The colorful oxcart is being guided by the 'boyero' !

Our house, a very modest project from the beginning, is surrounded by spectacular views, which more than compensate for our lack of material luxuries. Our property is located on a small rural patch of land next to winding, extremely narrow and steep country road. The little road begins snaking its way upward until it just cannot go any further.

Facing north, we are privileged to have the green-blue mountains of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, covered most of the time by a dense veil of mist and clouds in the cold, rainy afternoons of winter but always bright and sunny in the summer.

Behind us, on the south side, one can see the perennial blue outline of the mountain range that cradles the Central Valley, known as the Meseta Central. The valley or meseta is an elevated plateau with heights that begin at 900 and rise to around 1,800 meters. Thanks to the constant volcanic activity from the great volcanoes, the soil has been nourished with ashes and sediments invaluable for the continuous agricultural productivity the whole region has enjoyed since colonial times.

There are only a handful of houses alongside our road and the few automobiles that pass by are forced to switch to a lower gear in order to climb the steepest of the hills. It is here, in some of these solitary rural roads, where like a vision from the past slowly inching its way to its destination, one can still see the traditional Costa Rican Oxcart. The Costa Rican Oxcart is not just a very old form of transportation used in this country for centuries but unquestionably, is now a living legend.

As this old oxcart passes me by, I can hear the dull, heavy sound produced by the pounding of the iron-rimmed wood wheels of the oxcart against the road. The colorful oxcart is being guided by the 'boyero,' the man that prods the oxen to move forward and the one who always keeps an attentive eye on the heavy loads he carries behind him. Use of the oxcart goes back to the Eighteenth Century in this country. It was used by peasants to help them plow their lands and fields., therefore the 'carreta de bueyes,' our traditional oxcart, is as familiar to Costa Ricans as 'gallo pinto,' the delicious mix of rice and beans eaten by 'Ticos' for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

An oxcart that has been destined for pulling loads is never complete without a couple of handsome, strong oxen, especially chosen for very demanding physical tasks. Oxen are neutered in order to turn them into strong creatures of toil. They are trained to work in the fields and to carry heavy loads for the rest of their lives. A 'yunta' of oxen is formed by pairing two oxen chosen not necessarily from the same breed but for their similarity in color and size. Matching both animals' color is important for esthetics but a similar size is more important to balance weight and pulling capacity. When oxen are assembled for work, they are joined with a curved wooden piece called a 'yugo.' The yugo, or yoke is usually nicely handcrafted and painted to match the color of the oxcart. It is placed over the heads of the animals by a large leather belt and fastened around their horns and foreheads to keep the animals together. Aligned in this manner, side by side, the oxen are then prepared for the arduous task of helping farmers in agricultural chores and for transporting goods.

The brightly painted oxcart and its boyero is a tradition believed to be exclusive of Costa Rica; a tradition that had resisted the passage of time but that unfortunately is quickly disappearing. Since the eighteenth century, many of this country's crops such as bananas, sugarcane, cacao, fresh vegetables, wood and charcoal, used for cooking in those years, were all taken from the fields to the main city markets. But of all the products transported by oxcart, it was coffee, known by many in this country as the 'grain of gold' the one that became the oxcarts most precious cargo. Coffee alone placed this country among one of the most economically prosperous in Central America. Drinking coffee became a very popular custom in Europe, very much appreciated by the high-class society. As coffee demand grew, oxcarts were filled to the rim with burlap sacks of the precious bean and slowly rumbled their way to cargo ships waiting in the ports.

To be able to deliver coffee to ships at the turn of the century, long, painstaking journeys from the Central Valley to the Pacific Port of Puntarenas were made by the boyeros and their oxcarts. The boyeros of yesterday guided their oxen barefoot. It was customary in those years to see long processions of barefoot boyeros being followed silently by their oxen pulling their heavy cartloads along the hazardous 100-kilometer dirt trail from the capital to Puntarenas. Both the animals and the boyeros´ feet moving in constant communion with the rough, moist earth.

There isn't a lot of difference between a typical Costa Rican boyero of yesterday and the modern one who still works the land and transports goods. The small canvas hat, or 'chonete,' was worn as a shield against the strong Costa Rica sun and it is still worn by men in rural areas. This small campesino hat is now a very popular souvenir. In the old times, boyeros wore a blue denim apron down to their knees to keep their clothes neat and they never forgot to bring along their trusted machete. Most modern boyeros do not wear an apron anymore but the very useful machete continues to be their primary helper in most of the chores they perform.

Oxen always had Mr. Arce´s utmost respect !

Boyeros are men of few words. They regularly prod the oxen by poking them with a 'chuzo,' a pointed wooden shaft used to instill a small amount of discomfort in the thick skin of the animals to make them obey. Despite this brusque prodding, a boyero mostly talks to them using soft, short words and some unique utterances such as 'buey!' 'eche!' to make them move or come to a stop. Even though oxen can seem very ferocious with their ominous looking horns, they are really docile, good-natured animals. If they need to be harnessed for example, they know to stay very still; they almost never protest their masters' wishes or handling of them.

Víctor Manuel Arce, a long time resident of San Isidro, slender and small built, but amazingly young looking for his 74 years of age, always knew he was going to be a boyero. When he was a little boy his favorite pastime was playing with two young calves, aligning them with a tree branch he had found in his yard and then pretended that the animals were baby oxen. Oxen always had Mr. Arce´s utmost respect. Truly enamored of his chosen occupation, Mr. Arce said he believed oxen had a better work ethic and keener compassion than most people he knew did. He told me that when loads prove too heavy for oxen, rather than quit, they perform an almost supernatural show of strength. They assume a curious and self-sacrificing posture: Almost as if praying, the two animals kneel at the same time to balance their load and to obtain stability. In this manner, they continue to pull and to crawl on the knees, inch by inch, until they judge they can stand up again.

The boyero needs to be prepared to face adversity at all times. A heavy wheel might become loose from its axle leaving the oxcart in a precarious situation; the weight of the load can turn on its side spilling the contents everywhere. Patience therefore is a virtue much needed by both boyeros and oxen alike. When Mr. Arce was a child, there were almost no automobiles and boyeros were not as exposed to car accidents as they are nowadays. Today, boyeros have to teach oxen to take the right side of the road to avoid mishaps with other vehicles.

In the worse of cases, boyeros can get involved in deadly automobile accidents. Careless drivers get pretty impatient when they get behind a slow moving oxcart. Mr. Arce was a victim of this impatience not too long ago. A negligent driver rammed against the rear of his oxcart killing him on impact. At the time of his unfortunate death, he was a strong, happy man, utterly grateful with his faithful companions until the very end.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Víctor Manuel Arce, farmer and boyero from San Isidro de Heredia. Ana is a native Costarrican who has lived in the USA for 20 years, and has now moved back to Costa Rica full time, along with her husband, Steve Brown.

© El Residente ARCR Administración S.A. San José, Costa Rica N.B. Like all information on the internet, this article may currently be incorrect or out of date.