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Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made | 
| Authors: Adrian Colesberry, Brass Mclean
Creator: Kimberly Parsons
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
Category: Book
Buy Used: $58.77
New (1) Used (12) from $58.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 453905
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 152
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 11.4 x 8.7 x 0.7
ISBN: 1560442514
Dewey Decimal Number: 972.86
EAN: 9781560442516
ASIN: 1560442514
Publication Date: October 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A collection of stirring essays from writers Adrian Colesberry and Brass McLean (both veteran travelers), "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made," tells the history of the country from the inside out, starting with its geological formation and ending with its status as the "Switzerland of Central America." "The Last Country," highlighted by the stunning photos of international photographer Kimberly Parsons, showcases the strength of their collaborative and individual talents. Parsons photos of sugar-processing plants, spider monkeys, oxen at work, cemetery angels, fishermen, school children, street musicians and volcanoes form a vivid rendering of life in Costa Rica. Colesberry and McLean match the more than 65 photos with passionate words, adding a human element to subjects ranging from coffee to indigenous peoples, from ants to womens issues, from bananas to religion; their spirit is infectious. The essays are accompanied by sidebars, short, insightful thoughts on little-known facts about the country. Winner of the 1994 Publishers Marketing Association's "Ben Franklin Award" for "Best Travel Narrative" written in the United States.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Nice Book June 11, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a lovely hardcover book of Costa Rica. Nice Photos and associated text. While it is nice, it is not necessarily spectacular and didn't quite measure up to the retail price.
 Perfect gift for the discriminating May 28, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I saw the review that says that this is not a travel book, and I agree. But it is really lovely & so well written. I got it for a gift and it was really appropriate and much appreciated.
My husband & had been to Africa with my in-laws on a trip by Overseas Adventure Travel. OAT puts out some really beautiful literature, and first class trips and they listed this book in their Costa Rica reading list on their site. It sounded like a good recommendation, and worked out well. I gave it to my mother-in-law, who had traveled to Costa Rica. She is educated & discriminating appreciated that it was factually/historically thorough.
Fantastic scope of the things that make this country April 24, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is a fantastic book. In a very enjoyable way it covers just enough of each of the dimensions that make a country. From the geological beginnings under water to the mountains and high fertile valleys, ancient people to modern day inhabitants, ants to orchids, and beautifully illustrated with excellent photos. We bought a copy before we went, left it with our friends at Diquis Del Sur (diquiscostarica.com), and bought another copy when we got home. Enjoy the book and this beautiful country.
For a travel guide we were torn between the excitement presented in the National Geographic Traveler - Costa Rica book and the superior information for getting around in the Frommer's book. For retirement and living there we preferred "The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica". The best map is International Travel Maps - Costa Rica, GPS generally works, and most cell phones don't.
 Not a travel book March 21, 2005
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
I bought this book based on the numerous adulations on this web site. However, as an uptodate travel guide, I found it not -- not worth the money, not a travel guide, not about retirement, not current (copywrite 1993). It is a historial summary of the country, people, flora and fauna. The pages devoted to today's needed travel info "Modern Times" were outdated and numbered only from 129-146. It's a nice coffee table book with some beautiful pictures. Buy it for that reason, if you choose to buy it, but not as a travel guide as recommended by another reviewer.
A spiritual geography...... October 30, 2004
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book evokes the country of Costa Rica and it's influence on its peoples by describing the harsh, desolate, yet sublime landscape that embodies the contradictions of Costa Rican life within it's borders and in it's geo-political stature in Central America.
As dry-wiited as it is information soaked, this book gives the traveler a place to begin in the land that never seems to be what the traveler expects. "The Last Country the Gods Made" is a contemplative book, a book of essays that creates a spiritual geography, explains the eccentricity of archeology and throws light on the urgency of visionary politics.
This masterful synthesis is a refreshingly unconventional analysis informed by anthopology, migratory science, architecture, environmentalism, epistemology and political minutiae. There is wonderful mini-essay that the authors' call a "sidebar" entitled, "Why No Empire." In it, Colesberry and McLean address the mystery of why the native people of Costa Rica, though amazingly organized, greatly populated and artistically skilled, never formed any urban centers like the Aztec and Mayan empires. Suffice to say, that they pose an utterly unique solution involving Egypt, mideval French wheat farmers, and Vasquez de Coronado's observations of buzzards!
They end this delightful foray with, "...perhaps the local Amerindians had no use for urban zones or concentrations of power that would have placed them in the ranks of advanced societies. If urbanity is the litmus test for civilizations, consider this: in the Diquis area, the leaders lived with not the warriors as one might imagine, but with the artists. How urbane can you get?"
I'd like to say one more thing. The Search Inside the Book pages that Amazon shows you in no way represent the book's text! The pages you can read are just the introduction written by the publisher! It's ridiculous that Amazon doesn't present the meat of this lovely text, since the writing is particularly accomplished.
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