Day 12: Thursday, June 26 - In and around San Jose

We had some very interesting experiences today. Having seen mostly the "regular" part of San Jose, we wanted to see how the "other half" lives. We headed for Rohrmoser, the part of San Jose where the U.S. embassy, as well as the equivalent of the White House, are located. The former seemed to be much more fortified and had much more visible security. In fact, we were not even allowed to take any pictures of the embassy, according to the guards, who were all Costa Ricans, out in front.

Next, we drove through a nearby residential neighborhood and to our surprise, our driver stopped the van and parked in front of a house. (Actually, he parked first and then stopped the van.) He beckoned us to come inside to see . . . a cigar factory. There we found four or five workers sitting in a room rolling cigars. For all practical purposes, these are Cuban cigars as that is where the tobacco comes from. However, since they are made in CR, they are labeled as such and are therefore, supposedly, legal to import into the U.S.

While not directly related to the apparel industry, we were able to compare the hourly wage (much higher) and the working conditions (about the same) of the cigar workers to the apparel workers.

We then drove by the residence of the U.S. ambassador. Our driver told us that the large condominium project across the street and uphill from the ambassador's house was totally vacant because our government bought it to prevent it being used to spy on or do harm to the ambassador.

A little further on and we stopped at the Multi-Plaza mall in Escazu, a wealthy suburb of San Jose, to compare prices and products to those we had seen in downtown SanJose. As with most malls today, there were few clues to let you know what country you were in.

After shopping and lunch at the mall, we drove around Escazu to see some of the homes of mostly wealthy Americans and some Europeans. Except for the relatively low prices, according to our driver, the homes could have been in any number of gated communities back in the U.S., including the proximity of one home to another.

Our day concluded with the last of the book reports and a lively discussion of what we have all seen and learned about the garment industry across time and space.

Tomorrow we head for the beautiful beaches and tropical rainforest by-the-sea National Park, Manuel Antonio. Note that this is a change from the itinerary published on the course website and that the correct phone number for our hotel is 506 2777- 0119.