Costa Rica Hotels in San José – Don Carlos Hotel

History weaves through people and their stories. The Don Carlos Hotel in the historic neighborhood district of Barrio Amón, eight blocks from downtown San José, has a rich tradition and quite a story to tell.

Barrio Amón was probably the first residential area of San José. If you look at the history of our country, it is where San José began,” said Lee Weiler an American who began his adventure in Costa Rica in the 1960’s.

A string of events brought Mr. Weiler permanently to the country to not only set down family roots, but also to work as an educator and eventually become the owner of the historic Don Carlos Hotel.

The Don Carlos Hotel is a gem with a nationally famous gift shop that started as a bookshelf and is now a two story browsing treasure. The Don Carlos has also been known for years as being a gathering place for the international scientific community.

Lee Weiler and I shared a cup of chamomile tea in the lobby of the Don Carlos Hotel where water fountains added a content feeling. Colorful mosaic tiles create scenes that tell stories of the countries history, people, and customs.

The hotel has done a major renovation in the past five years and has emphasized great importance on ambiance while seeming to lend a tribute to its founder and renowned archaeologist, Don Carlos.

The story begins on the sea in the 1960’s and touches on the old times in downtown to the Vietnam War to raising children and grandchildren in Costa Rica.

Can you first explain how you came to Costa Rica?

That’s a tough question. I probably came to Costa Rica back in the early 1960’s. I was introduced to Costa Rica because I was going to University in the States and during the summer months I had the opportunity to become a merchant seaman. I other words, I “shipped-out” on vacation times.

One of the ships I had a chance to go off on was a 60-day cruise all the way down to Chile; it stopped off in Puntarenas. When I arrived in Costa Rica, I naturally thought the country was just like out of the movie Jurassic Park.

Later, I had the opportunity in University to meet my future wife. She was a student there, and when I learned she was from Costa Rica I said, “I’ve been to your country.” When I mentioned I had only been to Puntarenas of course the laughs naturally occurred. She told me that I hadn’t even seen the country.

I was working on my Master’s degree in anthropology – and this is a key point – I learned that my wife’s father was a renowned archaeologist. He had written a number of books. He was involved in pre-Columbian archeology – gold and jade for example – and most of the Jade Museum in the Institute Nacional Seguro was his collection. He wrote a book for the museum as well.

Well my excitement was two-fold, here was a girl that I was dating who had a father who was an archaeologist. Right away, I went to my department of anthropology to try to put a field trip together to go to Costa Rica, hoping that my girlfriend’s father could put us up in his hotel. So, that was my introduction to the country.

When did you come again to Costa Rica?

When my future wife and I graduated, my anthropology department had a chance to do some field work outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. So her mother came to the States for the graduation, and I accompanied them as far as Mexico.

I went off to Guadalajara to do a little town called Mexicatan to do research. My future wife went back to Costa Rica. Of course love had set in by then, so shortly afterwards I finished up my research and caught a plane straight to Costa Rica.

I proposed to my future wife’s father that I wanted to marry his daughter. In those days, it had to be done. He said yes. But rather than setting a date, he told me to go home and come back a year later. Well, I thought I was an expert on Central American anthropology, but I had never heard of that rule. Don Carlos was from Liechtenstein, so it must have been a European thing to keep the couple apart for a year.

I went back to the States. A year later I came down to Costa Rica, and we were married. I ended up teaching in Oregon, and then I was transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. My wife and I both taught there. She became pregnant. Being a very Latino girl, she wanted to be near family. And, in reality it made no difference to me whether we lived in Costa Rica or Portland, Oregon. She pointed out to me on the map that Costa Rica was closer to Austin, Texas than Portland, Oregon, so we came back to Costa Rica for the birth.

When I got down here, I recognized that the Vietnam War had very little significance here. I remembered in Texas and in Oregon that most people were in University to avoid the draft. When I arrived here, I decided this was neat. So, we stayed.

One year went to another and before I knew it, we never left. Part of it was I recognized while I was in Costa Rica that there were strong family ties – something we didn’t have in the States or at least not with my family. And, I recognized very quickly that my daughter and my son (both born in Costa Rica) would have family close to them if we stayed.

They had grandfathers, uncles, and aunts. Back in the States, family was dispersed all over. So they never would have seen them. It became important enough for me to forgo the University work that I was doing to stay in Costa Rica.

I just want to clarify a point. You said the Vietnam War didn’t have significance meaning you do not think it greatly impacted the country?

In the days and years of the Vietnam War it was always front page in the United States. It was a political issue that went 24 hours a day as we see much of the issues today. In Costa Rica, the Vietnam War was page 16 – a little article. It wasn’t something that the people were overly aware of. It would be like talking about the war in Bosnia or a problem in Afghanistan. When it is a world issue – it isn’t something that concerns people in Costa Rica on a daily basis.

What was Costa Rica like when you first came down here?

It was an unusual place. It was a country where we first saw ox carts right here by Parque Morazan or Parque España. We still had horse drawn carts that would deliver groceries from the Central Market downtown to the front door of my father-in-law’s hotel. It was still more laid back. It was still an agriculturally based country. We were really strong in bananas. United Fruit Company was still strong here in those days.

Coffee was still king. One still saw campesinos (country people) walking in downtown San José without shoes on. It wasn’t something you stopped at looked at, it was a natural thing. It was the days when for example my wife never could have gone downtown, and I repeat never, with slacks on. It was unheard of – couldn’t happen. None of us could have ever gone downtown with shorts on that was something for the beach – not for downtown San José. It was more dressed up then, and a lot more elegant.

You mentioned how you first came in contact with the Don Carlos Hotel – can you explain what it was like, and what is the story of this hotel?

The Don Carlos Hotel goes back way before World War II. It started off as a hotel called the Pensión Alemán. But as you can imagine, the German name was not a good name when we had World War II.

Costa Rica did to Germans similar to what the U.S. did to Germans and Japanese. We picked them up and put them in camps. We actually shipped them off to the States. Not all the Germans, but the Germans that we felt couldn’t be trusted. Therefore, the name was changed immediately to Pensión Alemán to Pensión Canada – a very neutral country and a very neutral sign out front.

It was a small hotel probably located two blocks due west of where we’re located now. And, it was the type of place that was one of the oldest Pensiónes. People came to stay, they were given three meals a day a lot of people from the outside who knew Don Carlos would come and stay there for the meals. Don Carlos had originally come from Liechtenstein – let me add why – he had met a lot of Costa Ricans while he was studying in Bon, Germany, and these Costa Ricans were over there for example studying in the medical field. He became very close for example with the Jiménez family.

Later in years when he was doing some research in anthropology and art in Peru, the Jiménez family contacted him and said they were going to build the first major hotel in Costa Rica with the United Fruit Company. They asked him to come back and help in the construction and be the first general manager. Don Carlos came back and got involved in the construction of the Grand Hotel Costa Rica and became the general manager for the first number of decades.

All the major functions were catered by the Grand Hotel – a time when the main floor of the National Theater was raised for dances. A time when if any major dignitary came into town, he stayed at the Grand Hotel. Of course, because the Hotel was jointly owned by the United Fruit Company, many of the guests came in on the banana boats. The came in through the port of Limón, took the train up to San José. Usually guests were registered right on the train on the way from Limón.

Later in years, Don Carlos became fairly renowned in the field of archeology. Once again, there was a connection with the United Fruit Company. United was putting banana plantations all over Central America, and they naturally turned over all their artifacts to him and to the daughter of one of the owners of the company – the Zemurray family.

Their daughter Doris, was about the same age of Don Carlos. She eventually become Doris Zemurray Stone. Don Carlos and Doris shared all their archeology discoveries. They also did joint publications throughout all of Central America. Doña Doris’s family is probably one of the largest contributors to the University of Tulane. I believe the library is named after her husband, Ronnie Stone. The main base for United Fruit Company was in Louisiana.

Don Carlos, as he became more involved in archeology, decided to pull away from the Grand Hotel and that is when he took over the Pensión Alemán and changed the name to Pensión Canada. He ran that location and then finally decided to move it to the present location which is right next to the National Insurance (yet to be built). At the time he moved the hotel was the time of the eruption of the Irazú volcano. The eruption dropped ash on San José for several years.

When did you take over the hotel?

Although I had a P.H.D. in anthropology, my field was more cultural, and Don Carlos’s field was in archeology. We still had a great affinity for each other. I think he was pleased his daughter married someone in the same field as him and also that she married someone with blood ties to Europe. So, we really enjoyed each other.

He had a ten room Pensión that served three meals a day – and fairly decent meals because people used to come in from all over. I didn’t get involved at all at this point. I was doing my own thing. But as Don Carlos got older, we found out that his interest in being able to receive guests late at night was diminishing. As Don Carlos started getting older, he started putting signs out that said “Full” – he just didn’t want to bother getting up for guests that came in off midnight flights.

Don Carlos also had a difficult time with change. Americans dressed in a very relaxed style; living together had become important in the States. Don Carlos was from the old school and couldn’t handle having someone knock on his door in blue jeans wanting to check in. These things bothered him to the point where he was turning more and more guests away.

We decided we needed to help him, and we tried to convince him to sell. He probably had the best small hotel in Costa Rica – full of scientists, full of people from National Geographic, and archaeologists. It was incredible.

But he had a hard time trying to sell because it was an old fashioned hotel that gained its reputation by the person that ran it, Don Carlos. We found out that we really couldn’t sell it. And Don Carlos wouldn’t put more money into fixing it to sell it. It wasn’t his way of doing things. So my wife and I decided that the only way we were going to get him to relax was that we would have to buy it from him. So we bought it from him.

To our surprise, we found out that we had bit off a bit more than we could chew. We found out that Don Carlos “lived” there. He was the receptionist; he handled everything. Since we had no plans at that time to run the hotel, we hired a receptionist for afternoon, evening and night. We found out that there wasn’t enough money coming in to pay for everybody. So, in a sense he got the last laugh. He got the money from selling the hotel and watched his smart son-in-law having difficulty.

Your business is located downtown, what do you enjoy about the business being in San José?

In reality, we´ve never thought of ourselves as downtown. We like to utilize the word that we are in Barrio Amón. Barrio Amón was probably the first residential area of San José. If you look at the history of our country, it is where San José began. Every major family lived here, all of the major coffee barrons, all of the banana people – everything was in Barrio Amón. So, we were very unique to have a hotel in this area right next to the zoo which is a huge green area – sort of the lungs of San José.

We are probably only seven blocks to the very heart of the city. So, we literally don´t have the traffic problems and other problems that other hotels have. Yet, we are still within walking distance of the restaurants and all the major locations.

You’re gift shop is known around the country and by many tourists. People I´ve known have come into the country looking for your gift shop and the value it has. How did that come about?

Before my wife and I decided to get involved in the hotel, we indirectly tried to increase our own revenue so we got involved with the workings of the Don Carlos hotel. For example, when I first arrived, I realized Don Carlos did tours. He would have a group of four that wanted to see the Irazú volcano. Well to increase my income, I had a Volkswagon bus and told Don Carlos when you have a group that wants a tour, I´ll take them up. It was a good increase in revenue at that time I was a school teacher teaching anthropology.

Even though the Pensión was small, we could put a bookshelf in the corner and offer a few post cards and a few tiny ox carts. And, to our surprise they sold. Over a period of months and years the book case became a little bit larger and larger. We didn’t turn the idea into an actual gift shop until we physically took over the hotel. At that point, we converted Don Carlos´s old, small office which was about 3 meters by 4 meters into a gift shop.

We had a great deal of pleasure in offering a gift shop because it gave us the opportunity to visit all of the Costa Rican artisans, including those from all over the country. We were proud of the fact that almost everything we sold was Costa Rican made. It was so successful that it went from the old office to half of the lobby. We eventually bought the building which was the home of Tomas Guardia (a former president of Costa Rica).

We did the whole downstairs as a gift shop. Over the years we built a two-story gift shop. It was one of the major gift shops in the country. But as the popularity of Costa Rica grew, so did the availability of souvenirs. Gift shops started opening in every hotel in Costa Rica and in every little spot in the mall.

We are still proud that about 65% of all our items are Costa Rican made. We have a tremendous return clientele that come back for our items.

National Geographic slept here. Matthew Sterling slept here. The Don Carlos Hotel has been a gathering place for some of the world’s great scientists. Today it continues that tradition.

Lee Weiler and I continue or discussion about the history of the hotel and life in the downtown area.

“Having a hotel, we find out that most tourists have a love affair. They fall in love with the country on their first vacation. It grabs you that quickly, and that is a delight. The fact that I can guarantee that if someone comes to Costa Rica they are going to have the best vacation of their entire life.”

Those that do fall in love may move to Costa Rica. Living in Costa Rica is a much different experience as a tourist than as a resident buying groceries, managing the bureaucracy, and traffic. Lee offers some insight to those who wish to make that move and even a tidbit for those who already have.

After seeing so many people come through your hotel over the years, what strikes you – that is, what is the most interesting characteristic you see about the tourists that come to visit Costa Rica?

We have to define something first. Remember, we took over a hotel that already existed and had an established clientele. The people were mostly scientists and those that worked for National Geographic – the giants. I mean like Matthew Sterling – the man who discovered the stone balls in Costa Rica – and the botanists, and the biologists.

You could sit down, and you had no idea who was sitting across from you or next to you. The conversations were unbelievable. So, with that base, we literally continued. We already had a tremendous return clientele, so we didn’t start from scratch. We were able to maintain the standards that Don Carlos had in the past – except of course we did accept people in designer jeans instead of dress clothes – in a sense, a change of standards.

We think our success has come from word of mouth – one guest recommends another guest and that has been tremendous. We have never, throughout our generations, lowered our standards in terms of whom we are and what we are trying to do. We consider ourselves a family hotel.

At any one time, when Don Carlos was here, you could see up to four generations working from Don Carlos to myself to my children to cousins or grandchildren. We were pleased that we had it that way. Since we based this on a four generation hotel, and we spent a lot of time here, we didn’t have any negative feelings about putting money back into the hotel with art work, statues, murals or decorations. We realized we spent time here, so we wanted to have it as enjoyable as possible for ourselves as well as our guests.

Another key thing is that our clientele are special. They seem to do their homework more than most tourists. They came down here with an idea that they are looking for the rain forest like they’re looking to discover Costa Rica – to discover something that used to be in the States in the past. They go to the gift shop, and we see them hugging wood and they told us, “You know you don´t get wood anymore, you only get plastic.” They’d have a love affair with the wood and with the country. They would really enjoy Costa Rica, and we offer them that.

What do you tell your clients about the issue of safety? It is a concern when traveling, especially when someone does not know the language or culture. Crime can be a big worry since tourists carry a lot of cash or valuable equipment.

We have to admit it is a problem that comes up all the time. Naturally we have to try to defend and protect our guests and in doing so, we try to explain to them that whatever can happen to them in downtown Sioux city, Iowa can happen to them in downtown San José.

The problem is often that guests are on vacation so they lower their guards. We have to reinforce the safety issue. We have signs throughout the hotel, for example, that say “Please, do not leave your hand bag sitting on the desk”. We provide safes in all the rooms. Primarily in a sense, saying that it is your responsibility to lock up your items. People feel that they are in paradise and that no one steals in Costa Rica.

Let me explain something, if this country didn’t steal, we would import thieves from Miami to do it. There are people here who are going to steal. We have had to increase our security here to protect our guests. We have a full-time, 24 hour security system that is around the hotel.

Why is that?

It is because of the sophistication of crime. I think it is based on the fact that most of our tourists seem to be a little bit naive. We’ve had guests park a rental car half a block away from the hotel and come inside. One of my security people would tell me the guest left the video camera in the front seat. We would report this to the guest and they´d say, “Oh, I’m only going to be in the gift shop for 5 or 10 minutes.” We tell them it would only take a minute to steal. In other words, we all need to understand that you protect yourself in Sioux City, Iowa but you tend to lower your guard in Costa Rica.

Keep your luggage under observation when you travel around. Don´t park your car and take a walk to the park. First, go to the hotel, check in, put things away and then go back and enjoy yourself as you would anywhere else.

When walking on our streets, remember you are in a downtown metropolitan area, and we tell them again, walk those streets like you are in N.Y. Put your wallet in your front pocket or leave it behind. If you or your wife has jewelry, why do you need to wear it to market area in San José?

Our information is trying to enforce what people already know. But people tend to forget – once they get on a plane and come to Costa Rica, somehow the incidence or threat of crime has been reduced. We haven’t eliminated the occurrence of crime. Sometimes people won’t listen to our warnings. But have had made an effort to help reduce the problem.

We also explain that Costa Rica is a third world nation and even our security people and the police can easily recognize a vehicle that is a rental, so someone can be expected to be pulled over for a violation (rental vehicles are often targets not only for theft but also for traffic violations especially speeding on the highway or document checks such as licenses, passports, or car registration).

The best thing to do is accept the ticket. But sometimes Americans watch too many movies about Mexico and think the best thing to do is to push a five or ten dollar bill in the hand of the officer. Unfortunately, many police officers realize this and if they stand there long enough, they will get 5 or 10 dollars pushed on them. We try to tell our people it is just like it is in the States. If you get pulled over, if you did something wrong, they will give you the violation – accept the ticket, and let it go at that.

You also live close to the hotel. How do you feel about the issue of safety for your family?

I live now only two blocks from the hotel. I used to live further. I chose this new location primarily because it was an ideal location – right next to the zoo. It gave us a tremendous green area on one whole side of my house, and yet I could walk to the hotel at any time.

A hotel is a 24 hour, 7 day a week business, and the fact that I had lived for probably 25 years, maybe only a 5 or 6 minute drive to my house was advantageous. Now however, San José and Costa Rica have grown. I found that getting home during rush hour took a little longer, and I felt a little bit of frustration with the traffic and so I took the opportunity to move closer.

When I had moved, my children had already grown up, so really in a sense what I do is entertain my grandchild in this area. And it is a delight. Again, I am right next to the zoo. I am a block from the cultural area, so I can see all the cultural events. We have two parks within 2 blocks from here. The negative is that being 7 or 8 blocks from the heart of the city – we are in the city – you’ve got to hold on to a child’s hand when crossing the streets. It is not like a small neighborhood in San José or like my old neighborhood growing up. We live in a downtown area. Children can’t go out by themselves.

On the subject of your granddaughter, what do you think are the advantages or disadvantages for a child who is going to grow up in Costa Rica?

When I make the comparison, you have to remember that I have lived in Costa Rica for 32 years. So, I have to go back to the time of when I grew up. When I grew up, there was a neighborhood. You could walk outside your door and hop on your bike and play with the kids across the street and around the corner. In Costa Rica, at least if you live in downtown or the metropolitan, that does not exist. Most people find their social activities in the schools, in the private clubs, things like that.

For me, when my children were growing up it was different because we lived in a private barrio which literally had a neighborhood concept. We knew the neighbors right across the street, and my kids grew up with them. We had block parties, etc. My grandchild – no. She has that when she goes home.

When she visits me, I have to go out and search for a playmate for her. You have to watch for traffic crossing the streets. When you to the park, which is a big park in the city, you have to keep closer eye on your grandchild than you would a regular park. But once again, I am comparing with growing up in the 50´s in the States. Maybe what I am saying is exactly the same in N.Y.C.

You really have roots in Costa Rica. You have family, and you’ve lived here a long time; you own a business, I know you are a patron of the arts. What words of advise, wisdom, caution, or ideas would you give to someone moving to Costa Rica?

Having a hotel, we find out that most tourists have a love affair. They fall in love with the country on their first vacation. It grabs you that quickly. And that is a delight to see. I can guarantee that if someone comes to Costa Rica they are going to have the best vacation of their entire life.

We are a small country with such a change of elevation that on a trip you can do a beach scene, or you can do white water rafting, or you can go and climb volcanoes, and you go to national parks. But that love affair comes so quickly that you have to be careful. I’ve seen people fall in love with the country and they are telephoning back home to a Realtor saying “Sell my house! I´m going to move to Costa Rica!” We try to explain that to them that this is a vacation. You need to return to the country (Costa Rica) at another time, and not stay in a hotel. Go and get an apartment, buy groceries. You’ve got to move with the people and see it.

As an anthropologist, I used to teach a course and I would tell students,” When you grow up in the States, it is like carrying a ball and chain behind you. The older you get, the heavier the ball becomes. It becomes more difficult to make a change to another country.” So when you get older and think, wouldn’t it be fun to live in Costa Rica? It might be.

I brought my mother here years ago. And, when she finally couldn’t take it any longer, I turned to her and asked her what happened? Why did she dislike it here so? She told me that these people don’t even know hot to cut meat properly. I had no idea what she was talking about. She said, “They cut along the muscle lines. They don’t cut along lines like they have in meat shops at home.” I told her that was a cultural difference, and if it meant that much to her I could have find an American butcher down here. In those days, there weren’t places to stop for hamburgers on the side of the road either like she was used to. She missed that.

There are cultural things that you don’t realize how important they were for you and all of sudden become important once you are in a different country. Of course Costa Rica has become much more Americanized and I think now we have those hamburger stands on every corner, and we do cut meat like the Americans do. However, the key point is that you need to live in Costa Rica a little longer than as a tourist – to really understand how it works.

Also, when people actually do make that move they may hit a frustration level – maybe six months or maybe longer. I tell them, listen you made a major investment. You are in Costa Rica. Before you pack your bags and go off again to start in another country – go back home. The reason being is that when you are in Costa Rica long enough, you have forgotten the problems of why you wanted to leave the States in the first place.

You need go back there and review and get in touch with those feelings and thoughts of living in the States (or wherever) and re-understand the reasons why you decided to move to Costa Rica. Sometimes going on a vacation back home makes you come back to Costa Rica and realize how good it was here. It is the old concept of looking across the fence line and believing that the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes it is just as green and already nicer where you are already at.

Lee Weiler has been a resident of Costa Rica for over 30 years.

For more information, please visit the Don Carlos hotel website here.

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Written by Susan Carmichael who is a freelance writer living in Costa Rica. She has developed several education curriculums for children and adults. She has also taught journalism.

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