Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Village square, soccer field & cattle chute

This is the town square, or football field, of Villareal, which I also showed yesterday. You can see the same Catholic Church in the background. In the foreground is a cattle chute.

This illustrates the ranching tradition of the area, as many villages in the northwestern region of Costa Rica, called Guanacaste, have cattle chutes for farmers and ranchers to be able to load their livestock onto trucks to take them to market.

You can also tell by the condition of this cattle chute and the height of the grass around it that it is not used very much anymore. The main industry in the area is now tourism and the services for the tourism industry, rather than cattle.

Our photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week are some underwater close-up photos that I took of the inside of iridescent clams in Aitutaki, in the Cook Islands of the South Pacific. If you have not seen them, I respectfully submit that it is worth a visit, as they are unique.

7 comments:

brattcat said...

Is it sturdier than it looks?

Sharon said...

Very utilitarian places!

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

Brattcat,
I do not think it is sturdier than it looks. The height of the grass and the weathered condition of the wood reflects that this is not used anymore. If it is still used at all, I would guess that a rancher would lead a cow through while on a rope and they would probably put some stronger boards down on the ramp for the cow to walk up into a truck, as I doubt that these boards would hold the weight of a cow any longer.

Kate said...

The cattle chute looks well-worn, and I take your word for it that it is sturdy. I got a big laugh re. your comments on my canoe post this morning.

Walter Helena Photography said...

I love photos of ruins; thank you for sharing!

If you’d like, please stop by my blog for a chance to win a fine art photographic giclee print...by me :)

glenda said...

Even though it's not in use at this time it has a sort of rustic appeal.

Julie ScottsdaleDailyPhoto.com said...

I like this photo, very local and serene

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