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Capital: San José
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français = texte de 2001 español= texto de 2001 Columbus set foot on the coast near Puerto Limón in 1502 but the Spanish who tried to settle the country were prevented to do so by the jungle, tropical diseases and the Indians until Juan Vásquez de Coronado founded Cartago in the healthier highlands in 1562. Cartago barely survived for the next century and a half before more settlements were established in the fertile central highlands. Heredia was founded in 1717, San José in 1737 and Alajuela in 1782. By that time, European diseases had virtually exterminated the original Indian population. Central America became independent from Spain in 1821. Costa Rica was briefly part of the Mexican Empire, became a member of the United Provinces of Central America and finally acquired independence in 1838. When the American filibuster William Walker and his mercenaries invaded Nicaragua in 1855 Costa Rica's first president Juan Mora Fernández organised a makeshift army of 9000 civilians that defeated Walker at Santa Rosa in Costa Rica and at Rivas in Nicaragua. Growing exports of coffee, thanks to a railroad from San José to Puerto Limón, and of bananas, introduced in 1878, brought prosperity and population growth. Democratic and orderly government was the rule except for the short Tinico dictatorship from 1917 to 1919 and the one year Ferrer junta of 1948. When the junta stepped down, the army was abolished and progressive social programmes which are still in effect, were introduced by the socialist Partido de Liberación Nacional (PLN). The other major party, the moderately conservative Partido de Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), won the last elections in May 1998.
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I lived in this house for a while in November 1992 with an elderly couple who lived in fear of being robbed.
Costa Rica is much more advanced socially than its neighbours but the gap between the rich and poor is still high and it has not yet eliminated the desperate poverty that feeds crime in Latin America.
Then I moved here, in the home of a lady who was not as paranoid but who was nevertheless very careful about locking up her caged home not only at night but during the day as well.
After a couple of weeks I moved in with the Montalto family in the suburbs.
I had four hours of Spanish courses a day in San José's Instituto Universal de Idiomas and made a point of visiting other places on weekends. Here is the old Cathedral of Heredia not far from the capital.
I had a great bunch of classmates from Quebec at the Institute. We went on weekend trips together of which I have good memories. Here are some of us in a restaurant in Quepos near the "Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio" on the west coast where we spent a weekend to see monkeys and other wildlife. (In the usual order, the restaurant owner, Thérese, me, Irma, Gilles and Denise.)
Another weekend trip brought us to the top of Volcán Poás, looking down into the crater.
Near Cartago we visited the country's oldest church in Ujarráras.
We also enjoyed fresh fish in this seaside restaurant in Puerto Viejo on the east coast.
Here is my friend Denise on the beach.
I watched a traditional Costa Rican cowboy parade called "El Tope" with the Montalto family.
Here is a fine pair of draught oxen with a traditional hand painted cart.
A young cowboy on his prancing mount.
The army was abolished in 1949 but Costa Rica has an efficient civil police force. These riders showing the flag belong to the Rural Guard, a part of the police force.
One weekend, Carlos and Gioconda Montalto brought me along on a family picnic where I got to know their relatives. They were the best hosts I had during the two months I spent in San José. Her parents even invited me to share Christmas dinner with them.
Leaving San José, I visited Puntarenas and the Nicoya Peninsula on the west coast...
... visited my friend Ana Lucia in her own house near Santa Cruz...
... and stopped to have a look at Playa Coco on the Guanacaste coast before moving north to Nicaragua in February 1993.
La Cruz is the last town before entering Nicaragua.. Here is a view of the Santa Elena peninsula across the bay.
And a setting sun taken from the same spot.
From the border post of Perlas Blancas I went directly to El Salvador, stopping only in the well guarded Tica Bus compound for one night in in Managua, because travelling was not safe in Nicaragua in 1993.
