A Parade, a Trip to the Beach and a Fiesta

My first day as a teacher was supposed to be last Tuesday, July 19th.  Unfortunately, in Costa Rica, things rarely begin when they are "supposed to" so it didn't come as a real shock when I found out that my classes wouldn't actually begin for another week (my first class is tonight!!).  While I was a little disappointed, since I was ready and rearin to get started, it meant I had an extra week of "vacation." (yay!)  However, I still had some responsibilities (like some things to do in the office, meetings with school directors, etc.), so I couldn't exactly get out of town for an extended period of time.  Instead, I hung around in downtown Liberia (I think the ladies at Musmanni know me now), did some reading, hung out with my host family, went to the movies (Harry Potter 7 part 2!  Soooo good, so sad it's over), played some cards, and did a little bit of nothing.  But my most eventful day occurred on Sunday... here's what I did:

A Parade

Starting on the weekend of July 16 (the weekend I was in Nicaragua), Liberia/Guanacaste began celebrating it's biggest event/party: it's annexation from Nicaragua to Costa Rica in 1824.  According to this website, the peaceful Guanicastecos were not a fan of all the civil wars taking place in Nicaragua, so they requested to be annexed by Costa Rica, and the request was granted.  Simple as that!  Now it's a national holiday, and is marked by a little over a week of "celebrations."  Most of the events take place just outside of the main area of town, in what would be the equivalent of a "fair grounds."  There is a large stadium, where they do the bull riding/ "bull fights" and there are a LOT of stands with food, drinks, music, crafts, games, rides, etc.  If you know me, you know that I LOVE fairs, so this was right up my ally.

Anyway, the biggest day of celebrations is usually on the 25th, but since the 25th fell on a Monday this year, most of the "big stuff" happened on Sunday.  The biggest event is the parade, which goes right by the central park.  According to the schedule, the parade was going to begin at noon, which was perfect, as my host family had already decided we would be going to Playa Hermosa on Sunday, but we weren't going to leave until 1:30, which would give me plenty of time to see the parade and then head to the beach.  Not.

Luis, Cesar and I went down to central Liberia at noon to see a crowd of people surrounding the gazebo, listening to a local band and some important people give speeches.  Here's what the scene looked like:

Since I don't speak Spanish very well, I got sidetracked by all the haps around me, especially by the people dressed up as Disney characters!  They were charging way too much for an "official" photo, but here is Woody and Jessie.  I also saw Tigger and Pooh, but I didn't get their pics, and I saw Buzz Lightyear later on...

I don't think I need to tell you that the parade did not end up starting at noon.  In fact, it was not going to begin until 2, and by that time I'd already be at the beach, so to ruin your suspense, I did not get to actually see the parade.  However, the boys and I walked around for a bit and still got to feel like we were part of the festivities.  People were claiming their places on the street, vendors were out in abundance, people were drinking (I can appreciate some solid day-time-drinking action, and this was definitely on the agenda for most people.  I'm only a little jealous I didn't really get to participate), and there were horses and music galore.  Here are some more pics:

One of the many vendors, with his old school ice shaving contraption (shaved ice/snow cones were super popular)

 Kids on stilts dressed in creepy costumes:

 Luis and Cesar posing in the park:

 Girls dressed in the "traditional clothing"

 A gigantic heap of red mamonies (yum!!!)  They look kind of crazy but are super yummy!

 A long view of the street as people claim their spots for the parade:

 A vendor cutting the top of a pipa (coconut) for me:

 Me enjoying my delicious pipa water!  So yummy and refreshing!  And way cheaper than in the states!  Plus you get to eat the coconut when you're done.  It's the simple things in life that are amazing!

After walking around for a bit, it was time to head home for lunch, so we could vamos a la playa!

The Beach

Nieves, Don Hernan, Luis, Cesar and I piled in to the car and headed out to Playa Hermosa, which was only about 30 minutes away by car (like an hour on the bus).  When we got to the beach, I immediately understood why it seems to be everyone's favorite.  It is beautiful!  It's actually right in between Coco Beach and Panama Beach, but everyone likes this one the best.  It's very peaceful, there isn't a big city area (though there are some smaller/quieter shops and restaurants near the beach), and while it's very touristy (lots of hotels and vacation homes), the locals have more or less "reclaimed" it.  Actually, it was funny b/c as we were driving in to Hermosa, there were all these really big/nice houses dotting the mountains around us, and Hernan was telling me that they were all "casas de gringos."  Nieves told Hernan to say "casas americanos" but Hernan insisted they were casas de gringos and that they we are all "americanos" (maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny!).  

Side Note:  My mom and I learned on our vacation last summer not to use the term "American" to describe ourselves as being from the US when we were entering CR in the SJ airport.  On the customs/immigration forms, it asks you for your nationality.  Because we wanted to put in an answer that was grammatically correct, we put "American" when in reality, we should have put "USA."  As we were told by the customs guy, everyone in North (and South) America is "American" - North American, Central American, South American.  In other words, it's not a specific enough descriptor and it's kind of pompous for US Americans to claim it as just their own.  Yea, we definitely got put in our place and learned that Ticos can be a little sensitive about the whole "American" thing.  (While "Americans" can be sensitive to being called a gringo/a, even though it's not necessarily meant to be derogatory.  This is what Nieves and Hernan were more or less discussing).

Back to the beach.  Luis and I walked around the beach for bit and then later went for an amazingly refreshing swim.  The weather was perfect - clear and hot, and the water was warm, but cooler than the temp outside, so it was awesome!  The other great thing about Playa Hermosa is that it's really shallow, so you can be pretty far out in the water, but it's still not very deep.  There are plenty of fish though!  There was a gigantic school of fish swimming around us, and then later on there were some angel fish looking fish that came by.  It made me super excited for scuba diving!!!   Here are my pics:

Playa Hermosa:

 This snow cone vendor was walking along the beach, and when he saw that I was taking a picture of him, stopped and posed for me. jaja, so cute!

 The whole crew:  (enjoying our coka and musica)

 Mua, at the beach.

A Fiesta

After we got home from the beach, we showered, had dinner, and got ready to head down to the fiesta.  The "fiesta" generally refers to the "fair grounds" where most of the "Guanacaste Day" celebrations take place.  I really wanted to see the bull riding because I've never seen that in person and thought it would be a cool cultural activity.  I think the boys just wanted to drink :)

A few days before I went to the "fiesta" with Luis and Cesar, Elba and I had walked down to the grounds to scope it out.  There wasn't much going on at the time, so the place was pretty much empty, except for the guys doing the motocross races, which we watched for a bit.  That very empty scene, compared to the scene on Sunday night, was way different!  The place was crowded and totally happening.  Very fun!  Still, there was a small disappointment in my future.  The cost to go in to the stadium to watch the bull riding was 6000 colones ($12) and the boys didn't have that kind of money, and I didn't really want to sit by myself for three hours to watch the bull rides, so we just loitered around the entrance for a bit to watch some of the action.  Here's a pic:

Yea, you're amazed, I can tell.  After watching from the entrance for a bit, we decided to scope out the rest of the happenings.  There were about 6 rows of cattle and toros hanging out right across from the stadium, so I obviously needed some pics of that:

Luis and I braved the bull's horns to give it a little pet, but those horns are definitely a little intimidating!  I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of those suckers!  Here's a view of the crowd:

Woo-hoo!  Party!  Music!  So fun!  And did I mention cheap beer?!?  While the bull fighting was 6000 colones, you could get four beers for 3000, so guess what we opted for?  And actually, paying over a dollar for a beer is expensive here, so who's jealous now!  I could drink so much, for so cheap...if I wanted to...

Since we had already eaten dinner and I was kind of full, I couldn't enjoy all the delicious smelling food, but I did find some room for desert, so I treated the boys to some ice cream!  Soo good!  Sooo melty!

Like my little brother, Luis was a fan of the "games," and was hoping to win a laptop.  I still have no idea how this game worked, as there seemed to be some math involved while the player had two chances to throw some balls in the box and get either above or below 40 points.  Yea, I don't know, I'm not even going to try to explain that better.  All I know is, they let me throw the balls in a few times and that was kind of fun.  Here's the game:

We did a few laps of the grounds, including to the rides (which I don't have a pic of, but they had a kamakazie, crazy wave, and a fun/scary looking mini roller coaster, among some other rides!  I kind of wanted to go on the rides, but since the boys couldn't be big spenders, I decided I wouldn't be one either).  We checked in on the bull riding every so often, and when it was over, finally got in to the stadium for some pics:

Luis, super cool guy that he is, even asked one of the girls on horseback if I could get a picture with the horse.  She said sure, and one-upped him, I was able to take my pic ON the horse!  Woo-hoo!!

The horse was really sweet, and clearly very tired, as it was very sweaty and had been working all night.  Yippie!  Pretty cool!  Here are the three of us chillin at the fiesta:

And finally, once we were tired of the dancing and the music and the beer, etc, we hopped on the bus and headed home:

Let me tell you, after a "parade," a trip to the beach, and a fiesta, I was one tired girl.  But it was such a fun day, I have no complaints!