Boruca, Costa Rica 1977 UofALa

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Boruca, Costa Rica 1977 CR #5

Tracks of the StoneBear Copyright MCMLXIII Uncle Hargus ALL Rights reserved

ROF= Ring of fire Odyssey  MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus 

CR #5    StoneBearTracks  1977 UofAla independent study

Boruca, Costa Rica

In the deep jungles of Latin America

In search of the lost tribe of The Boruca Indians

Not only did we find them, I have pictures

And they will be coming in time as they have to be converted from Kodachrome slides... to digital.

But for now.... there is a painting. Artist Richard Brough was there w/ us and gave me this painting as a gift. It is one of the few treasures kept through the years.

We started out from San Jose at dawn. The day before we rented a jeep to take the drive down the Pan American highway, exit and drive miles on dirt roads to find the Boruca village. The Boruca Indians were one of the last spoken pre-columbian language dialects in Latin America. This was one of Susan's term paper studies. When I say we went, the We was Dr Brough ,...  he rented the jeep for $45 a day,... because he was the only one that had a credit card; the rest of us were poor students but chipped in. The other students were Susan, Alfredo Gutterrez whose translation was great. and me, Whit to take pix... and I did take a couple of rolls of film and gave them to Susan... they are probably long gone so these slides are what's left.

Alfredo Gutterrez was a really good guy and friend.

Renting a 4 wheel drive jeep in San Jose. $45 a day in 1977.

This is a rock escarpment on the Pan American highway. I thought the Pan American highway was this grand road from the southern tip of Argentina to the north shore of Alaska... following the Andes mountains up through the Rockies.  ... and it is... but it's just a 2 lane paved road on this stretch in Costa Rica. Compared to the other roads in Costa Rica,... This IS like an interstate quality road.

 I was expecting like interstate quality & fuel stops & stores along the way.  They don't call it the Latin American/ Costa Rican jungle for nothing.  5 miles outside of San Jose; we were on our own.

An overlook in the Andes mountains. The white dots in the pasture in the center are white brhama cattle grazing on a Tico finca/ ranch.

This ox cart may be from a different day but we saw several of these on this trip and passed by too quick to photo.

This pic was taken from the Pan American hwy and is overlooking a part of the Andes mtns chain.



This is about the last civilization we saw before we went another 20+ miles on paved road, then turned right and went about 10 to 15 miles up mountains and down valleys and finally got to the small primitive village of Boruca, Costa Rica.

This is the turn off road from civilization/ pavement... we left civilization way back/ a few hours ago. it's like about 10-10;30 now. This road... if you could call it a road was so bad,... huge ruts, bumpy, potholes the size of a truck. Mud holes with standing water that we didn't know if they were 2 feet deep. We almost got stuck a more than a couple of times. Alfredo drove this part. It was so rough and bumpy that the jeep quit/ broke down at one point. No gas pedal... it went to the floor,... engine still idling. I looked under the hood and with some degree of mechanical knowledge figured out that the linkage to the carburetor had come loose. I hooked it back up and bent the bracket over so it wouldn't- hopefully - wouldn't slip out again.

We walked around this Boruca village and talked to a dozen + people for a couple hours... about 11;30 to 1;30. Alfredo translated Spanish for us. These were all a small framed indigenous people... about 5'5" for most, 110 ~ 120 lbs. Very brown skin, very weathered. One lady looked like an old 70 year old grandmother type; she was 40. Life out here was primitive and basic.  Most huts were built of vertical sticks/ 2" poles with a thatched / banana leaf roof.  Dirt floors. open doorway. A wood fire in a 2' rock fire ring cooking rice in a modern metal pot over and open flame/ coals fire. Smoke drifted up and out the hut. Chickens wandered into and out of the hut at will. Most huts had a hammock for sleep; I'm sure to be up off the dirt floor w/ bugs and critters.

There was a community building of masonry construction ~ 30 years old. It seemed mostly unused and in poor condition.  Maybe it was the municipal complex. There seemed to be no government organization. This village was just on its own, isolated from civilization, as quiet as it was centuries earlier.

This was maybe somewhere between 3rd and 4th world. Not a lot of contact with the outside Costa Rican society.  No loin cloths but mostly old shorts and t-shirts; bare feet.  A lady that seemed a little more mainstreamed was telling us that the women couldn't understand / translate modern things like understanding medicine... ie... the women couldn't understand to take birth control pills... count 21 days; refrain for 7 days no pill.  But they understood tribal custom.... ie... If you instructed the tribal people to take medicine... like explain that every morning when the rooster crows, you take this pill and throw a rock out the window in the direction of the sun... they would do that. This Boruca village was somewhere stuck back in time.

Some of The Boruca Indians did not want their picture taken. Dr Brough was making sketches on his artists pad. He tore out a page of his pad and gave it to a Boruca lady of her hut - her home- and it seemed to break the ice. She talked to us and was not afraid after seeing the sketch. I wish I could look at Dr Broughs sketch pad from this trip.

Hours later coming back out from Boruca on this same hell road/ excuse for a road... about 2- 2;30 we're into the afternoon jungle rain. Mountain fog has set in on the hilltops. The windshield wipers quit. You can't see the end of the jeep in these jungle showers. I get down into the drivers side floorboard and find the fuse box. There is a fuse burned out. I asked for a stick of chewing gum... and it came forth. Gave Alfredo the gum and I wrapped the foil coated gum wrapper around the fuse; IT Worked ! Wipers back on and we were headed back out of the Costa Rican Jungle... that was a really good feeling to be heading back to civilization.

Yeahhhh !!! we're back on our way and it was a real cheer 'cause there was NOBODY for miles to come fix this thing. I don't think there was a tow truck but back in San Jose. ... and incidentally , you see abandon cars all over the place,.... on the side of the road with jungle grown up through them years ago and the bodies rusted out and tires rotted; this is the 3rd world. ... maybe 4th world.

The slide color is tinted green and turned but believe me this was the greenest jungle I've ever seen. on the outskirts of the village... this was one of the newer modern structures. Below the red dirt bank you can see some of the local guys working in in some type of corral / fenced pen.

This oxcart was used for local work and not painted with the traditional Costa Rican bright colors and patterns.  Notice the primitive oven. This oven pic may be from another village; I don't have all the film negatives taken that day.

Several huts/ homes/ properties in the Boruca Village had primitive baking ovens and they were all operable. These ovens have been used for millennia... since time began for people to cook. This oven had a covered roof to preserve the clay? oven.

On the way back, somewhere heading north on the Pan American highway we stopped at this place.... a Costa Rican truck-stop. Very 3rd world... we were glad there was something to stop at. It's like 4:30+ now getting on towards late afternoon... not dusk but there is still a long way to get back to San Jose and this was like only 2 places to stop. Notice this is 4 wheel drive jeep country.... and these aren't cool sport drivers; you need a rugged 4wd vehicle to get around in these rugged jungles.

Inside was a cafe, store, butcher shop.. right beside the barber chair. The food was original Costa Rican casada plate; the blue plate special. A piece of some type of meat, greasy rice, re-fried beans, and some pan-  fresh bread. We got back to San Jose about 6~7 dusk, worn out tired, but what a journey to see this.

 When back at UofAla in Tuscaloosa, Dr Brough gave me the watercolor painting above as a gift. Notice the green of the jungle, dirt road leading down into Boruca. That was Susan and me walking on the road.  He said it was payment for me fixing the jeep; that painting is one of my prized possessions. Dr Brough really was a real artist! He had to have been 60 when we made this journey; he was a real trooper!

You never drink twice from the same stream.

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