Mas por Menos), AMPM .. For computer gear, someone recommended me BTC.
You don’t have to worry about bananas (and many other fruits) because Costa Rica is a major exporter of them.
