100 Años de San Luis!

Happy July everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Fourth of July at home.  We didn't really do much to celebrate it here, which was a first for Fourths I've spent abroad. 

I'm continuing to add activities to my repertoire.  From last week, I've now led a guided hike and night hike solo, plus campus and sustainability tours. 

San Luis (the town I'm living in) just celebrated 100 years since its founding!  There was a celebration last month (I'm a bit backed up on blog posts) in Bajo San Luis that I went to and it was really cool to see how they celebrated. 

The schedule for the weekend.  Everything ran on "tico time," so the times were more of a suggestion

The first event we went down for was the "Obra de Teatro alusiva a la Historia de San Luis."  Basically, it was a theater show telling the story of the first people to come and settle here, the Leitons.  It was put on by members of the community.  

 "100 Years of Community"

Full house!

My Spanish has been improving since I arrived, but it was not up to the challenge of understanding this show.  So I pretty much just smiled throughout and laughed when everyone else did. 

After the show, there was dinner.  One really cool thing about it was that even though the women who prepared and served dinner were feeding a whole bunch of people (easily over 50), the plates and utensils were all reusable.  I think most of the cups were as well, so there was so much less waste from this meal than for a comparable sized event at home. 

I brought Clif bars with me because I wasn't sure what would be available for me.  Sure enough, pretty much everything being served had meat in it.  I still went up with my friends to get food, and when they ordered one of the women asked if I wanted anything.  When I said no, she guessed that I was saying no because I don't eat meat...so she offered to make me a plate without any.  That night I ate rice, salad with a pico de gallo-like sauce and yucca.  Overall, everyone from this community has been so incredibly friendly and helpful with me being vegan.

We didn't stay too long after dinner, but there was also bingo and dancing.  Dancing here is a bit different than it is in the States, at least the dancing I've experienced in both places.  People actually know cool dances and do them here, like merengue and cumbia.

Live music!

The next day we walked back down for an event called "Carreras de Cinta."  It was nuts.  Basically, they had a rope tied up across a pretty wide grassy path.  On that rope they attached three or four rings.  Small rings, with a smaller diameter than a key ring.  Those participating in the event (mostly men, but some younger kids as well) rode under the rope on a horse and had a wooden stick (kind of like a wand) that they tried to get through one of the rings.  While on a horse (in case you didn't get that the first time).

Please appreciate this slow motion video 😊

 There are always a ton of dogs whenever we go into town, and this day was no exception.  I made a friend with a dog who just wanted to lie down.  He kept lying down on the grass about a foot away from where the horses were racing by.  Eventually he came up and sat by me and fell asleep on my lap.

That's it for now!  It's a pretty quiet week on campus, so I've got some more time to work on other things.  Which include getting ready for my mom's visit next week! 😊😊😊😊😊😊

Bonus photo: This picture was taken from inside a strangler fig (so where the host tree used to be) looking up.