Parque Morazan in downtown San Jose, where the city´s sex workers congregate at night

Unless you´re a dirty old North American man in search of a cheap, underage Latina prostitute, there´s no real reason to pass through Costa Rica´s frenetic capital city.

¨But,¨ I hear you cry, ¨It´s the closest city to the airport and I´ll need to stay there the night I fly into Costa Rica and the night before I fly out.¨

Wrong! Alajuela, Costa Rica´s second largest city (but with a population of 185,000 people it feels more like a large town), lies just 3km from Juan Santamaria international airport – a mere $3 taxi ride away. While it´s just as ugly, noisy and grimy as San Jose, at least there´s far less of it to hate, and that, dear readers, is why we love it.