First post...

I have just returned from the city of Nicoya, which is on the Nicoya peninsula in the north-west part of Costa Rica. I traveled there by bus (about 4 hours each way) for about $12 there and back. We went as a group of 6, which later became 7. The people I went with- classmates from the Costa Rican Language Academy from different parts of the US and the UK (England, Holland, and Germany). I held the special talent in the group of only speaking one language fluently (English), and I became even more interested in working harder at my Spanish studies. So far, I can name a lot of things (mostly in the kitchen, of course), pick out words in conversations, but I can't communicate very well at all with people who speak Spanish exclusively.

The ride there and back was amazing. Beautiful countryside, mountains, hills, rainbows tucked away in valleys. The area looked dry, in fact, I saw some cacti (cac-tusses?).

We spent Friday at the beach and the remainder of the weekend in Nicoya, where the small-town festival was going on. The highlight of the weekend: Chirriche vs. Malacrianza. Chirriche and Malacrianza are names of the toughest bulls. In Costa Rica, the practice of bull fighting is somewhat different than in Spain and other parts of latin america. It is illegal to harm the bull (although, defining "harm" could be quite tricky if you ask the opinions of those who advocate for the animals).

The show consisted of a crowd of about 100 people inside of a ring. A bull would be released into the ring with a person seated atop. The person would stay on for 1-10 seconds (sometimes with no hands!). After the person fell off (or some stayed on until the bull had stopped bucking), the bull would chase after the people, sometimes charging, other times, running around confused.

The crowd of 1-2,000 (so hard to guess these things) witnessed people getting thrust into the air with the bulls horns (some didn't have horns), people getting trampled on, and people climbing the fence's pants getting ripped up. After awhile of this, three men (actually, the entire ring was full of men, except Inga said she did see some women in there) would come out on horses with lassos. The person that roped the bull would get an applause, and the bull would, seemingly willingly, go out of the ring.

This went on for hours. Our tickets were supposed to cost 4,000 colones, or $8. We ended up buying them from a street vendor after finding out from the "box office" that they were sold out, for 15,000 colones. I was certain it was worth it (this was the reason we came to Nicoya in the first place), until we returned to the fiesta later that night to find out the event was still going on, but it was free, and there was more action than before (less wait time between bulls). Okay, still worth it. I really wanted a glimpse into the culture in Costa Rica, outside of the city. It was good to observe, although, I didn't understand any of the announcers Spanish.

Back in San Jose I will be here at the language school for one more week before I go to the Limon Province where I will work at Avarios del Caribe on the Caribbean Coast in hot, humid, mosquitoey weather. Time has flown by so fast....