Village Rodeo Grounds

Northwest Costa Rica, called Guanacaste, has a long and proud ranching tradition, as I have mentioned previously. In addition to the village cattle chutes that I have shown in the past, some villages have little rodeo grounds.

This is a photo of a typical rodeo grandstand and fencing in a typical Costa Rican village. This is located in a small village east of the town of Nicoya. A few cows graze in the middle of town.

In Guanacast e, there were large cattle ranches or haciendas that evolved from the original Spanish colonial land grants. In the rest of the country, there are generally small family farms, many growing coffee, and large corporate banana plantations. The number one export crop of Costa Rica is not coffee, bananas or beef, but computer chips.

I hope the ranching tradition continues, even as Costa Rica develops its economy. The new President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, has declared that it is her goal for Costa Rica to achieve the status of the first "developed" nation in Central America. Costa Rica is well on its way to achieving that goal.

Please log on to our travel photo site, Viva la Voyage, where we are this week showing photos of the Maasi and Ngorongoro Crater of Tanzania.