Liberia: Around Town

Hey Everybody!  So last Saturday, Esteban took me on a little tour of Liberia and I took a bunch of pics to share with you.  Hope you enjoy!

The first stop was the "Museo de Guanacaste" which is actually a really old prison, so it's super creepy inside (more pics to follow).  This is my tour guide, Esteban.

Here's a picture of the inside of the prison grounds.

We went up to the guard deck area to see if we could get a good view of all of Liberia.  Unfortunately, the walls are really tall so we couldn't, but there were some narrow slits I was able to take a picture through.  This pic is facing the central park.

Each corner of the top level of the prison has a round "guard tower" and they are all kind of creepy.  This is me being a dork in one of them:

Most Costa Rican towns are centered around a Central Park/Square.  This usually consists of a green park area and a church.  Pics of the park and gazebo, etc. follow:

And then, of course, there is the church.  Most Costa Ricans are Catholic, so this is one of the Catholic churches, but there are actually many churches around town.  Liberia is definitely not a small city...it's really pretty large!

I was also told that there is a gymnasium in Liberia where a lot of locals and tourists go to play basketball, etc, especially in the evenings.  I was also told the gym is air conditioned, but that is definitely not true!  Here are some pics: (We think there is a blue mat on the floor for gymnastics...)

This is another park near the center of town, which is just grass, and is popular for runners, etc.  It has a special name, but I keep forgetting it, so I'll let you know if I remember what it's called :)

As we were driving around town, Esteban took me to "Iglesia de Agonia" or Agony Church.  Unfortunately it was closed when we went by, so I couldn't see the inside, but I guess it's the oldest (?) church in Liberia?  Something like that.  There was also a park next to it and a giant statue of an Iguana, which was just sort of cool.

After driving around Liberia for a while and checking out some other sights like the hospital and the futbal stadium, we went out to the Mall, which is a little outside of main area of the town.  It is relatively new, so a lot of the shops are not yet full, but there is also a movie theater.  That means I WILL get to see Harry Potter, and maybe even the next Twilight movie when they come out.  Woo Hoo!  I guess there is a buy one get one free promotion on Wednesdays, so I think I will be going to the movies with my family here this Wednesday.  (I'm pretty sure that's what they were asking me...there's always  a little bit of a communication gap...)

And finally, we did a drive-by of the Liberia airport so I could check that out as well.  Most of my students will be taxi drivers and airport personnel, so it was nice to check that out.  The airport right now is pretty tiny, but they are building a new/bigger airport right next to it that I guess is going to open this fall.  It looks like it will be really nice.

Here is a pic of the cemetery, which is a few blocks from the downtown area, and is close to where my family lives:

Okay, now you have more or less seen Liberia as well.  I haven't had a chance to take pics of my family yet b/c everyone has been in different places, but I hope that will be my next post :)