The Masquerade of Saint Bartholomew

August 24, 2025, 1:00 p.m. My wife and I are traveling by bus to the city of Heredia, passing through the canton of Barva. At that moment, we notice that several people are wearing masks along with some very peculiar “balloons.”
A woman sitting in the seat in front of us told us that it was Saint Bartholomew’s Day, a date when people wear masks and hit each other with cow bladders (the “balloons”) filled with air or water.
The idea was to visit San Isidro de Heredia, but out of curiosity, we decided to stay in the city of Barva.
It was a very nice experience, and I would like to share with you the details of what we saw.

Santa Barbara celebrates with Herediano

I was on my way to Vivero el Poro, near Santa Barbara de Heredia, with my wife when we discovered that the store had closed earlier than usual, I called the owner who kindly indicated that the store had closed early due to a football(soccer) final.
I called the owner who kindly indicated that he had closed early due to a matter related to the football final game.
Neither I nor my wife had any idea that the final was on Wednesday, May 28th.
We were aware that the first leg match had been held at the national stadium the previous Sunday. But we did not know the date of the second leg until that moment.
After having a cup of coffee at the Soda La Tapa del Perol, we decided to take a walk through the center of the city. This is what we saw.

Fraijanes, Alajuela

I decided some months ago to go to Fraijanes, after some years of not visiting the area. This is a trite idea aroud here in Alajuela, everybody knows the park of Fraijanes and for some it is a boring and decaying place.

But I still find it amusing in some way and has an eerie ambience, if you get there in the right weather(cloudy).

The park is administrated by a state-owned company. It has seen better days but still has that charm for those mountain lovers and it is safe.

In the rest of this article, I would like to share what I saw on my last visit to this park and the town of Fraijanes.

Tortuguero, the hidden pearl of the Costa Rican Caribbean

One year ago I went on vacation to Tortuguero, Limon. The Turtle Beach Lodge Hotel was my choice to stay in the area. It took me a while to talk about this travel because it was a trip of two days, but full of adventures. So let’s start this article talking about how to get there.