Costa Rica News – There are so many beautiful parts of Costa Rica. You can visit the volcanoes. You can head to one of the many beaches. You can zip line through the rain forest. The one place that people do not visit in Costa Rica is San Jose. Having lived there for over 5 years there was not much to enjoy there. Yet it has been nominated to to become a “new marvel”. Wait……what?
There are 77 cities in the running to become a “new marvel” and San Jose, Costa Rica is one of them. For the third time, a global voting initiative is being organized by New7Wonders.
They created a forum to discuss urban planning and governance. Tourism and architecture also have a place in the forum. The goal is bigger than giving an award, it is to raise awareness and increase important discussions.
Ok if this is an award that is given to a dirty city, with a lot of crime, no real directions or street signs, and a corrupt governance, then San Jose should definitely win. Yes there are some nice places to visit like the national theater and the gold museum, but there is a reason that most travel forums say to get out of San Jose as quickly as possible after you land in Juan Santamaria Airport.
Beginning in March 2012, there were 300 nominations. From the 77 left, 28 finalists will be announced on Monday, October 21st. This will be followed by a series of votes and, finally, the winners will be presented in July 2014.
Latin America has a number of nominations still in the running, including Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, La Paz, Santiago, Valparaiso, Bogota, Havana, Cuenca, Quito, Mexico City, Asuncion, Cusco, Lima, San Juan, Montevideo, and Caracas.
The founder of New7Wonders, Bernard Weber, calls the diversity of candidates this year “extremely challenging.” He hopes that the competition will reflect the energy and culture of the cities and generate talks about handling the challenges they face.
I think that whomever is nominating and running this New7Wonders should spend a week in San Jose and see what he or she thinks. Perhaps they can pick up some crack on a street corner as they seem to be already smoking it……
