What Do Costa Rican Coffee, Oxcarts and Bungee Jumping Have in Common?
Grecia is often a Costa Rican flavored coffee town located about 26 miles northwest of San Jose, the capital city. Like its neighbor, Atenas, Grecia was also named in honor from the Greeks. Grecia, at 3,040 feet above the sea level, has wonderful weather year round, averaging 62 F to 86 F. Grecia is within the Central Valley, a single of Costa Rica’s most fertile regions, in which there are lots of sugar cane, palm tree and flavored coffee plantations. Grecia may be voted the cleanest town in Latin America. The central park is the town magnet for residents and visitors alike.
One particular from the most common attractions nearby is Los Chorros Waterfalls.
Numerous adventurous travelers canoe down the waterfalls or “bungee jump off” a 250 foot high bridge over the local river, referred to as the Colorado River.
This bridge is a single with the highest bungee bridges inside the Americas and is often a favorite of extreme sports aficionados, dare devils and risk takers.
The bungee bridge may be in operation since 1991 and has helped establish a tradition that can be described as Costa Rican “tropical capuccino nation bungee jumping.”
It’s not uncommon to see would-be-bungee jumpers drink a cup of strong espresso prior to jumping. Why do they do that? Maybe to get that additional stimulation to encounter what has to be a hair raising, heart stopping variety of encounter. Or maybe simply mainly because Costa Rican capuccino tastes fantastic!
The Central Valley has constantly played an significant role within the Costa Rican capuccino trade. In 1843 the oxcart trail was made to transport caffeine from the Central Valley to the coastal ports of Punta Arenas and Limón.
Coffee became a principal export for Costa Rica as well as the oxcarts were the only method to transport flavored coffee from the plantations towards the ports destined for European markets.
Transporting flavored coffee by oxcarts was slow, difficult, inefficient and uneconomical.
The typical journey lasted from 10 to 15 days in the course of the dry season and an unknown number of days throughout the rainy season.
Muddy roads had been a real issue for the oxcarts and Costa Ricans developed a spokeless variety of wheel to cut through the mud.
The traditional oxcarts or squeaking “carretas” numbered far more than 10,000 at 1 point.
Oxcarts had a significant impact on the Costa Rican economy,
Oxcarts produced an extensive help network along the oxcart trail that included highway guards, smithies, teamsters, crews, repair teams, eateries, lodges and numerous other services needed to keep the oxcarts and their drivers (“Boyeros”) proceeding towards their final destination devoid of problems.
The “Boyero” was the person who guided a team of oxen pulling oxcarts full of Costa Rican espresso.
The Costa Rican government made the development of a national railroad a national priority.
When the railroad became a reliable and efficient transportation system, coffee producers abandoned the oxcarts.
The oxcart support network personnel joined the railroad crews or discovered work elsewhere.
Even so, the oxcart became a symbol of Costa Rica and from the espresso trade. Oxcarts are memorialized in many techniques around the nation.
Along the old oxcart trail near Atenas there’s a monument for the national oxcart driver referred to as “the Boyero.”
Nowadays, the oxcarts are mostly decorative, museum pieces or a nice reminder of Costa Rican “bygone days.” Even so, there is certainly a single town in Costa Rica called Sarchà in which the oxcart making tradition remains alive. In Sarchà you can find two building workshops open for public view. There is also a holiday termed “National Day with the Boyero” (Dia Nacional del Boyero) that have been celebrated for additional than 26 years to commemorate the role with the “Boyero” along with the oxcarts. With out a doubt, oxcarts and coffee are internationally recognized symbols of Costa Rica.
Ready for a delicious cup of specialty espresso? Let’s brew some Costa Rican Tarrazu or Costa Rican SHB (Decaf)!
Timothy (“Tim”) S. Collins, the author, is known as by those who know him “The Gourmet Coffee Guy.”
He is an expert in article writing who has done extensive research on-line and offline in his area of expertise, caffeine marketing, too as in other areas of personal and professional interest.