Museo
de Jade and Museo Nacional
We
spent a day touring the museums in San Jose, and very much enjoyed
the art work of the indigenous population here in Costa Rica.
These
carvings show shamans getting baked out of their gourds so that they
can reach a higher level of consciousness (try using that line next
time you get pulled). Their pipes have two openings to smoke
through... one for each nostril! Ouch!
The
'table' below would have been used for grinding starches such as
corn and yucca. The more money you had, the mo' better mesa
you could buy. The examples in the museums were the types that
Bill Gates would buy (muy rico), and therefore, didn't see a lot of
action.
Interestingly,
each one is completely carved from one big mutha' of a volcanic
rock.
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Shamans
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| The hard way to
smoke the funny stuff... each prong goes in a nostril
for a good hard toke. |
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| Ornamental
Mesa |
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| There were many examples
of vases with rain forest animals/gods like this one. They
varied in motif and depiction, but many of them shared the form of 4
limbs and a head extending from the vase itself. There's a
hole in the mouth, so, I suppose, one could pour water or wine by
simply tipping the vase. |
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|
Jaguar Vase |
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| Pimped out in
solid gold, baby... |
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I'm not
sure if this statue had specific meaning, or if it's merely meant to
show the gold ornamentation that earned Costa Rica its
name.
The story goes that Christopher
Columbus landed on the east coast (what is now called Puerto Limon)
in 1502, and was treated with kindness. He noted that some of
the natives wore gold, and hence dubbed the area Costa Rica (the
Rich Cost).
When the Spaniards returned 4 years
later to colonize it, they were not met with the same friendliness.
Speculation has it that the natives were now aware of the deadly
diseases that Europeans brought with them, and thus made it
considerably more difficult for the visiting conquistadors to their
jobs. There weren't many 'Indians' (as good ole' Chris was fond of
mistakenly calling the indigenous peoples of the Americas), and they
were quickly over run.
| In other news,
the Spaniards found these huge, perfectly round spheres of
solid granite and volcanic rock throughout Costa Rica.
There is still much confusion over their purpose, and better
yet, how they were made with such precision, given the types
of tools they would have been working with at the time.
My personal opinion on the topic is that this all goes to show
you how incredibly bored we must have been before the advent
of Super Mario Brothers and MTV.
|
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| Mysterious
granite spheres |
|
Museo
Nacional
| The
national museum in San Jose was once the headquarters for the Costa
Rican military (which now no longer exists). I promise to our
good readers that I took many, many shots of the museum, some of
which you saw above, but, honestly, many of them didn't turn out.
You can imagine my delight... I
mean disgust... when we found this picture of Bernie and I trying
out the historically significant and fully accurate johns.
All I can say is that you have to
really like and trust your buddy to answer nature's call in such
close proximity. I was grossed out just watching Bernie fake
it. |
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When in Costa Rica.... |
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