The ‘Royal Road’ in Atenas, Costa Rica
The ‘Royal Road’ in Atenas, Costa Rica – The Camino de Carretas Traveling through Atenas on Highway 3 near downtown, on the right hand side of the road you will see a small park with a large sculpture of an ox cart and its driver (boyero).
The sculpture is strong and proud with a powerful presence. Other than the obvious, what is the sculpture’s significance? Why does Atenas and other towns in the Central Valley still celebrate the oxcart and their drivers with annual oxcart parades? The sculpture is a nod to a proud heritage and the towns historic past, but how? For an accurate explanation, we need to go back a few hundred years, helping us to understand these unique cultural traditions.
As early as 1640, the Camino Real or the “Royal Road” was the only means of transportation between the countries of Central America. In reality, it was not a road in the sense of what we think of today but more a series of trails and paths.
In Costa Rica, the Camino Real left San Jose and wound its way down to a narrow bridge that crossed the Rio Grande river in Atenas, near the present day train trestle.
From there the Camio continued north, making its way to Guatemala. Durning the 19th century Costa Rica’s coffee boom created an urgency for a new road to be built from the Central Valley to the port at Puntarenas so that the “grano de oro”, as coffee was also know, could be exported to Europe.
In 1843, a cobble stone road was built and inaugurated as the National Highway but the locals preferred referring to it as the Camino de Carretas, or the “Wagon Trail”. The Camino de Carretas, a “super highway” in its day, was wide enough to accommodate two oxen carts at a time.
This important route ran through the middle of Atenas and other small pueblos such as San Mateo, which began to grow and gain importance. Sesteos or boarding houses sprang up along the way to accommodate the boyeros (ox cart drivers) as well as stables to board the oxen and horses.
Supplies of coffee, sugar, matches, candles and liquor were offered for sale to the travelers who made the journey from San Jose to Puntarenas. On an average day, about 700 hundred oxen carts traveled the Camino de Carretas.
The journey was neither easy or short, with rugged terrain and high, narrow mountain passes, often taking 4 to 5 days for the trip from San Jose to Puntarenas and 5 to 6 days for the return trip from Puntarenas to San Jose.
The conditions were not ideal either. It was common for the drivers to travel barefoot with their thread bare clothing clinging to their bodies, heavy from sweat. The tropical sun was strong and created intolerable heat.
Torrential downpours during rainy season left travelers vulnerable to the elements without shelter. The boyeros would often travel from 4 a.m. until about 10 a.m., then take a mid day break to rest, eat, feed and water their oxen.
It was not uncommon for entire families to travel together with the older male children helping their fathers and the mothers and daughters assisting in the cooking and feeding of the animals.
To help maintain peace and enforce the “rules of the road” the government created “cabo-guardas and guarda-caminos” or road rangers. In December of 1874, the official newspaper, The Gazette reported that the road ranger issued 31 fines along the Camino de Carretas, ranging from drunken oxcart drivers, obstruction of the road and abandoned oxcarts.
Because the oxen were well trained and knew the way back home, drunken drivers would often pass out in their oxcarts while the oxen made their way back home.
This lead to the common expression for someone who is in a drunken state that is still used today “se monta en la carreta” or is (to get) in the oxcart, somewhat similar to our expression of “falling off the wagon”.
As time passed by and progress came with new technology in the form of the railroad, the camino de carretas was abandoned and the little towns along the way soon lost some of their importances and became distant memories.
Atenas held on due to its importance as a coffee growing region and the fact that the railroad passed through the town with a depot in Rio Grande. The next time you drive past the Boyero monument on the main highway, you will see it in a different light and know a little more about its meaning.
Also, take the senic 25 minute drive from Atenas to Orotina via Highway 3, and along the way, let your mind wander and think about how this drive would have been 150 years ago, not in a car with a powerful engine and climate control, but in a rustic oxcart pulled by a team of oxen, open to the elements.
If you want to see remnants of the old cobble stone road, take a hike from the neighborhood of Alto del Monte in Atenas down to present day Desmonte and you can see much of the old cobblestone Camion de Carretas still exposed.
The ‘Royal Road’ in Atenas, Costa Rica
Article/Property ID Number 4841
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Andrew Makarik
to@welovecostarica.comAndrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.
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