Monteverde Cheese

Here are two photos of Monteverde Cheese labels to follow up last week's posts about Monteverde.

Last week, I posted several photos from the Monteverde cloud forest and told the story of the Quakers who moved from the USA to Monteverde in 1951 and produced cheese to support their community. Several readers left comments inquiring about Monteverde Cheese. I therefore went to the supermarket and am posting some photos of Monteverde Cheese labels.

I like the logo. Notice that it shows a cows head emerging from the what could be either the top of a mountain or the body of the cow. The artwork on the label shows the pastures for dairy cows with the Monteverde cloud forest in the background. It looks sort of like a Central American, tropical version of Switzerland.

Costa Rica is known as the "Switzerland of Latin America." That analogy is not intended to refer to mountain cow pastures and cheese, however. The comparison to Switzerland refers to Costa Rica's decision in the late 1940's to abolish its military, which is what caused the Quakers to move to Costa Rica, and to invest the money from its military on education and health care.

Costa Rica has maintained a stable democracy and has avoided the internal or external conflicts that other countries in the region have experienced. With no military, Costa Rica has done just fine relying on police, and the values of the country are reflected by the fact that the country has more teachers than police.