Ox-carts used to rule the Puntarenas highway and Costa Rican drivers had a more relaxed attitude to the meaning of life
After a very enjoyable time journeying all around the rural central highlands and Pacific coast side of Costa Rica in our minimalistically budget rent-a-car we drove back to the centre of San Jose and the Dollar rental car company on Paseo Colon only to find the way barred by a reminder of bygone transport times in Costa Rica.
The festival of the ox-cart parade is almost exclusively homage to a very ecological transportation method of yesteryear. In observance of the importance of agriculture to the country and hopefully also at least as a passing salute to the ecological urges of today, Costa Rica reveres its oh so sublime method of transporting goods in the past. In the 19th century yoked oxen pulling a cart loaded with coffee bound for export to the wealthier markets of Europe and north America was the means by which the Costa Rican farmer got his produce out of the Central Valley to the main Pacific coast export outlet of Puntarenas.
These ox-carts were first introduced in the 1840s, taking over from the presumably less yokable mule, and lasted through to the middle of the 20th century although coffee was increasingly transported via the Atlantic-bound railway towards the turn of the century. The railway offered the coffee industry a huge double gain. Not only was the previous 10-15 day ox-cart journey reduced to one but incredibly the Atlantic outlet at the port of Limon circumvented the need to take coffee all around the Cape of Good Hope to markets in the northern hemisphere.
The colourful pageantry of the festival of the ox-cart parade follows along the central Paseo Colon from Sabana park of San Jose every November 29th.
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