Rest Day 2: Boruca!

After a day dedicated entirely to the ESP surveys, we had our second day off! Tuesday night after our classes were over (finally... we were "debriefing" until almost 9:00!), we went out again to 'S'Lugar, the bar in San Vito. It became very apparent that they only had one "American" playlist, since all the music we danced to was the same that we'd heard last time we went out. We had a good night anyway, filled, as usual, with lots and lots of dancing.

The next morning most of us were up early and on a bus at 8 am to Boruca. Since it was our rest day the trip was optional, but only 4 or 5 people stayed behind. Everyone else decided to go on the trip since our professors arranged it for us and it seemed like a cool opportunity to check out a different rural area that we probably wouldn't be able to get to otherwise. Boruca is a small indigenous village that is known for the elaborate arts and crafts made by its residents. We arrived there after a two hour bus ride, and immediately began learning about the history of the village and people from a woman who lived there. After about an hour of history, she demonstrated of how the village's colorful woven products are made, from start to finish. She began by picking some cotton from a cotton plant, removing the seeds, and spinning it into thread. Then she showed us how to dye the yarn all different colors using parts of plants that they grow there. Basically, the plants (either boiled or fresh) are crushed up with wet yarn and the color is squeezed into the thread by hand. Then the string is left in the sun to dry. The sun-drying also intensifies the colors; it was really cool to see the blue yarn get darker and darker just in the short amount of time we were standing there.

Dying the yarn

After the yarn-dying, the women used some dry yarn to show us how they wove the fabric that they use to make clothing and souvenirs that they sell to tourists. The process was really complex and a little difficult to understand, but it was amazing how quickly and precisely the women could weave! One of the girls said that she had been weaving since she was about 8 years old.

Weaving!

Besides weaving, Boruca is most famous for its masks. When the Spanish first entered Costa Rica, the indigenous people began to carve grotesque masks out of wood to scare away the invaders. The mask-wearing tradition persisted over time and became symbolic of warding off the devil, and every year the villagers have a traditional ceremony in which they wear the masks. For a while the tradition almost died out, but the village had a revival of traditional crafts when increased tourism to the area created a profitable market for their goods. Now tourism and craft sale are the main sources of income for the village.

Some of the masks for sale

After spending several hours in the village, we took our pack lunches and drove a bit out of the village to a waterfall. We spent a few hours eating, swimming, and enjoying the views, before heading back to Las Cruces.

View from the top of the waterfall

The pool at the top of the waterfall where we swam