The traditional form of transportation in Costa Rica is the ox cart. Today's first-day-of-the-month of the month world-wide Daily Photo Theme is "public transportation," so I thought I would post a photo of an ox cart in use.The Eyewitnesss Travel Guide for Costa Rica accurately describes traditional ox carts as "the quintessential symbol of Costa Rica." Costa Rica is proud of its rural tradition of small family farms. Farmers used ox carts on their farms, and many of them would load the ox carts with with large canvas sacks of coffee beans and haul their harvest for days out of the mountains and valleys down to the coast to sell their coffee harvest for export.
In the mid-1800's farmers started painting their oxcarts with elaborate floral designs. I have shown a few of those ox carts in the past, although they are now used for decoration. The town of Sarchi is known as the center for ox cart painting. To see my previous posts of the beautifully painted ox carts, check out this link.
The photo I am showing today is not an artistic ox cart. It is one still in use, although this day its only "cargo" was a small barefoot child. How do I know he was barefoot? Look at the horns of the ox on the right.
This week we are showing photos of the fjords of Norway on our Viva la Voyage daily photo site.
To see how other Daily Photo bloggers have interpreted today's theme of public transportation, Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
