Cattle herded on the right side of the road

The cattle finally moved to the right side of the road, so others, including the pedestrian and bicyclist that you see here, can share the road and pass on the left.

If you look carefully on the left side of the street, you will see that there are some villagers chatting with each other where their trailers are parked, and someone has their horse tied up in the street.

Costa Ricans in small towns are proud of their rural, agricultural traditions and some of the them still own livestock even if they have a day job in a larger town. The people in this village, however, likely do not work in the tourism industry because it is about an hour from the Pacific coast resorts. Most probably still earn their living from their family farms.

This is the final installment in my little series of the cattle drive through town, but I will show a few more photos from this village.

I had several questions in the comments yesterday from some of the treasured readers of this blog. To answer Brattcat's question, yes, the cattle are used for meat. Our northwest Pacific region of Costa Rica was divided into large cattle ranches during the Spanish colonial era. To answer Kate's question, yes, these sights are common. I have seen cattle being driven through the middle of Costa Rican villages in the area east of Tamarindo on many occasions, primarily in the late afternoon when it is time for the cows to come home.

We have photos of the holidays in Santa Fe, New Mexico this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.