| dc.description.abstract | WHERE IT ALL BEGAN The Italian explorer and navigator Cristoforo Colombo
(Christopher Columbus, c.1451–1506)
discovered the paradise during his fourth
voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, when
searching for a passage west to the Indian
Ocean and the Orient. He had sailed
from Cádiz (Spain) in May 1502, and
after landing on the island of Martinique
(Martinica), Santo Domingo and Jamaica,
he eventually reached Central America,
anchoring off the coast of Honduras at
the end of July. Two weeks later his ships
landed on the continental mainland, and
from here they began exploring the coast
to the south, arriving in Almirante Bay
in Panama on October 16, 1502. During
this cabotage navigation, on September
18, 1502 Colombo anchored off Quiribrí
Island (later known as Isla Uvita) in front
of what is now Limón, Costa Rica. Even
though he apparently never actually
came ashore, the natural beauty of the
coast, its exuberant vegetation and the
abundance of wildlife (and maybe the
gold ornaments worn by local dignitaries),
were material enough to convince him to
baptize the newly discovered land as Costa
Rica, the Coast of Plenty. On the shores
of the island, one can still find plants of
Brassavola nodosa, much as Columbus’s
crew could have seen them five centuries
ago. | |
