GUANACASTE—PUNTJRENAS TO LIBERIA 405 



one could not tell on which side an approaching light was 

 except by hearing the sound made by cart or pigs. This 

 traveling in the darkness was not pleasant, but I relied 

 implicitly on my mule and the creature did not fail me. 



Finally we reached the hotel in Esparta about 8.15 P. M. 

 and tired with the long slow ride I was glad to dismount. 

 The streets of Esparta were lighted with oil lamps, the houses 

 were built of wood. The accommodations at the hotel were 

 limited and the four members of the Commission and I 

 slept in one room, the secretary in an adjoining one. We 

 were glad to turn in soon after our nine o'clock dinner. Some 

 time during the night the ox-cart came in with the luggage 

 and delivered it at the railroad station in the morning. 

 My own baggage was so compact that I took it all on my 

 mule with me. 



On January 7 after coffee, we left Esparta promptly on 

 the 7 A. M. train for Puntarenas. The locomotive had a 

 very old-fashioned smokestack; the train was composed of 

 a couple of box freight cars, a second- and a first-class pas- 

 senger coach. A few days earlier, while still in Cartago, I 

 had read Dr, Sapper's account of his travels in this part of 

 Costa Rica in 1899. His train from Puntarenas to Esparta 

 consisted of a single first-class coach and some flat cars with- 

 out sides or top on which latter the freight and second- 

 class passengers traveled, one of these unfortunates being 

 thrown from the car as the train rounded a curve. He has 

 some severe criticism of the accommodations furnished as 

 being unworthy of the otherwise civilized condition of Costa 

 Rica, and it was pleasant to see that they had been bettered. 



Until the gulf beach was reached the railroad passed 

 through much rather open woods, in which here and there 

 the poro-poro was conspicuous by its bright yellow flowers 

 and almost leafless branches. The jocote continued to sea- 

 level and there were scattered palms. We crossed the Rio 



