I traveled on the annual Black Heritage Tour in Costa Rica organized by Costa Rica Tours, Ltd., a Charlotte, NC tour operator that has specialized in Costa Rica and Panama since 1998.  My friend and I from the DC area joined 14 other passengers, mostly from New York and New Jersey. All possessed a very keen interest in Black Heritage. Our one-of-a-kind tour combined nature activities with a journey into the vibrant culture of the African-Caribbean’s who are one of the least-known populations of the African Diaspora.

A distinguished scholar gave us a presentation about Costa Rica being multi-ethnic, with a population that has roots in indigenous tribes, Europe and Africa. The ancestors of Costa Ricans with African roots arrived in different ways. A small number of African slaves were brought to Costa Rica by the Spanish during the Colonial period, but they quickly intermarried and lost their black identity. The second migration of blacks was in the 1870s when workers from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands were hired by Minor Cooper Keith, an American who was given the concession of building a railroad from the San Jose capital to Limon on the Caribbean coast. Over 5,000 workers lost their lives in the railroad construction. When the railroad went bankrupt, the workers were paid in land along the railroad tracks and many found work on the emerging banana plantations of the newly-created United Fruit Company. Our naturalist guide was very well educated and we learned from him how bananas are cultivated, and about the people who perform this arduous work.

We also were exposed to Costa Rican culture through visits to the ruins in the rain forest of an indigenous civilization that dates back 3,000 years, and to an hacienda owned for centuries by the Ortuno Family. There we saw how coffee, sugar cane and
Macadamia nuts are processed in traditional ways.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country and is known for being environmentally friendly. They have the largest proportion (25%) of any country of land protected as national parks and private reserves. These conservation measures reduce deforestation and contribute to Costa Rica's distinction of being the #1 preferred destinations worldwide for nature and adventure travel. Many tourists engage in the sport of crossing the rainforest canopy on a zip line, which was originally created by scientists to conduct their research. Costa Ricans recycle everything and "Go Natural." While there we ate no processed food or drink.

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