Fiestas de San Rafael

So, on Sunday Dixie, Veronica, and I went to the fiestas of San Rafael, and met up with a bunch of our friends. San Rafael (aka: Churuca) is a town like 35 minutes from my village, on the way to Cartago. It was quite a party; there were a TON of people, and they had a huge Tope (horse parade). There were like 2,500 horses or something crazy like that. It is a lot the like the rodeo parade in Tucson, but pure horses. Everyone gets dressed up in there western gear and tailgates on the back of their trucks, and drinks. Really not so different from AZ at all; I never imagined that when I came to Costa Rica I would be wishing that I had brought my cowboy boots, but I do. It was fun, but got a little bit shady near the end when people started fights and throwing bottles and such. We got out of there in time to avoid that locura though. After the parade we went to a bar called the Cartagines and danced salsa, and some of my friends sang karaoke. We then ran to catch the last bus to Santa Rosa. For some reason that I now don’t understand, I offered my seat to a woman who was older than me (but not so old that I was obliged by the unwritten laws of the Costa Rican transit system to give her my seat). That was a bad idea because I then had to stand for the whole 45 minute ride up the mountain, which was considerably harder than usual because I had had a few beers. Speaking of beer- I have been budgeting pretty closely, so I hadn’t really planned on drinking at all. I bought one Imperial at the beginning of the day, but that was all I planned on spending. However, the culture of Costa Rica is so generous, that whenever I didn’t have an Imperial in my hand, someone would hand me one. Thank goodness, we made it home perfectly safely, I didn’t fall down or knock anybody over, and the fiestas of Churuca were a success.