I04 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



farm but we were there for two hours and it was almost 

 breakfast time when we rode away. However no one 

 wanted breakfast after our strawberry feast so we sent the 

 flowers and a message home with a boy and started on our 

 delayed ride. From San Rafael we went east along a wind- 

 ing, shady road until we came in sight of a neat-looking two- 

 story house whose inhabitants were all out on an upper bal- 

 cony watching us. The man of the family seemed to think 

 we were coming to call — which had not been our intention — 

 and came down the road to meet us, so we rode in and tried 

 to buy maize for the horses. He fed the whole five (we were 

 riding with a party from the hotel), gave us milk and bread 

 and would not consider our paying for the refreshment as we 

 had hoped to do. He told me the place was called "Mata- 

 mora" and that he and his family were spending a few 

 months there, Cartago being their home. From Matamora 

 we rode on, the road quite boggy at times but always pretty 

 and shady, until we issued on a better traveled road and 

 turning to the right soon came in sight of Paraiso, quite a 

 little below us, and then returned to Cartago by the main 

 road from Cot through San Rafael. 



To anyone looking up the huge slopes of Irazu from Car- 

 tago, the village of Tierra Blanca, and the light or whitish 

 clay from which it took its name, were conspicuous land- 

 marks. Tierra Blanca was over 2000 feet higher than Car- 

 tago and the several roads leading up to it vied with each 

 other in difficulty; the eastern road in particular was a 

 miracle of steepness and slipperiness. This village was a 

 sort of halfway house to those making the volcano trip — 

 though it was by no means halfway up. We passed through 

 it a number of times and also made several excursions with 

 Tierra Blanca as the objective point, while in July, 1909, P. 

 spent some days in the Telegraph Office as the guest of 

 Sefior Federico Tristan, who was then acting telegraph oper- 



