Traditions of San José
The capital of Costa Rica, the home of the painted oxcart, the Pura Vida greeting and gallo pinto at breakfast.
San José lies in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, a country with a strong sense of peace and a long tradition of farming coffee. The painted oxcart, carreta, from the village of Sarchí, is a national symbol and recognised by UNESCO. The greeting and philosophy of Pura Vida, pure life, is part of daily speech.
Oxcarts and the Boyero
Craftspeople paint wheels in bold patterns of star and flower. On the second Sunday of March, the Day of the Oxcart Driver sees a parade of decorated oxcarts and a blessing in San Antonio de Escazú. The Virgin of Los Ángeles, La Negrita, is celebrated on 2 August with a huge pilgrimage to Cartago.
At the table
Gallo pinto, with eggs and fried plantain, is the breakfast, and casado, a plate of rice, beans, salad, plantain and meat, is the lunch. Tamales are made at Christmas, and olla de carne is a beef and vegetable stew. Coffee, filtered through a cloth chorreador, is a daily ritual.
Signature traditions of San José
Also part of it, and being written: Gallo pinto (The breakfast.), Casado (The meal.).
A trail idea for San José
- Mercado Central Eat casados.
- National Theatre See the foyer.
- Sarchí Visit workshops.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Opening hours, markets and festival dates change; check locally before travelling. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Nothing matches those filters yet. Take one off, or check back: new traditions are written every day.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Costa Rican oxcarts: Victor Quirós A, CC BY-SA 3.0, source