Desfile de Los Caballos

On Sunday 22 March, Amanda and I were enjoying another day of culture. Several months ago our Lengua teacher, Marlene, was telling us about the popular festivals of the Desfile de Los Caballos (Horse Parade). They have these through out the year in all seven providences of Costa Rica. It's suppose to be a big weekend of events, a carnival, and much more. We were excited to see the advertisement for it at the bus stop when we headed to Heredia.

We met on Sunday morning and headed downtown to the parade. It was a perfect summer day, with the sun shinning and a few clouds lingering over the mountains in the distant. When we got to Parque La Sabana, we saw only people dressed up in the traditional dresses and we saw no horses. We were a little concerned that some how they forgot the horses. We knew it was a celebration of el campo (the country) but how can you not have horses! We hoped that somewhere in the back of the giant park the horses awaited.

We returned to the parade route and found a sunny spot. (We even saw Superman there!) The parade began with the traditional dancers in their array of colored, flowing dresses, and the men in their matching outfits. Each dance told a story and was beautifully put together. The dresses swirled through the air, the men had handkerchiefs that swept through the air; a colorful display for the pure enjoyment of my eyes.

Dance group after dance group paraded by. There were even groups of little kids. There were also some strange plastic dolls that some guys had over their heads as they danced about with arms just swinging about. I do have to admit, I was a little weirded out by it. There were also a group on stilts. One of the guys loved working the crowed and even held babies in his arms, up on his stilts. Not sure if that was the smartest thing.

Finally, we saw the horses! There were so many of them of all different types. They pranced in a rhythmic beat, forwards, sideways, and backwards. They were incredibly beautiful. There was a trick rider who had two horses, who stood with each leg on one horse. We were next to the rope so we were sometimes up close and very personal with these gentle creatures. Some of them had their backs towards us and very close to us; all we could do is hope they didn't kick back or decide to relieve themselves. Thankfully none of that happened to us.

It was a great day to experience this part of culture. After the parade we stopped in for a taste of home, Quizzno's.

I have several pictures below but can't put them all of them on here so take a look at some more at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147282&id=1208485417&l=eeee575376