The schedule time of the train from Limon to San José, although only one hundred and three miles, is about seven hours. This is due to the numerous stops made and to the heavy grades up the flanks of the Cordillera.
Our arrival at the capital was signalized by a genuine tropical downpour, such as we had not seen elsewhere during our journey. For a while it seemed to justify the Spanish expression—llover á cántaros—to rain bucketfuls. But the aguacero—the name given these short, heavy rainfalls—was of short duration. It was but one of those daily afternoon showers that characterize the plateau during the winter season—invierno, our summer—which extends from the month of May until the end of November. The dry or summer season—verano—lasts from December until May and is distinguished by absence of rain. The verano is the season of the northeast trade winds, which lose their humidity in crossing the Atlantic Cordillera. The monsoon, which comes from the southwest during the winter, does not encounter on the Pacific side mountains of sufficient height to condense the vapor with which it is charged. Thus it still contains, on its arrival at the central plateau, enough moisture to produce the heavy precipitation just noted.[9]
But notwithstanding these daily aguaceros, one can always count on sunshiny mornings, except during October, which is the wettest month of the year. It scarcely ever rains before two o’clock P. M., and rarely after five o’clock in the evening.
Method of Transporting Freight Between Honda and Bogotá.
We were quite charmed with San José and its hospitable and cultured people. In many respects we thought it the most delightful city we had seen in Latin America—especially for a protracted sojourn. Situated in the smiling valley of the Abra, it is reputed to be the most beautiful city in Central America, while it is the second in extent and the third in population, having about thirty thousand souls. Its altitude is nearly four thousand and seven hundred feet above the level of the sea, and it has a mean annual temperature of 70° F. Foreign residents declare that the climate during the dry season is ideal.
The city counts a number of beautiful churches and public buildings, but the greatest surprise for us was its superb Teatro Nacional. In some of its leading features it is modeled after the Grand Opera House in Paris, and is really a gem of architecture. It cost nearly $1,000,000 in gold, and was paid for by an extra tax on coffee. We have nothing in the United States to compare with it in beauty and artistic finish, especially in the decoration of its sumptuous foyer. In the New World it is surpassed only by the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro and the Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires.
There are many attractive parks adorned with tastefully arranged flowers and trees and monuments that would be a credit to any capital. The monument that appealed most strongly to us was located in the Parque Nacional, and commemorates the campaign of 1856 against the Filibusters led by that daring adventurer from the United States, William Walker. It is also dedicated to the fraternity of the five Central American republics made one in defense of their independence. Let us hope that this is a symbol of the birth in the near future of a new federation of the Central American republics, similar to the one that was established shortly after they had achieved their independence under the name of the Republic of Central America. Such a republic would have fifty per cent more territory than the whole of Great Britain, and, considering all the natural resources it possesses, it would, under a stable and progressive government, soon take an honorable place among the nations of the world.
We visited a number of coffee plantations, as well as orchards and gardens, in the vicinity of San José, and were surprised at the variety and luxuriance of every species of vegetable growth.
But it is to the city market that one must go—especially on Sundays and dies de fiesta—holidays—if one would have an adequate conception of the floral and pomonic riches of this favored land.