From the first light of dawn, the small sheet metal boats of about 4 meters travel along the river in search of the best area for harvesting. The use of the stick is not only used as a propeller and rudder, but also to probe the seabed and find mounds of less compact, easier to collect sand.

Commonly referred to as "black gold", this sand is of the best in quality for the demand of the real estate market. Every single boat full of sand is paid 8000₡ (about 15$) and on average an adult worker manages to fill 2 to 4 of them throughout the day.

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Paysin, 84, is the oldest worker in the cooperative. He does not dive into the depths of the river to collect the sand, but only transports it and trains the new animals.

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Oiesse, 15 years old, after a day of work in the water tries to take care of a bird that has broken its wing.

Roberto, 74 years old of Nicaraguan origin, has been working as arenero for 40 years. In the 1980s, after spending 2 years as a prisoner of war during the Sandinista revolution, he managed to leave the country and move to Costa Rica, finding refuge in the river and working as areneros. He has built a small tin house at the edge of the river where he lives all year round.

The areneros lead a humble life and their diet consists mainly of rice and beans, cheap foods, unable to do otherwise due to the high cost of living in the country

Oxen are the living engine of the areneros' carts. Outside working hours, they live tied up in the vicinity of the shacks with only one meter of rope to prevent it from twisting around their legs, injuring them and causing a serious economic loss.

Along the banks of the river are the shacks where the areneros live. These are small tin houses, self-built and without any ownership on the land.

Chalo, is one of the trainers of the draught oxen and takes care of them with dedication and affection. He is the one who treats the animals with vitamin after the hard days' work.

One of the typical bedroom of the areneros’ houses.

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Roberto shows a memory of when he was younger, about twenty years ago, always on the same descent by the river where he still continues to work today.

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Thanks to the youngest members of the association, there is no shortage of moments of leisure to alleviate the fatigue and worries of the areneros who, despite the harassment, continue to resist.

For the areneros, the river is not only a source of work, but constitutes their daily reality and permeates their life and existence, becoming part of them.

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The mechanized arm, can collect the same amount of sand in a day that the artisans collect in a month. The dredger extracts soil and stones on the riverbed along with sand.

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The Tempisque community declares that the dredger is changing the river, reducing its level and materials, and the association is alarmed by the damage to the water table that is increasingly evident to them. Despite this, the dredge is inevitably replacing traditional mining practices and will mark the end of the era of the areneros.