IO 
THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 
devoted to charity and particularly to the maintenance of 
hospitals. Sometimes a ten-cent investment in a ticket may 
return as much as $20,000! 
Morazan Park is another popular outdoor rendezvous where 
bi-weekly concerts are enjoyed. In the National Park stands 
a monument to the five “Sister Republics of Central America” 
HEADQUARTERS OF THE SAN JOSE FIRE DEPARTMENT 
recalling the period when William Walker the filibuster sought 
to set up a government. In Orchid Garden, another park, 
there is a display of about 200 varieties of orchids blooming 
against a background of other flowers. Bolivar Park, named 
in honor of the Great Liberator, is the city's zoological garden. 
It is located on the outskirts of the capital and displays an 
interesting collection of native fauna such as pumas, monkeys, 
serpents and other denizens captured in Central American 
jungles. 
SAN JOSE 
I I 
Every visitor to San Jose will be interested in seeing the 
general market in the heart of the city. Here one finds all 
kinds of fruits and vegetables known to the tropics, most of 
them delicious and different from those of northern latitudes. 
Native handicraft in its varied branches is here offered for 
sale and usually at proportionately low prices. 
Hunting and horseback-riding are a favorite pastime of 
foreigners resident in Costa Rica. Many and pleasant are 
the excursions frequently made by residents or visitors to 
such scenic spots as Aserri and Orosi and to the Irazu and 
Poas volcanoes. 
The trip to the latter is one of the most interesting and 
thrilling experiences one can imagine. Parties are usually made 
up of 20 or 30 people of both sexes. The ride up the mountain 
generally starts from San Jose about midnight, when the moon 
is full. Young women carry guitars, and up the winding trail, 
one minute in the brilliant moonlight, the next in a dark valley 
as the party passes over precipitous and tortuous trails, one 
hears the echo of the songs and laughter of those in front. 
Sometimes it happens that the horse of a young lady becomes 
tired and there is no lack of chivalrous offers from the willing 
men who resign themselves to walking for a while. 
Arriving at the volcano about 5 in the morning is truly a 
wonderful experience. At this altitude of 10.000 feet above 
sea level there is a valley sparkling with frost, really the bed 
of an old crater, filled with fantastic black shapes which are 
the remains of an old forest. Passing over this depression one 
arrives at the brink of the crater. The view baffles description 
—a mighty yawning circle, a mile or more in diameter, a 
quarter of a mile deep, devoid of every vestige of vegetation, 
lined with cold grey rocks and massive bowlders, and away 
at the bottom a murky, steaming lake of sulphurous mud which 
