The most famous painting of the theater is an allegory to the
two most important export products of the country, coffee and bananas. Aleardo Villa ( italian painter ) was
not very familiar with our country, so he made a few technical mistakes that
made the painting funny and unique. The bananas in the bunch are up side down.
The coffee plantations are painted at sea level, what is wrong. The coffee bushes
are too small and the women are typical shobby, very elegant nord italian ladies,
very different from our coffee pickers. The oxen have the yoke on their necks.
Imagine the poor oxen strangled by pulling all that weight. Normally the yoke
is tied up to the horns and head. Although he made some mistakes, it is a nice
painting and was chosen as a motif for our 5 colones bill. The bill is out of
circulation but it can be purchased outside as a collection item.
Carara National Park
Carara National Park
This tour starts early in the morning and includes breakfast. You will drive
through the superb Avocado Mountains to arrive at the Central Pacific lowlands.
You will see beautiful countryside and mountain landscapes. Before arriving at the reserve, the tour will stop at the bridge over the Tarcoles River to see the crocodiles. After this you will have an easy hike around the Carara Reserve for about 2 hours. Your english speaking guide will give you explanations of the natural history and will point out the interesting shy animals to be seen in this forest. If you are lucky, you may see toucans, monkeys, iguanas, coatimundis and sometimes the scarlet macaws! Carara is a very special site because it houses the second most important population of scarlet macaws in the country and also it protects a unique transition forest between dry tropical forest and a wet tropical forest. After this you will have lunch in a nearby town, where you can relax and enjoy the beach for a while. In the afternoon you will come back to San Jose using the same road.
We recommend to take hiking boots, mosquito repellent, sun screen, swimming suits, towel and binoculars. forget.
