Costa Rica  Summer 1977

 University of Alabama students somewhere in the Andes between San Jose and Quepos.

I think the bus driver had to fix something, or possibly wait for the cattle to move out of the road. Those are the Andes mtns in the background. Will work on the color balance as the cyan has obviously cured very strong after 36 years; these are direct positive slides. No wonder why Kodak went bancrupt. Just glad I even have these and can convert from slides to digital. more coming as time allows.

 This was one of the few group pix taken and there are some students not in the pic. All these students were doing their own independent studies during the summer and scattered all over Costa Rica.  Will try to remember the names... and add names as possible. In 1977 Costa Rica was still pristene Latin America. We went all over Costa Rica without any bad incedent.  Glad we got to see this before the drugs and crime got bad. ... and before the Contras in Nicuragua. There are other students not pictured here & will put them in future posts.

L to R: a tico kid sitting, tico in cowboy hat, Al, Alfredo Gutterrez, Becky from Mobile, Jody?, Steve Hough standing behind another Steve w/ beard and camera case, Dr. Selwyn Hollingsworth standing sideways, lady student 1?, lady student 2 ?Jan?, Bill? "Wolf" sitting, ?Louise? behind person on end in jeans.

Not pictured here; Dan Flynn, Toby?law school Toby?, Dr Richard Brough and wife ?Hazel?, Dr Edward Mosely, and there was another senior couple from ?Hattiesburg, Courtney "Coco" Glass was with us a few weeks then went on to Mexico for independent study. Bear w/ me for not remembering a name, this was 1977. 

Alfredo Gutterrez was a Guatemalan student at Uof A on the trip doing course work study and was our interpreter many times.... and kept a bunch of gringo students from being out-haggled/ hustled many times. This was taking a sip out of a Havoline oil can of the sugar refinery juice product during processing.

Typical San Jose food vendor cart ... pineapples, probably picked that morning tasted great! And they cost a dime.

Humberto Montealegre - a UofAla alumni had the students to his ranch/ farm/ dairy outside of Cartago for a cookout. and Whit 

Bolsa 1977

Costa Rica 1977     independent study   Uof Ala

The Bolsa Nacional de Valores

While on this journey into Latin America I went to downtown San Jose to a plain looking glass window storefront to the Cost Rican Bolsa; The Costa Rica Stock Exchange. The Bolsa Nacional de Valores , translated "Bag of Money".

The picture here is from the mezanine overlook of the "Bolsa" ... the "Bag of Money" stock exchange. 

 There was a chalk board... "Tote Board" up on a wall... some clear glass windows onto the street.

About 15 companies stock were quoted as to the last sale of stock by the dozen stockbrokers congregated around a circular trading post in the middle of the room. The left side wall in this 30'x30' room is a bank of phone booths. The brokers standing around waiting for order looked like well to do businessmen.

I remember a couple of the companies... the Costa Rican cement manufacturing company... a few more companies stock quoted for buy/ sale. ReCope - Re-co-pay- was an oil/ energy co-op and I'd see the refinery storage tanks while riding the bus between Cartago and San Jose; they may have been a co-op. There were a lot of small co-ops in Costa Rica as most operations were small mom and pop business without the assets to raise significant capital, or pledge collateral for large loans.

I wanted to buy a share of stock of something... so I could have a stake in Costa Rica. The stockbroker I talked with was nice but said a one share stock purchase was too much paperwork to justify.

I talked with a real debonier guy.... a real slick looking high European Costa Rican, dressed in a tailored suit guy ... ?Deago? He was a real King Rat of Costa Rica in his $1,000 dollar suit while peasants walked on the street in front of the building. There were middle class too; he projected his European aristocracy above them equaly. What I remember mostly of this guy was this; a sunny place for shady characters.

I remember after talking with this guy that I had the urge to go take a shower and wash off the sleaze; he was that arrogant and vain. I talked with a couple of ex-pats that said they had heard that some friends investments somehow just didn't work out and there was nothing they could do to recover their money. A decade later I got some mailing list junk mail about an investment conference in Orlando. The topic on protecting wealth "Tax Shelters in Costa Rica" and there was his picture. I suspect there were some tax dodging con games going on that would blindside the gullible investor.

There were agricultural commodities produced ie... coffee, bananas, coaco, palm oil, sugar... primary agrarian culture with some light to medium manufacturing in a few places. Tourism was a major industry and almost every business and individual would gladly accept US dollars and offer a premium trade over the official 8.54:1 dollar.

But I actually got to see and stand on the floor of the Costa Rican Bolsa in 1977. A good day!