Calm in the Orosi Valley

Children play in the street and business goes on as usual Thursday in the quiet, rural town of Orosi, Costa Rica. The Orosi Valley, in the county of Cartago, is a lush, fertile area full of coffee plantations and various other crops. Some consider the Orosi valley the most beautiful valley in Costa Rica.


Two girls try to gain their balance on a bicycle while riding down the street in downtown Orosi.

Anti-CAFTA in Paradise

As the Oct. 7 referendum approaches, anti-Central American Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) sentiment is spreading to the hills across the Costa Rican landscape. It quite literally is written in the land in a town called Paraiso (Paradise).

— Christopher

CAFTA Graffiti

A man walks past a wall near the Legislative Assembly building in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica Tuesday. Many walls around the government buildings are covered with mostly anti-Central American Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) messages — this one stating "Mesoamerica (Central America) in a fight."

Costa Rican voters will decide the fate of the extremely controversial trade pact with the United States in a referendum Oct. 7.

Cemeteries

Tres Rios Cemetery with the city of Tres Rios in the distance. Cemeteries throughout Latin America consist of tombs built above ground. Hundreds of the tiled tombs are adorned with flowers, crosses and statues of Jesus or the Virgin Mary.


Rows of tombs in the Tres Rios Cemetery in Tres Rios, Costa Rica.


— Christopher