Laying on the Hammock Reading

Laying on the Hammock Reading

At least that was what I was doing when my papa came over and told me to get up and go out to the Carretera and “wait for the procession,” whatever that meant. So I went outside of my house to the main road. This road happens to be the Pan American Highway (PAH). The road you would take if you needed to drive from the US to….Im not sure, but at least Costa Rica. I consider it the 95 of Latin America. Of course that’s not really true because I cross it 5 times a day going and coming from class and Dolores. But yeah, there are huge trucks (like 95) and yeah they are going fast (30, not 70) but there are also cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians sharing the road.

When I got outside to the road I realized that things weren’t normal- first off there were no big trucks, or cars, or any other sort of motorized vehicle. Instead there were hundreds of “peddle taxis” and people in the PAH! Groups started forming on the side of the road and after about an hour of waiting (the urgency my papa expressed when I was in the hammock was pretty unnecessary, but also very Nicaraguan) the procession arrived! At first there were hundreds of people walking (some in costumes) then came the dancers.

The dancers are men and women with elaborate outfits on and large headdresses, interestingly much like the Gambay dancers in Bermuda- peacock plumes and all. And they wear white masks with bright blue eyes. They dance in a line, following a man with a huge shield who is supposed to represent a bull. I know this because I was attacked by the bull. He came up to me and hit me in the leg a couple of times with his huge shield, and the line of dancers (shield-less) followed suit, coming up to me but not hitting me. I still do now know if this happened because I am white or if I was just a random girl looking for a fight with a bull.

After the dancers (there were four groups of these dancers), came the saints! Three saints were carried from Diriamba to Jinotepe, through Dolores. The only saint I knew was Saint Sebastian- the patron saint of Diriamba. My mama explained the others, but I am not well-versed on my saints and found it hard to follow. Saint Seb is easy to identify because he has arrows coming out of his body with colorful strings attached to the ends. He also shares a birthday with my mama and so he is the patron saint of our household.
This story is really interesting because the PAH was shut down for hours. Approximately 5 hours! What, I asked, were the cars and trucks and supplies etc. doing while Carazo had our little fiesta in the streets? The answer: waiting. Today I realized I no longer live in the United States, and I think I like it.