2017 World of Words Tour: #2 PIRATES OF COSTA RICA
2017 LOGS #2
PIRATES OF THE COSTA RICAN CARIBBEAN
Unfortunately
your correspondent only visited Costa Rica for a few days, consequently seeing
and understanding very little of a country which is not a ‘top of mind’
aspirational destination among many of today’s travellers except for genuine
eco-freaks, or those who pass for hippies these days, or who are leaving some
illegal activity and passing through on their way to another illegal activity.
Way down the list are those who’ll take on the journey to Costa Rica to visit a
family member, only to have their preconceptions of the country mashed like a
soft banana.
I do
know that Costa Rica shares a common border with Panama, which is somewhere in
Central America. That means it’s in close proximity to the Canal itself, an area
with a climate so evil that it took the lives of 22,000 canal constructors in
the 1800’s. The Canal concept brought out the stupidity and greed in investors,
Emperors, Popes and Kings alike,,.and attracted the worst kind of piratical
behaviour.
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| There it is, on the right: Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast |
Given the strategic location
of Costa Rica and Panama and the potential offered by its narrow isthmus
separating two great oceans, trade routes in the area were attempted over the centuries.
The ill-fated Darien Scheme was launched in 1698 by the Kingdom of
Scotland of all places to set up an overland trade route. Inhospitable
conditions thwarted this effort and it was abandoned in April 1700.
According to the New York Daily Tribune,
on August 24, 1843 a contract was entered into by Barings of London and
the Republic of New Granada for the construction of a canal across
the Isthmus of Darien (Isthmus of Panama). ‘The Atlantic and Pacific Canal’
was a wholly British endeavour. It was expected to be built in five years, but
was never carried out. Soon other proposals arose, including a canal and/or
railroad across Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nothing came of that plan either. In
1846 a treaty between the U.S. and New Granada granted the United
States transit rights and the right to intervene militarily in the isthmus. In
1849, the discovery of gold in California created demand for a crossing between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and The Panama Railway was built by the
United States to cross the isthmus. It opened in 1855 and not only become a
vital trade link it largely determined the later canal route.
An all-Canal route between the oceans remained the
ideal, and in 1855 William Kennish, a Manx
-born engineer working for the US government, surveyed and published a report
titled The Practicality and Importance of a Ship Canal to Connect the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However
in 1877 French Navy officer Armand Reclus, and Lucien Napoléon Bonaparte Wyse, both engineers, surveyed the
route and published a French proposal for a canal. French success in
building the Suez Canal inspired the planning for this new Canal in
Central America.
The
first attempt to construct a canal through Colombia's province of Panama began on 1 January 1881. The project
was headed by the diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, who raised
considerable finance in France as a result of
the huge profits generated by his successful construction of the Suez Canal. Although the Panama Canal would be only 40% as long as
the Suez Canal, the Central American location would prove to be far more of an
engineering challenge, due to the tropical rain forests, the climate, the need
for canal locks, and the lack of any ancient established route to follow.
Excavator at work, in Bas Obispo, 1886
De Lesseps wanted a sea-level canal (like Suez) but
only visited the site a few times during the dry season - which lasts only four
months of the year. He missed – or ignored - the obvious and his men were
totally unprepared for the rainy season, during which the Chagres River,
where the canal started, became a raging torrent, rising up to 35 feet (10 m).
The dense jungle, always alive with venomous snakes, insects and spiders, was a
deadly miasma of yellow fever, malaria and other tropical diseases which killed
thousands of workers: by 1884 the death rate was over 200 per month. Public
health measures were ineffective because the role of the mosquito as a disease carrier was then unknown. Conditions
were downplayed in France to avoid recruitment problems, and the high mortality
rate made it difficult to maintain an experienced workforce.
Meanwhile, up here in
2017…
Costa Rica’s capital is much the same as every
other second-world tropical city, and looks a bit like a Pizza dropped into the
jungle. San Jose’s roofs glow rusty brown against the green of the trees and
the undergrowth. The ring of mountains around the edge of the Pizza are
spectacularly jungle-covered and no doubt conceal fabulous beasts. The ‘fingers’
sticking upward from the Frisbee-flat ‘Pizza Plain of Rusty Roofs’ are
apartment buildings, which seem out of place given there is little industry, or
at least another industry besides apartment building. The city doesn’t seem to
have a centre and if there once was a CBD it has been demolished and
cannibalised for apartment materials.
The rough-shod streets are chaotic with traffic
rushing aimlessly like suicidal Lemmings looking for a cliff edge. A comparatively
tidy environment and colourful painted traffic directions indicate at least a civilised
veneer until you notice no one pays any heed to them. There are no rules. Huge
trucks charge through suburban streets at speeds better suited to aircraft, their
horns roaring threateningly from dawn to dusk. Many houses in the inner areas
are moderately grand but many are locked and empty with weeds sprouting from
roofs and pathways. Where are the people? Holed up in Marie Celeste Street? Even the grandiose arches of the Vatican
Embassy are stained with mould, the windows sealed, the gates shut.
Fast food is ubiquitous as it is everywhere else in
the world, but the lack of a national or even local cuisine is a puzzle. The
only dish with any detectable claim to a Costa Rican classic is the grindingly
bland ‘Rice and Beans’. It’s advertised everywhere. I stare out at San Jose
from my apartment balcony and realise that apart from a few curiosities the
city seems devoid of stimulus.
And back in 1897….
The main Canal cutting through the mountain
at Culebra was continually widened and the
angle of its slopes reduced to minimize severe landslides into the canal. Steam
shovels, mechanical and electrical equipment was limited in its capabilities,
and everything rusted and rotted rapidly in the aggressive tropical climate.
In
France, de Lesseps kept the investment and supply of workers flowing long after
it was obvious that targets were not being met. Inevitably the money ran dry. The
French effort went bankrupt in 1889 after reportedly spending US$287,000,000
and losing an estimated 22,000 lives to disease and accidents, wiping out the
savings of 800,000 investors. The scandal, known as the Panama Affaire, saw several of the major players prosecuted,
including Gustave Eiffel. De Lesseps and
his son Charles were found guilty of misappropriation of funds and sentenced to
five years' imprisonment, though this was overturned. De Lesseps, 88, was never
imprisoned. Ah, the rewards of Piracy…
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| The (unkindest) Cut at Culebra |
The
first scourges of European Piracy showed up in 1492 when Columbus and his men
blundered into the Americas (he thought it was India). The news of the New
World spread fast. He made four trips to the
Americas but touched only the southern half of Mexico and moved south, leaving
the rest of America still “undiscovered.” At that time, the arbiter of the
world was not a king, but Pope Alexander VI of the notorious Borgia family, and
as a Spaniard he decided to deed all the newly discovered land to Spain and
Portugal, both leading maritime powers and very Catholic.
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| Frank Drake, Esq (Knight), Pirate |
The
discovery of gold in the New World fuelled a frenzy of exploration and conquest
with a steady stream of Spanish vessels criss-crossing the Atlantic, with gold
from Peru travelling to Portobello, Panama, in mule trains and by boat to
Veracruz, Mexico, and on to Spain. Settlers, explorers and priests came sailing
from the Old World to the new. Meanwhile,
other European powers grew resentful. Holland, France and England were also
seafaring nations looking for trade routes and lands to exploit. In England,
Queen Elizabeth I built a navy with the aim of breaking up the Spanish monopoly.
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| Sir Henry (Cow Eyes) Morgan, Pirate |
Francis Drake decided on his
first major independent enterprise. He planned an attack on the Isthmus of
Panama, known to the Spanish as Tierra Firme and to the English as the Spanish Main. This was the point at which the silver and gold
treasure of Peru had to be landed and carried overland to the Caribbean Sea, where galleons from Spain would pick it up at the town of Nombre de Dios.
Drake left Plymouth on 24 May
1572, with a crew of 73 men in two small vessels, the Pascha (70 tons)
and the Swan (25 tons), to capture Nombre de Dios. His first raid was
late in July 1572. Drake and his men captured the town and its treasure. When
his men saw that Drake was wounded they insisted on withdrawing to save his
life and abandoned the treasure. Drake stayed in the area for almost a year,
raiding Spanish shipping and attempting to capture a treasure shipment.
After the English Navy
defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 and set off to claim America, no Spanish colony was safe.
Pirates Henry Morgan and Sir
Francis Drake certainly spread their unwelcome attentions on both coastlines –
particularly unwelcome to the Spanish - as evidenced by landmarks and
historical documents throughout the Americas. Drake Bay on the southern Pacific
coast was named after the famous 16th century pirate, and the Isla del Coco –
or Cocos Island – is said to be a hiding spot for pirate treasures, the
surrounding waters a resting place for many ships.
Queen Elizabeth had hired
Morgan, Drake and other experienced sailors as “corsairs” to attack Spanish assets
in the new world. Acting as agents for the English crown, they brought terror
to Spanish vessels and colonies. Because of England’s anti-Catholic beliefs at
the time, richly furnished churches were favoured targets for pirates. Forts
still standing in Cuba and South America are today’s tourist attractions but in
the 16th century they were protection against British terrorists. Surprisingly,
pirate companies did sometimes operate under gentlemen’s codes. Pirate captains
faced mutinies and lost their crews if the men were mistreated or cheated. Pirate
ships carried “surgeons” who were not medical doctors but were trained in
amputations, which explains peg legs and hooks for arms.
Costa Rica faced several
invasions by pirates, and Cocos Island was their sanctuary for several years.
With fresh water, abundant timber and plants and animals, they could live there
comfortably while raiding coastal cities. Stories of pirate treasure on the
island and sunken ships offshore continue to intrigue. The Caribbean side of
Costa Rica saw several pirate incursions in the 1600s. In the 1640s, a pirate
army of 600 men led by Bartholomew Mansfield headed for Cartago, then capital
of Costa Rica. Later, a Caribbean uprising by plundering buccaneers was led by
men like men like Blackbeard, and these pirates pillaged until they met defeat
by arms and economics. Pirates no longer lurk in Costa Rican waters, but their
stories, their sunken ships and their treasure live on in the public
imagination, much like the Bushrangers in Australia.
Back in the Present…
In this 21st century in the seas off Somalia, the
Straits and Malacca, and the Bay of Bengal, heavily armed and trained hijackers capture
cargo ships, passengers and crews and hold them to ransom, The closest to
piracy I witness in Costa Rica is the ruthless behaviour of truck drivers on
the road to Puerto Limon. They take no prisoners.
Traffic rushes down impossibly high hillsides curtained in
jungle and mist. Engines scream at top speed up the same hillsides. As it
flashes by, your knuckles whiten with the occasional flicker of a passing speed-blurred
giant truck or car. Your survival depends of how hard you concentrate on the
tail-lights of the hurtling Mack a few inches from your front bumper and the one
a few inches from your rear, its siren screaming and lights flashing. This
two-lane highway is the only transport link from the port of Limon to San Jose.
Dante would’ve been proud of it. There are so many trucks there must be a
secret breeding ground for them in the jungle, some fantastic chromiumed crèche
pumping out squealing 16-wheelers by the hundred.
Further down toward the sea, the land levels out and the
‘Sodas’ appear. Villagers throw up temporary – well OK, permanent – lean-to’s
on the roadside selling Coke, Pepisi, sugar snacks, beer, coconut oil and of
course the staple ‘rice and beans’. No one was stopped at a ‘Soda’, but at a
few gas stations trucks gathered to gossip and plan their next assault on the traffic.
Near the port of Limon walls of containers line
the same two-lane highway; it is the only road between the major port and the
capital San Jose. Its scale in places reminds you of the Great Wall of China. What
goes on behind these walls is anyone’s guess but surely it has something to do
with truck fertility rites.
Wages of
Fear, Costa Rica style
Further south of the Caribbean Coast is the small coastal tourist village of
Puerto Viejo, laid back, cool and undeveloped, with a plethora of
(semi)organized, on-going American diversions. There’s not a lot of Costa Rican
culture on display, but there are dozens of American kids running massage
places, workshops on food fermentation and beekeeping, surf comps, little theatre
groups, ginger-beer brewing classes, community gardens, town baseball team,
yoga classes, and an annual arts festival that last year featured a play by
kindergarten kids, nude self-portraits, and a belly dancing troupe. All this is
fun, but Costa Rican it ain’t. On the other hand, maybe it is.
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The glassless windows of our rented cottage is
like being walled in by Rousseau paintings; the colours are exactly the same.
Each ‘window’ looks into a fascinating emerald wall of jungle. Unseen Howler
Monkeys growl and hoot all night - or could that have been Tarzan, lost and calling
for Jane? Who knows what’s out there in the foetid dampness? I sure don’t. All
I can do is imagine or look at promotional photos on the Internet. It knocks me
out, but I don’t feel a part of it. The Jaguar Rescue organisation is just up
the road (near the Carib-Bean organic coffee shop (massages $US45 an hour); its logo is a Monkey!)
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Which is the Rousseau painting and which is real life?
We’ve got free access to kilometers of picture
postcard Caribbean coastline, lined with palms, no beachfront development at
all; horseback riding in the mountains or on the beach; surfing, snorkelling,
excellent fishing and more than enough night spots for those who want to party
or take chances on the food. OK, it’s pretty spectacular... but there’s
something missing: any Costa Rican character.
Outback Jack’s
Here’s a
bar right out of the northern Western Australian desert, inspired by the Daly
Waters Hotel and festooned with painted car junk, curiosities, tourist
souvenirs (empty bottles to you) and jury-rigged refrigeration machinery. Jack
is a snaggle-toothed character whose style the American tourists love. His bar
is for sale and he knows his market – he’s no fool, he’ll do well. He acts like
an eccentric beachcomber; and at least the eccentric part is genuine.
His beer
glasses are clearly used by the local cops for fingerprinting practice –
they’re covered in them. But Jack mixes a mean Margarita and personally tastes
each one for quality. He serves them in Mason jars with mug handles. He has a
faithful clientele. Jack is a refugee from everywhere, including Australia, and
tells colourful stories of the mafia, smuggling, border scrapes, failed
businesses and self-destructive tourists. He’s in love with his own legend, but
who cares? His wife Penelope (“Don’t
call me Penny – the Costa Ricans think it means ‘penis’.”) grins knowingly.
They’re a good pair. He’s in his early 60’s and looks 80. He has a lot of fun
with his gullible customers.
After a few relaxing days in Puerto Viejo, squinting into
the jungle across from the beach and eating and drinking anything we want, we find
a restaurant which has Lobster. Everyone including Jack told us there is no
Lobster in town – it’s overfished, there’s none left. We should have listened
more carefully, but eventually we find a place with Lobster and greedily eat
half a one-kilo beauty each.
Next morning, early to avoid traffic jams and roadworks (we
are wrong), we set off at top speed to return to San Jose. we have a driver who laughs at death in
all its forms. I begin to plan the plot of a comic book featuring this guy’s
adventures. I close my eyes. The world whirls. I hum a hymn under my breath. I
imagine flying Business Class on Singapore Airlines but it doesn’t work. I
can’t forget where I am, I am surrounded by Pirates. My bowels loosen with
fear.
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| Typical mid-morning traffic, Costa Rica |
Our Australian driver must have learned to drive on a roller coaster…Costa Rican truck drivers are chosen for their suicidal bravado on the narrow mountain road to San Jose but our driver doesn't fear death in any form - including being strangled by his passenger.
A Disturbed
Passage
I depart San Jose
without eating anything for three days. I have been given the gift of food
poisoning of the most virulent kind. As I write this nine days later, a French overcast
slides
over my brain like a
Tupperware lid and the rumbling and cramping in my lower belly continues. I’ll
spare you the details, but the only diagnosis which fits all the gruesome
symptoms is that my bowels have been deliberately infected by the spores of Alien
Pirates (as in Alien:Covenant, currently screening) etc. My food was been intergalactically
modified, plundered of all its health attributes and poisoned…or maybe the
lobster had been left unrefrigerated.
Some kind of pirate
is robbing us of our precious bodily fluids and they are being forcibly ejected
from our nether orifices, leaving us weakened and exhausted. Clearly, I’m a
little feverish. Piracy continues to flourishes on the Caribbean Coast of Costa
Rica. Pass the Imodium.
I’ll never be able to look at Johnny Depp in the same way
again.
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