Jason and I arrived in Costa Rica a few days before the rest of our group did which gave us some time to go explore things that weren’t on our regularly scheduled tour.  Since I, as usual, completely failed at planning anything interesting before we arrived, we booked an easy day tour of San Jose through the hotel.  I wanted to explore the city, but didn’t necessarily just want to jump in a taxi and hope I remembered enough Spanish to get us there and back again.  So this double decker tour bus sounded like a legit option!  Our first stop was at the big national soccer stadium.  I don’t play soccer or any sport really so its importance may have been lost on me a little bit.  This was actually the second time I’ve been on the field in a professional soccer stadium, which is fairly ironic.  The guide informed us that the shape of the field and roof was meant to resemble a giant coffee bean from the air and that the stadium itself was financed by the Chinese.  It was apparently completed in 2011, so it’s not even that old of a building.  The Internet informs me that the Chinese built the stadium in exchange for Costa Rica severing its ties with Taiwan, making China their new second largest trading partner.  Interesting how sports can impact finance and foreign policy.