Well, I´d initially planned on being on the island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua today. However, I learned that today is the culmination of the week long festival celebrating the birthday of the namesake of this town and figured I didn´t want to miss the Miss San Juan del Sur beauty pageant.
Sunset over the bay
Went to the rodeo yesterday, wow. Took some pictures of the scene and people riding bulls which I will post soon, hopefully later in the evening. It was quite the event and we unintentionally got the cheap seats, which initially involved sitting on the fence surrounding the ring. An hour of that left our butts numb and feet asleep, so we decided to join the spectators sitting IN the bull ring, on the outside edges. Up to that point it had looked relatively safe, all the action taking place at the opposite end where the bulls with riders on top were released. After bucking the rider they were fairly quickly and uneventfully lassoed and returned to their corral. As the day wore on though the crowd and bulls became more excitable and the rider being thrown was no longer the end of the bull´s ordeal. The more raucous, young, and/or drunk of the crowd would dash madly around the bull, taunting it, slapping it´s sides, waving traditionally red flags at it, and generally doing their best to piss it off. The predictable result was an angry bull, charging madly around the arena and the four of us ended up having to run for our lives. Between zip-lining, jumping off waterfalls, snakes on trails and other assorted adventures, this was by far the biggest adrenaline rush and the most scary moment of the trip. Something about a enormous and enraged animal with horns bearing down on you tends to do that I suppose. Luckily I dodged the right way, and while the animal passed within a couple feet of me, it chose a different direction. The poor Dutch girl, Marika, we were with was not so lucky though and it went right after her (to the delight of the crowd and excited commentary from the announcer) and she was nearly trampled, saved by a last second dive under the fence, being dragged to further safety by onlookers. Bull was seriously inches away from her, crazy, but quite the story for her to tell. She was also afterwards plied with numerous tequila shots by locals appreciative of the near miss.
The machismo culture was definitely in full evidence at this event, which seemed to be attended by half the town at least: man, woman, teens and children. Young toughs danced around the bulls, making obscene gestures towards their crotch in the bulls direction, garbage was thrown at the poor animals, and it was just a general scene of mixed chaos and bravado. While the bullying of the animals was somewhat distasteful, they at least refrained from stabbing them...so there´s that. There was also a fistfight in the crowd which was quickly surrounded by a huge ring of cheering people and the announcer fluidly switched to what sounded like a play by play of this new action. Was broken up before any serious damage was done and the drunken looking participants seemed in good spirits and embraced to much clapping. The event was quite open to amateurs and we were asked and encouraged multiple times to consent to riding the bulls ourselves. Our polite refusals were met with some friendly jeering and the announcer ran off an unintelligible, to me, commentary with the word ¨gringos¨ mentioned multiple times ending in the entire crowd staring at the four of us and laughing. I was also amused, though for different reasons. They finally convinced some guy, that wasn´t with our group, from California to give it a go. He was bucked off quickly, but without injury and treated to multiple tequila shots for his bravery.
Night was marked by this amazing and unique street festival/religious ceremony/party in the town square. The entire town was there it seemed and today is a holiday for just this one town´s residents. Lots of music and traditional dancing on a stage set up in front of the church kicked everything off. The interlude when it started raining hard was kind of funny, instantly a huge forest of umbrellas opened and those without scurried for cover, holding their plastic chairs over their heads. Rain passed in a half hour and the party quickly kicked back into high gear with a surprisingly impressive fireworks show. Men with wooden constructions resembling saddles held over their heads and studded with all manner of sparking fireworks ran around in a cleared center chasing the town´s children who were all screaming with glee and mock fear. In the last two days they´ve constructed this big hut thing, a blank space on a table in the middle surrounded with garlands of flowers and all manner of local fruits and vegetables. My curiosity as to what this was for was answered as a five foot plastic looking statuette of Jesus, and a separate shrine looking construction, relating to the patron Saint of the town I think, emerged from somewhere and were led to the hut among much cheering, music and dancing. The crowd surged around the icons, competing for the honor of helping to carry Jesus, though they were really dancing him along, and he bobbed up and down maniacally, almost crowd-surfing his way to the central altar thing, where he was given his place of honor and locals thronged around snapping pictures.
Huge statue of Jesus looks down on town from nearby hill
With that done, attention turned to these four giant, 8 or 9 feet, constructions dressed up as ladies in dresses. Someone would climb under their skirts and hoist up the thing, peering through view-holes in the midsection and could control their arms and some other functions with a crazy pulley system of some kind. I got a quick peek under the skirts after asking one of the handlers if I could. Kind of hard to describe, I´ll try and get a picture tonight, but they are like these huge marionette things and they ¨danced¨and spun madly at the behest of the people inside them in the center of a circle cleared for the occasion. It seemed to be the highlight, a clear crowd favorite and a popularity contest of some kind as various people cheered loudly for their favorite lady at the appropriate times. Might have just been the fact that out of respect for the locals I had been partaking somewhat heavily of their traditional festival beverages (beer and tequila, ¨When in Rome, etc.¨), but the whole scene had a somewhat psychedelic and hallucinatory quality to me, with lightning flashing regularly in the background, hazy smoke from the fireworks, loud rhythmically pounding music, a smiling Jesus with hand extended in the middle of a garlanded altar and illuminated by pulsing red and green lights that would have been more appropriate at a rave, and then these huge, wildly dancing woman puppets, spinning crazily and bouncing around with odd jerky movements, crowd members darting in and out among them, dancing with them, lifting their skirts and making obscene gestures in a scene oddly reminiscent of their behaviour towards the bulls at the rodeo. It was a hell of a good time and felt culturally immersive in a way that Costa Rica never seemed to offer.
Will post pictures soon, promise! Foot is no longer infected and the wound is healing up nicely thanks to whatever pills and cream the pharmacist in town gave me. Hope all is well with everyone and that I hear from you soon. - Azi
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