Costa Rica Adventure...Treasure Lost

The Pre-Columbian people who lived in what is now Costa Rica surrounded themselves with beautiful ornaments of gold. The element was plentiful and although they valued it, they valued the Jade which they obtained by barter from their neighbors to the North even more. When the Spaniards landed on their shores and offered the people green 'glass' beads for their gold they were happy to oblige. The Spaniards collected all the gold that they could find, melted it down into bars and shipped it back to Spain. The future treasure of the native peoples was gone. Today we visited the National Museum of Costa Rica located in San Jose. We were told by our museum guide that the small amount of gold held by the National  Museum and the Gold Museum was all that was left and that they only had that amount because it had been buried in the ground with the dead.
We also visited the Cafe Britt Coffee Farm for a delicious lunch and a very informative tour. Tomorrow we'll be off to Tortuguero and the Tortuguero National Park. The highlight in that area will hopefully be to see Green Seaturtles haul out to lay their eggs on the beach. We will also take an early morning canal safari in the National Park,  scouting for cayman and  monkeys, among other species.