Hole of the month

A long par 3 with a bunker guarding the right side and one behind the green.  Missing it left is not a bad play.  Anywhere on the putting surface should be considered a good shot and a great opportunity to walk away with par.  The green is fairly flat with a false front that will most likely send any shot short to the front collar of the green. Once the main forms of transportation across a mountainous country that depended on agriculture for its survival, oxcarts in Costa Rica today are mostly used for celebrations and are considered a traditional and cultural icon in the country.  The colorfully-painted wooden oxcarts (called carretas in Spanish), with their teams of matched oxen, and their oxcart drivers are recognized around the world. In 2005, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) proclaimed Costa Rica’s vibrantly painted, traditional oxcarts to be an Intangible World Cultural Heritage. Since 1988, the oxcart has been the National Symbol of Labor in Costa Rica.

The Story Behind the Tradition
Originally, Spanish colonizers to Costa Rica brought oxcarts for transportation and farm work. But their original European design of spoked wheels kept getting stuck and breaking in the rugged, muddy Costa Rican terrain. So, during the mid-19th century, a new design based on the indigenous Aztec disc was incorporated into a solid wood wheel bound by a metal ring that could cut through mud without getting stuck. From 1840, oxcarts were used to transport coffee beans, sugar cane, corn, and other goods from Costa Rica’s Central Valley over the mountains to the Pacific Coast port of Puntarenas or the Caribbean port of Limon for export. The journey would take 10 to 20 days crossing jungle-covered mountains, rivers, swamps, and beaches. Now you can drive that same route in a little over an hour to the Pacific and in about two hours to the Caribbean.

World’s largest oxcart in Sarchi, Costa Rica