The roads in Costa Rica are lined with these lovely living fences,
which surround most of the farms. The reason for using trees, strung with three
or four lines of wire, to fence the land is very simple – the ubiquitous
termites don’t eat live wood. The established fences, lobbed off many times so
the wire stays close to the ground, are mainly gumba limbo, but the younger
in-fill trees are sometimes more flamboyant plants, such as hibiscus or
poinciana – though not usually in full flower as shown here. Don’t you
agree the whole concept is wonderfully paintable, along with the chain of
volcanoes that forms the backbone of the country?
I first saw these fences on the 2004, but didn’t have my camera ready –
being preoccupied with the warning from our driver that we could either get up
the hills or have air conditioning. I painted
this picture several years later following a 2010 Panama cruise, when I knew
where to have my camera ready as we climbed toward the mountains.
