342 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



leaves are bright red and in September when we first saw 

 them the trees were covered with large, conspicuous flowers 

 with numerous extraordinarily long filaments, making each 

 flower look like a tuft of pale green threads. 



Another neighbor lived eight miles to the northward on a 

 foothill of the volcano Barba and about two thousand feet 

 higher than Alajuela. In December and January, when the 

 roads were good, we frequently called at the B. farm, which 

 was most charmingly situated — for scenery and crops but 

 not for the convenience of the housekeepers. Our way led 

 through the pretty village of Santa Barbara, a sleepy, al- 

 most dead little place. It has one of the few stone churches 

 in Costa Rica in contrast to the usual adobe and plaster 

 structures. 



Early in December we spent three days at El Brazil. 

 The roads were then in good condition, as the rains were 

 over but the dry season was not old enough to produce much 

 dust. The country still looked fresh and green. The great 

 fiestas of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin 

 were celebrated during this visit. This is one of the chief 

 fiestas of the year everywhere in Costa Rica but particularly 

 in the "barrios" of Concepcion, of which there is one in 

 nearly every "distrito." We have already referred to Con- 

 cepcion de Cartago in our account of that town. El Brazil 

 was in the barrio of Concepcion de Alajuela and in the midst 

 of celebrations by no means entirely religious in character. 

 The chief day, December eighth, is a legal holiday. In 

 Alajuela it was the custom to have bull fights, booths were 

 erected around the plaza of the church of Concepcion, the 

 country people went to town for the day of the eighth (if 

 not for all the days of the fiestas) dressed in their newest, 

 gayest and cleanest, masqueraders sang and danced and 

 after dark there was a general dance on the grass to the 

 music of as many bands as could be mustered. This year. 



