The trucks followed the Pan American Highway as it switchbacked up the 11,000-foot Cordillera de Talamanco and descended the far side to the jungles of the Diquis Delta in the country's far southwestern corner. The largest orb weighed eight tons.
Baffled archaeologists can only guess at their origin.
The spheres were discovered when the United Fruit Company cleared the land for expansive banana plantations in the 1940s. One by one, the granite orbs were taken away and installed as yard ornaments for homes and government buildings. Anyone with a truck just took one. Green first inspected the spheres in 1972, shortly after a plantation manager's wife described them at a New York dinner party. Arriving on the site three days after the tractor-trailers unloaded the first eight spheres, Green watched a ragtag local marching band honor their return.