Mexico weekly ledger., 1889-07-04
IN CENTRAL AMERICA.
Some of the Hardships Experienced
Travellers In Costa Rica.

some OF the HarNShlpS experienced Dy
Travellers in Costa Rica.
Thousands of ox-carts are still employed
between the towns of Ezparza and Alajuela,
the termini of the Costa Rica railway, car
rving freight over the mountains, and it u.s.
u.lIy takes week for them to make the jour-
ney of thirty-fve miles, often longer, for on
religious festivals. which occur with sur
prising frequency, all the transportation
business is suspended. A traveller who in
tends to take a steamer at Punta Arenas
must send his baggage on a week in ad-
vance He leaves the train at Alajuela,
mounts mule, rides over the mountain b
the town of Atenas, where he spends the
night. The next morning at daybreak be
resumes his journey aud rides fifteen miles
to San Mateo, breakfasts at eleven, takes
his siesta in a hammock until four or five IN
the afternoon, then mounting his mule
again, covers the ten miles to ESparZa by
sunset, where he dimes and spends the
night, usually remaining there, to avoid the
I heat of Punta Arenas, until few hours be-
fore the steamer leaves; and then, if the OK
carts have come with his baggage, makes
the rest of his trip by rail-
The journey is not an unpleasant one.
The scenery is wild and picturesque. The
roads are usually good, except in the dry
after heavy rains, when the mud is deep.
But under the tropic sun and in the dry ali
moisture evaporates rapidly, and in six
hours after a rainfall the roads are hard
and good. The uncertainty as to whether
| his trunks will arrive in time makes the
| inexperienced traveller nervous. The
| Costa-Riean cartmen are the most ire
| sponsibie and Indifferent beings on earth
| They travel in long caravans or process
| sions, often with two or three hundred
| teams in line. When one chooses to stop
| or meets with an accident, all the res,
| wait for him if it wastes week. None
| will start until each of his companions il
| ready, and sometimes the road is blocked
| for miles, awaiting the repair of some
damage. The oxen are large white patien
beasts, and are yoked by the horns, ani
| not by the neck, as in modern style, lash
ings Of raw cowhide being used to max,
them fast. They wear the yokes con
tinually. The union is as permanent
ss matrimony in a land WHARF divorc,
laws are unknown. The cartmen ar
ss courteous as they are Indifferent. The,
always lift their hats to q ea5allsro as h
| passes them, and say: MAY the Virgin
guard You on your journeym Thousand
| Of dollars in gold are often intrusted t
them, and never was penny lost. !
banker Of San Jose told me that he usual
received $4,000 in coin each week durin
coffee season by these ox-carts. and consii
cred 1t safer than If he carried it himsel,
although the caravan stands in the ope
| air by the roadside every night Highwa
robbery is unknown, and the eartmen, wit
their wages of thirty cents a day, would NJ
know what use to make of the money
they should steal it. Nevertheless they .
ways feel at liberty to rob the traveller I
the straps on his trunks, and no piece {
baggage ever arrives at its destination G
protected unless the strap is securel
nailed; and then il is usually cut to piece
by the cartanen Is revenge for being d
priyed of what they considered their pc
II Quisite.-W 4 GsstiA n Hkss~'s Aegazia