THE STORIES BEHIND THE OSA PENINSULA HISTORY

Historical Stories- Doña Berta lived among the goldmines and ran the pulperia in Carate for many years. Small in stature, yet strong in presence, she was not to be crossed. The gold miners all understood that. Eventually, Berta returned to Puerto Jimenez and was owner and operator of the small hotel called Cabinas The Corner right up until her death a few years ago.

Her words and her stories:

The Corcovado National Park…Historical Stories!

• When Corcovado National Park was created in 1976, the government censured us. They wanted to know how many years that we had lived there, were we gold miners, where were we living there, what area were we occupying, and that it is a very important place. For us it was very sad that they took us out of the park, we were so used to live that way, not in luxury, we lived a very good life, we all washed in the river, we cooked with wood, the floor was cleaned with any broom made naturally.
• I have no shame to say it, I know that they, the guards, are there just for the salary and it does not have to be just because of that, they have to take care of it. I agree I agree that they had to take us out of Corcovado. They paid what they had to pay us and I agree because now I know that the park is worth a lot and what I don’t like is that they do not take care of the Park.

No law…

• At that time there was lots of peccaries, all type of animals, then, when you know that there is lots of meat, the people eats and there were no laws for killing, the law was made by the man.

Carate fights…

• I saw a man wielding a gun and shoot at another at 400 meters away. And I ran, the other was fallen on the ground and asked him to give me the machete because he had the machete in his hand. And I called the plane, the plane of Mr Jean, we call him, he transported the injured and the offender. I saw many people fighting in those days.

Goldminer eaten by a pig…

• Also, once, there was a gold miner named Sad Face by a nickname, a tall and solitary man, no one knows from whence he came. He just appeared in the park one day. But this man did not come down for several days to buy the provision (food), because every fifteen days some of them were coming down to buy provision (food) and I needed to have it ready, like a sack of food. He did not come down, so then they went to try to find him, but only the boots were found and a little hair. We believe that he was eaten by peccaries, it is believed, for there was no other reason, is believed that the peccaries ate him.

More women…buried

• Life was very nice all that time, I also saw many women, because there were many women that arrived in the Osa Peninsula in those days and they would come to Carate. Once, a woman died in my arms and the arms of another man. She died having a child, she became ill and died of gangrene. When the plane came, she was already dead for many hours. We grabbed her and went to bury her, as burying anything at that time, we did not have to notify the police, only bury the person. She is buried in Madrigal.