Festival Part II

We were all anxious to watch the bull riding.  We made our way up into the stands.  (This was a little tricky. When they built the stands they did not make the steps the standard seven inches high like we are used and they didn't even make them all the same height.)  

 

There was a group of men who, through some process I am not sure of, were chosen to ride the bulls.  They gathered in the center of the arena and prayed that they would be blessed with a safe ride. 

Our tour guide when we went to Palo Verde, Juan, was a bull rider.  I asked him at that time if he earned a lot of money riding the bulls.  He told me they did not earn much money at all.  He puffed out his chest and said “You cannot buy courage.”   However, he went on to tell me that if they did well, they might be given a horse or something similar.

 

There was another group of men who also gathered in the ring.  They were there to chase the bull after the bull rider had finished his ride.   It was a quite a collection of Imperial Beer and testosterone.



There were people everywhere—in the stands, on the fences, and gathered all around the outside of the ring.

There were older people, 

 

younger people, 

beautiful people,

 

and some "a little bit crazy" people.

The bull chasers were gathered and, although we couldn’t understand the announcer, we could tell the first rider was about to come out of the chute.  And he did.

 

Once the rider was thrown from the bull, 

the other men began to run at the bull and tried to get it to chase them.   They were careful not to get too close or the bull would turn and chase after them.  

Once the bull got tired, or bored, it would go back into the chute and they would prepare another bull.  

It would explode from the chute with the rider hanging on:

and ride, and ride.

and then the cautious taunting would begin again.

 

All of this was done to the excited Spanish narration of the Costa Rican announcer coming from speakers about the size of small mini vans.

It was a fun evening that anyone coming to this country should experience.