Costa Rica
Boruca
Hand-carved devil masks and a three-day battle re-enacting indigenous resistance to the Spanish conquest.
Wood shavings curl from a blade as a mask-maker carves a devil's grin from balsa. The scent of fresh-cut wood mixes with woodsmoke and the faint sweetness of fermenting maize. Boruca in Costa Rica's Southern Zone is a village where resistance is not history — it is performed, carved, woven, and drunk every year.
The Boruca people are one of Costa Rica's smallest indigenous groups, and their village is the site of the Fiesta de los Diablitos, a three-day ceremony running December 30 to January 2 in which costumed devil masks symbolically defeat a Spanish bull. Each mask is hand-carved from balsa wood and painted with natural pigments — the craft passes from parent to child within specific families. The village women weave backstrap-loom textiles using pre-Columbian patterns maintained for at least five centuries. Boruca is also one of only four places in Costa Rica where an indigenous language is still spoken daily, woven into ceremony, song, and the rhythms of ordinary life.
Solo
Arriving alone signals respect, not intrusion. Mask-makers welcome individual visitors into their workshops, and the conversation that happens over carving is the kind you only get one-to-one.
Couple
Sharing the experience of a living cultural tradition — watching a mask take shape, tasting chicha from a hollow log — creates memories that feel earned rather than purchased.
- The Festival of the Diablitos runs December 30 to January 2 — three nights of costumed battles as devil masks symbolically defeat the Spanish bull.
- Each Boruca mask is carved from balsa wood and painted using natural pigments — the craft passes from father to child within specific families.
- The village women weave backstrap-loom textiles using pre-Columbian patterns maintained for at least five centuries.
- The Boruca maintain their indigenous language — one of only four still spoken in Costa Rica — woven into ceremony, song, and daily life.
Chicha — fermented corn beer brewed in hollow logs — shared communally during the Fiesta de los Diablitos.
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