Costa Rica’s Cow Parade will continue through August when the cows will be auctioned off.

When the international CowParade arrived in San José, it not only brought 130 intricately painted fiberglass cows to the city’s streets, but spearheaded a new campaign to revive interest in San José’s downtown. And according to recent reports, it has done just that.

During the CowParade’s March inauguration, Johnny Araya, mayor of San José, said that one of the exhibition’s goals would be to help lure more tourists to downtown, which has traditionally been overlooked in favor of the erupting Arenal Volcano and the country’s beautiful beaches. Araya also said that CowParade was just the first of many plans to revive the capital’s art scene, and his words have proven true: in the past few months, we’ve had several cultural events downtown, among them the International Arts Festival and the tenth annual Book Fair.

La Nación, one of the nation’s leading daily newspapers, conducted several polls, each of which has shown that San José’s Cow Parade has truly helped increase the flow of visitors to the capital city’s downtown area. Of course, not all of the new arrivals are visiting travelers – many are locals, both Costa Rican and foreign, that have all made the trip along Avenida Central to get a look at the famous bovines.

The CowParade’s 130 fiberglass statues were mostly placed in strategic spots downtown, decorating Avenida Central, Parque Central, Parque Morazán, and Parque Nacional. In addition, a handful of cows were on display at Multiplaza de Escazú, on the west side of town.

Unfortunately for some of the cows, their beauty did not go long intact: back in March, officials had already reported several damaged cows due to lack of public caution. In addition, the city’s strong sun and even stronger rains have done their best to weather damage the statues, in many cases requiring repair by their artists.

Despite these hiccups, however, San José’s CowParade has been a huge success. “The CowParade’s success is undeniably due to having been able to transform San José into a huge outdoor museum,” said Costa Rican sculptor, Tatiana Zúñiga. “The city capital stopped being a pass-through place and turned into a destination for families.”

Indeed, though no statistics exist to attest to the CowParade’s numeric effects on the city, it has brought color and creativity to every place it has touched. Participating parks now welcome many more weekly visitors, helping them feel less solitary and, at times, too dangerous to those who’d otherwise walk their paths. In addition, having art in public places has helped josefinos to have more pride in their city – what was once a dirty sidewalk in Parque Central has turned into a Cow-lined strip of much better-maintained pavement.

The CowParade has achieved its goals of adding color and life to the city, attracting many more visitors than before. And if Mayor Araya’s plans continue to be realized, the country should prepare for a San José much more cultured and frequented by both its citizens and visitors passing through.

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Filed under: Living on May 29th, 2008