Events & Festivals in Costa Rica

Two weeks of rodeo dust, carnival lights, oompah bands. Polka-dot dresses swirl. Brass sections duel pop covers. Chicharrón soaked in lime. Cold Imperial beer foam on your knuckles.

Boruca villagers carve balsa-wood devil masks for months. Then they dance through Boruca, Puntarenas, clacking, drum-driven reenactment of the Spanish conquest. Wood shavings in the air. Seed-pod rattles. Rainbow yarn whips under sulphur-yellow skies.

Four days of electronic bass ripple through jungle heat at Rancho La Merced, Uvita, Puntarenas. Yogis salute the sun. Night stages throb. Food stalls sling turmeric ceviche, cacao elixir. Constellations so bright they cast leaf shadows.

Capital's patron saint day fills Avenida Segunda with brass bands and incense clouds. Inside Catedral Metropolitana, San José, candle wax drips on centuries-old tile. Outside, vendors sell cinnamon-sugar churros that snap between your teeth.

Sailboats tack across Papagayo Gulf winds. Salt spray on your lips. Halyards cry above canvas snaps. Shore-side reggae pumps from temporary beach bars, grilled dorado smells drift over Playas del Coco, Guanacaste.

Nationwide parades commemorate the barefoot drummer boy who torched the invaders' stronghold. In Alajuela & nationwide, school bands snare-drum through streets that smell of fresh paint and horse sweat. Fireworks crackle above mango trees at dusk.

La Trinidad, Cartago fills with caramel steam as cane juice boils into brown blocks. Sample warm melcochas that glue to molars. Horse carts clop past. Marimba echoes off church walls.

Cartago's colonial streets bloom with sawdust carpets dyed beet purple, achiote red. Incense coils around carved saints at Basilica de los Ángeles, Cartago. Children scatter flower petals that squish under bare feet.

San José's grand night parade strings LED floats, marching cimarrona bands, baton twirlers through a tunnel of confetti. Popcorn smoke drifts above toddlers on parents' shoulders. Beer sellers clang glass bottles like cowbells along Paseo Colón to Plaza de la Democracia, San José.

Guanacaste cowboy culture rides into Santa Cruz, Guanacaste. Sabanero rodeos, wood-fired tortilla stalls, nightly cumbia that vibrates sternums. Barbacoa beef aroma drifts under mango lanterns. Children swing from painted carousels.