WEST AND NORTH OF CART AGO 107 



the whitewashed wall of this room, opposite the door, a large 

 picture frame was outlined in red and blue; in front of this 

 stood a table holding several pictures of saints, including 

 two which evidently had the Immaculate Conception of 

 Murillo as their foundation. 



Our meals were served on a table placed in front of the 

 house under the projecting eaves and covered with a muslin 

 tablecloth. We had white china dishes, except that some 

 of the coffee cups were colored or bore inscriptions, and the 

 labels on the knives indicated German manufacture. The 

 food was good, clean and well-cooked; for my four days' 

 board, twelve meals, I paid 3 colones, 90 centavos (^1.80). 

 At seven or so we had "cafe," consisting mainly of sweet- 

 ened coffee (that is, boiled with dulce) without milk, and 

 tortillas, but in addition I had a couple of "huevos pasados 

 por agua" — soft boiled eggs. At eleven was "breakfast" 

 — rice, black beans, a combination of eggs with some vege- 

 table such as potatoes or sapayo (one of the squash-cucum- 

 ber family), boiled or stewed beef, boiled potatoes, yuca, 

 chayote, plantain, etc., finishing with coffee. Dinner at 

 five was much the same except that it began with soup and 

 the coffee was preceded by a "dulce," usually in the form 

 of stewed fruit, such as peaches. 



Peaches are grown to a considerable extent around Tierra 

 Blanca and brought for sale to the market at Cartago, but 

 always green or at least more or less unripe. Professor 

 Pittier says in his recent book on the common plants of this 

 country that it is rare to see a ripe peach, the people seeming 

 to prefer them unripe. There is, moreover, great difficulty in 

 ripening them on the trees owing to the fondness for them 

 shown by birds and by wasps and other insects. Even 

 when not destroyed by wasps the fruit rots on the trees when 

 ripening, which seems to indicate that the peach is not 

 adapted to this moist climate. 



