Day 13: Sarapiquí/San Jose
Highlight of the Day:
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Due to the earthquake last week, today’s schedule had to be modified. We had planned to observe the elfin forest along the trail at Poas Volcano National Park, one of the widest craters in the world.
Instead, we enjoyed the scenic route to the capital city San Jose and visited the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum.
The Pre-Columbian Gold Museum in downtown San Jose is easily the country's best with thousands of different examples of Pre-Colombian gold artifacts.
The pieces in the collection date from 500 BC to 1600 AC, when the new world was discovered by Christopher Columbus and the artifacts range from simple round earrings to intricately worked representations of local animals. Tastefully exhibited with great lighting and clear concise descriptions, the museum opens a window into the past and into lives of those indigenous groups that lived in Costa Rica.
Columbus himself is responsible for naming the country when in 1502, on his forth voyage to the new world, he discovered Costa Rica. In a letter back to the crown he described his meeting local Indians that where adorned with numerous gold ornaments. He went on to describe the different artifacts in detail and conjectures as to the richness of the coast and its people. Sadly, as many a conquistador was to find out later on, Columbus was wrong about the amount of gold to be found in Costa Rica. Because of its scarcity, gold was a very important and highly prized commodity in the lives of the Indians. It was extremely important in their religious ceremonies and in the differentiation between social classes.
Source: http://www.worldheadquarters.com/cr/museums/gold/
We stayed in another “open-air” hotel with no doors and windows and enjoyed are fare-well dinner with our fellow travelers, many of whom had become friends over the last 2 weeks.
More information
Daily Expedition Reports are only provided onboard.San Jose (Wikipedia)