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The Costa Rica
Legend
about the Creation of Barva Lake
A long time before
discovering Costa Rica, in the western
part of Costa Rica,
in the place of today’s San Rafael de Heredia,
there was an Indio Village of the Huetares
tribe.
They were well known for their handicrafts
(ceramics,
carved stones and wood).
Once upon a time, a group
of strange, unknown Indians approached. They were good dressed and stood out,
they were transporting a small tree, with a huge serpent
entwined around
it.
The Huetares Indio tribe,
asked the newcomers,
to give
them the tree, in exchange for
presents, but when the
giant serpent
reptile went down the tree, suddenly
from
the ground, mysterious water gushed out and started
flowing.
The Huetares Indio tribe
decided to accept only the tree
and the strange Indian visitors, then
departed with the huge serpent. But
during their journey back, they left the
huge serpent upon the first mountain top, they
came upon.
As a result, that
mountain top gushed wide
with water, creating the deep, mysterious lake.
A few days later, the huge serpent,
went down from the
lake, from the top of the mountain, to the
Huetares Indio village below,
and had eaten
a few small children.
A Cacique Indio, claimed, that in order to rescue the
Huetares village, on every year,
the Huetares
tribe must sacrifice some of their
children,
to appease the giant
serpent.
In a bartering exchange, the Cacique
Indios agreed, that
the parents who sacrificed some of their children,
could have
use of the forests, around the lake
for hunting and gathering. But when
someone,
from whose family, no one has been
sacrificed yet, entered into
that forest, they
never came
back.
According to the beliefs of
the inhabitants
of today, that
region, the mysterious lake of the snake, is now called Barva
Lake and is situated
on the top of the volcano, of the same
name.
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