Parque Metropolitano La Sabana

Parque Metropolitano La Sabana Review

Though it isn't centrally located, La Sabana (The Savannah) comes the closest of San José's green spaces to achieving the same function and spirit as New York's Central Park. A statue of 1930s president León Cortes greets you at the principal entrance at the west end of Paseo Colón. Behind the statue a 16-foot-tall menorah serves as a gathering place for San José's small Jewish community during Hanukkah. La Sabana was once San José's airport, and the whitewashed Museo de Arte Costarricense, just south of the Cortes statue, served as terminal and control tower.

The round Gimnasio Nacional (National Gymnasium) sits at the park's southeast corner and hosts sporting events and the occasional concert. A 40,000-seat stadium—a controversial gift from the government of China, which decided to use its own construction workers rather than employ local people—was completed in 18 months and opened in 2011 near the park's northwest corner. It hosts primarily soccer matches, but Shakira, Pearl Jam, and Red Hot Chili Peppers played in the stadium during its first year of operation. In between are acres of space for soccer, basketball, tennis, swimming, jogging, picnicking, and kite flying. The park hums with activity on weekend days. You're welcome to join in the early-morning outdoor aerobics classes on Saturday and Sunday. A project is under way to replace many of the park's eucalyptus trees with more bird-friendly species native to Costa Rica.

A small building boom is taking place these days, with condos and office buildings going up around the perimeter of the park, another resemblance to New York's Central Park. (Because of building codes, "skyscraper" means a maximum of about 10 floors in earthquake-prone Costa Rica.) Like most of San José's green spaces, La Sabana should be avoided at night.