Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Profile

I am an 36-yr old architect and urban planner from Costa Rica, currently working for the national chapter of the Green Building Council, promoting sustainable construction and design and helping manage a certification system. I also have experience in urban design and urban planning, and a strong interest in cultural and architectural heritage, that comes from my childhood, when I used to visit national parks an the Costa Rican countryside with my family, with its churches and picturesque towns. It all impressed me hugely and to this day, I am a very visual and experience-driven person.

In this interest for heritage concurred many other of my passions: my love for nature (I'm an avid hiker, having visited many of the most amazing locations of my country), my interest in architecture and town planning (especially the Modern Movement), and my other multiple passions: world's cultures, history and geography.

As a matter of fact, I was part of the Costa Rican team that in the 1999 International Geography Olympiad, in Toronto, reached an unexpected 4th place, after a 3rd-spot tie with the Canadian team.

Specifically about the World Heritage List, I knew about it in my teens, through an almanac book, that listed all WHS from every country to that point (mid 90s), in its profiles of every country. This created a deep impression on me, since I was both interested in the geographical aspect of this matter and the existence of a far more diverse heritage in the world, than I previously thought. It further fueled my knowledge about the world.

Since I found the Unesco-WH website, sometime around 2003, I started searching more about each site, by reading the AB evaluations, creating picture and document folders for each WH and tentative site, etc. Every time when the WH session happens and the documents from each new site and their evaluations are filtered, I enrich my databank and pictures. Of course, it is a totally intellectual task, but one that I find highly rewarding.

I am profficient in five languages: Spanish, English, German and French and Italian, having certified my proficiency in English (through TOEFL) and German (Zertifikat Deutsch B2). I am currently learning Portuguese and fighting to learn Dutch. As you may see, languages are one of my freaky interests, and I'm eager to learn others, especially Chinese, Japanese and Russian.

I intend to apply this year for a master degree on Sustainable Urban Design in a German-speaking country or the Netherlands. I also expect to begin visiting other WHS in the future, as time and money allows.

Costa Rica Last Update 18.03.20 5 WHS Visited 13 Reviews 5 WHS Rated 4 TWHS Visited

Visited Sites Esteban Cervantes Jiménez

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Recent Reviews Esteban Cervantes Jiménez

Corcovado National Park and Isla del Cano Biological Reserve (T)

Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Costa Rica - 15-Nov-17

Site visited on my December-January vacations, for a whole week, a trip that I had been wishing to do since my childhood’s readings about the Costa Rican National Park System, that helped me highlight the importance of the Osa peninsula conservation complex.

The Nature:

After visiting both protected areas, I think they fully live up to Corcovado’s name as “the most biologically diverse point on Earth”. During my visits to 2 different ranger stations (closer San Pedrillo and farther away and more pristine Sirena), I saw many more different species than I had ever seen in any national park in my country, and in different life stages, daytimes, and habitats than I had seen them before.

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Stone Spheres of the Diquís

Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Costa Rica - 22-Mar-15

I visited this site back on February 1st, 2015, on a two-day-trip. This was my first new site in 14 years and I am glad that I have managed to make the first review of it. I visited it as a part of an organized tour through cultural sites and traditions of the south east of Costa Rica, that was organized by Culturacr.com.

As part of the tour, me, my partner and a group of other 20 Costa Ricans and some resident Argentineans, traveled some 300 km to the cultural festival known as La Fiesta de los Diablitos (or the Party of the Little Devils), a tradition from the Boruca indian community which exists since colonial times, and takes place on the first weekend of January in Boruca Territory, and the first weekend of February in Rey Curré Territory, where we went. I thought it was the most interesting part of our journey, and is totally deserving of being in the Intangible Heritage List, in case it is ever nominated. I bought a mask, there is plenty of handicrafts at reasonable prices, made by the borucas themselves, who, after losing most of their own culture, are in the process of recovering it

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National archeological park of Guayabo de Turrialba (T)

Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Costa Rica - 24-Oct-14

I would like to add a less general information to my initial account, made years ago. By that time, I hadn't visited the site in some 10 years.

I'm back on visiting different sites of Costa Rica and I made an almost incidental visit on Guayabo on October 12th (an unplanned homage to the initial contact between the native american and indigenous worlds). I did also a lot of photographing, which I hadn't done on my 2 or 3 previous visits. I think I got some really good shots. The area, not just the archaeological area, but the rural environment, the natural heritage, and the landscapes are worth photographing.

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Panamá

Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Costa Rica - 21-May-14

I visited both Panama Viejo and Casco Viejo in january 1999, as part of a prize for winning the 3rd spot in Costa Rica's National Scientific Fair, together with 3 members of our group. We visited also sites outside the WH site, as Cerro Ancón, the Esclusas Miraflores, the aquarium, the canopy observatory "National Park" (from where one can see the best views of the city) and the Smithsonian's Barro Colorado island. And although my peers were most interested in the shopping malls (many Costa ricans go to Panama just to shop, as it is duty free area), I managed to make them come along with me on a taxi ride to the ruins of Panama Viejo.

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National Monument at San Jose (T)

Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Costa Rica - 18-Jun-11

Equally to the National Theater, the National Monuement, located in the National Park in San Jose, represents the ideals of the liberal era, in this case nationalism. The monument was built to conmemorate the 1856-1857 National Campaign against the filibusters that invaded Nicaragua at that time and were planning to establish a puppet slave republic in Central America according to ideas prevailing at the time.

It was also built to ornate the park in front of the railway station that connected the city and the Central Valley to the Caribbean coast and thus allowed trade with the world at the time. It was the point of entrance to San Jose and was located in the area of San Jose where also the finest buildings and where the rich mainly settled, all in the northeastern side of the city.

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Profile Data

Name: Esteban Cervantes Jiménez
Country: Costa Rica
Most Impressive: As to the moment I’ve barely gone abroad (only 3 times... and many years ago), I can’t recommend a site from my own experience. But I do can through my research and I definitely have a passion for Eastern Asian sites and cultural landscapes, in which people has through centuries evolved in harmony with the environment, I think they show us a way to go forward, as our development patterns have shown to be so damaging to the world’s precious resources. So, sites like Wuyi, mount Qingcheng, Huangshan, the Hani and Ifugao terraces, Fujisan, the Kii pilgrimage route, Nikko, Wulingyuan and so on. I also have a soft spot for cultural landscapes in general, mountain ranges, historic centers and architectural sites, but I wouldn’t mind if I visit one of the worst Struve sites. From the sites that I do have visited, the prize goes to the Chirripó National Park component of the La Amistad NP-Talamanca reserves site. It is a really breathtaking landscape and nature is present in its full beauty, power and dread.
Proposal: Definitely the WH list must become more representative of the diversity of the world with the years, I still think that Europe (especially Eastern Europe) has lots to give in terms of inscribable sites, but definitely the other regions (Asia in particular) should be taking the forefront. I am a fan of Eastern Asian sites and I don’t mind about having many historic centers, fortifications, religious or industrial sites, if they’re worthy. Since writing the last version of my profile, some of the sites I valued the most have been inscribed, like the M’banza Kongo ruins, Yazd, Afrodisias, Bagan and FLW sites. Others are pending an effort of the State Party for inscription or are not even in a Tentative List: like the cemeteries and cenotaphs of the First World War in Belgium and France, Glasgow's School of Art, John Soane's house in London, Kamakura, the ruins of Kumbi Saleh in Mauritania, the amphitheater of Aspendos in Turkey, Kuélap in Peru, the Tayrona-Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Parks in Colombia, Las Pozas-Xilitla in Mexico, Las Pariñas in Argentina, the temples of Palitana, Varanasi or Bhubaneswar in India, Alvar Aalto's architectural work, the Klondike in Canada/USA, Famagusta in Cyprus, Dura Europos or Ebla in Syria, Jerash in Jordan, as well as many others. From my country, from my knowledge, a new, much bigger tentative list should be developed (it will surely will not) and I defend Corcovado as a possible WHS, if inscribed with associated reserves and its rich marine environment.

Recently Visited WHS

Update 18.03.20: Statue of Liberty

Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves

Guanacaste

Panamá

Stone Spheres of the Diquís

Visited WHS

Rating Stats

Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves 4

Guanacaste 3.5

Statue of Liberty 3.5

Panamá 3

Stone Spheres of the Diquís 1.5

Reviewed WHS

Visited TWHS

Reviewed TWHS

Top 50 Missing Sites

Amritsar
Bagan
Benin Iya / Sungbo' s Eredo
Cenotes of the Yucatan
Chicago School of Architecture
City of Herat
Dzongs of Bhutan
Kaieteur National Park, Iwokrama Forest and the Kanuku Mountains
Middle and Upper Sepik
Minoan palaces of Crete
Mt Kailash
Okavango Delta
Palitana
Pharaonic Temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu
Tana Toraja Cultural Landscape
Taq-i-Kisra (Arch of Ctesiphon)
The Archaeological Site of Göbeklitepe
Torres del Paine National Park
Vatnajökull National Park
Vers une architecture: Major Buildings of Le Corbusier

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Esteban Cervantes Jiménez Profile

Visited Sites Esteban Cervantes Jiménez

Legend

Recent Reviews Esteban Cervantes Jiménez

Corcovado National Park and Isla del Cano Biological Reserve (T)

Stone Spheres of the Diquís

National archeological park of Guayabo de Turrialba (T)

Panamá

National Monument at San Jose (T)

Profile Data

Recently Visited WHS

Visited WHS

Reviewed WHS

Visited TWHS

Reviewed TWHS

Top 50 Missing Sites

Top 200 WHS