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From 1873 to 1991, San Lucas Island was a penal island for some of the worst criminals in Costa Rica. It was founded by the dictator Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez.  Being sent to San Lucas Island was a terrible prospect as prisoners lives were short and often spent in torture.  The island is located off the Pacific shore of Costa Rica.  It is now a National Park.  Tours of the island are available, such as the one highlighted in the video above.

To understand the rich history of Costa Rica, one needs to know a little about the development of the railway system, mainly obsolete today, but in its time ushered in both prosperity and hardship.  A new book entitled El Correo Ferroviario de Costa Rica, by educator and philatelist Alvaro Castro-Harrigan, chronicles the advent of the railway as a means of mail transportation.  In 1857, the only way folks could expect to receive mail to make it from tiny pueblo to others parts of the country was via horse, burro or by foot, a process that could take months, if it ever arrived at all.  But in 1871 Minor Keith decided to change all that by obtaining the contract to build a railway from Alejuela to Limon, which was completed in 1890.  In 1897 work began to extend the railway to the Pacific Ocean and approximately 100 years ago in July of 1910 that work was completed to give Costa Rica a coast to coast railway system.  The advent of the railway as the major mode of commercial transportation ushered in a boom in the banana plantations and imperialist aspirations of the United Fruit Company.  The recent administrations of both Pacheco and Arias have sought to revive some of that old-time magic by restoring sections of the old railway.  Folks can now catch a free train ride from central San Jose to Heredia or Pavas.  There is also a tourist attraction ride that will take you from San Jose to Puntarenas.  But these days the railway is more of a novelty than a central part of Costa Rican life as it once was.  The book by Castro-Harrigan brings a little of that history back to life.

On the 4th of May in the year 1910, what many citizens of Cartago had feared, due to the many “temblors” or small earthquakes they had been experiencing, happened…the big one!  The earthquake of 1910 measured 6.7 on the Richter Scale and virtually destroyed the city, leaving some 700 dead.  When the event occurred Cartago had a population of 13,000 persons and once had been the colonial capital of Costa Rica.  The reconstruction of the city ensued over the next year, but many “Cartagineses” left the city for other parts of the country.  These are the reflections of a new book with vivid photos of the tragedy entitled Terremoto, by the historian Franco Fernández Esquivel.  The earthquake occurred at the beginning of the administration of President Ricardo Jiménez Oreamuno, one of Costa Rica’s most beloved presidents.  In the process of the reconstruction the city asked permission to the Catholic church to demolish the Iglesia that had been under construction prior to the quake, but the church never gave the permission.  Therefore, still standing today are the “Ruinas de Cartago” one the last remaining vestiges of the 1910 quake that can be seen today.  One of the most noted victims of the quake was the poet Rafael Angel Troyo, who tried to take shelter in a church, but died when a beam fell on top of him and crushed him.  After the quake the people of the city were warned to “sleep in the streets” in fear of replicas that could cause more structural damages to the few buildings that remained standing.  There were many theories as to what triggered the quake, some saying that is was the fault known as Agua Caliente, while others attributed it to the passing of Halley’s Comet.  An interesting anecdote is that of a person known as Pedro Nolasco Gutiérrez, who had predicted the tragedy in the weeks before it occurred.  According to the book by Esquivel, throughout the decade of the 50′s almanacs were published with “predictions of Nolasco,” who was at that time known as the “Nostradamus Costarricense.”

Click for a Site with some great historic photos of the event…..

Check out this really cool ancient map of Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  The map was created in the year 1764 and was featured in the Le Petit Atlas Maritime (Small Maritime Atlas).  At the time of this map both Costa Rica and Nicaragua belonged to the Captaincy General of Guatemala under the dominion of the Spanish Empire.  The map can be found in the new web site known as the World Digital Library  (WDL).  The web site description of this new informative site states, the World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. The principal objectives of the WDL are to:

• Promote international and intercultural understanding;
• Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
• Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
• Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

The site is available in several different languages.  The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

World Digital Library Web Site – English Version

The most important archaeological site in Costa Rica, Monumental Nacional Guayabo, located on the slopes on the Turrialba Volcano, has been recognized as a World Engineering Heritage site. The recognition comes from the U.S. Association of Civil Engineers, one of the most prestigious engineering groups in the world.  The site was chosen for its engineering achievements, specifically for the road, or calle de acceso, and its aqueduct.  These marvels of ancient engineering were completed by the pre-Colombian natives that occupied the land between 700 B.C. and 1,400 A.D.  Olman Vargas, director of the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos de Costa Rica (CFIA), commented in La Nación that the road is amazing due to the fact that the natives included retention walls and also for the gentle slope that they build into the road that adapts well to the conditions of the land.  The ancient aqueduct was the other principal reason the site was recognized, with its tank made of stone and system of distribution, also completely made of stone.  Vargas explained that the honor didn’t simply “fall from the sky” and that the CFIA had fought hard for the site to be recognized.  Hopefully, this will bring more world-wide attention to the site and enable more measures to preserve it in the best of conditions.