¡Día de Independencia!

In case you couldn't figure it out, the title for this post is Independence Day! which is September 15th here in Costa Rica. And it was a blast! As I said in my post earlier this week, they've had decorations up since the beginning of the month-- at school, in stores, on houses, on the bus, in cars... everywhere.

Tuesday evening I met up with some friends at the Central Park in Heredia, where they had an area roped off around the gazebo for musicians and traditional dancers. We saw some cool dances and heard several groups of kids sing and play music. We also saw the famous torch leaving Heredia shortly after we arrived. See, several countries in Central America all declared their Independence from Spain at the same time, so about two weeks before Independence Day, a torch leaves from Guatemala and makes its way through all the countries until it arrives in Cartago, Costa Rica, on September 15. Another tradition they have is to make "faroles," which are lanterns. All the kids make them for school, and apparently there are prizes for the best ones. We saw some shaped like torches, houses, paper lanterns, even one shaped like el fortín (a famous fort in Heredia). It was a little scary, since most of them had lit candles in them, and they were made of paper and wood, but I didn't see any catch fire, so they must know what they're doing. At one point everyone sang the national anthem, which was pretty. I also bought some churros, which I don't know how to describe, except that they're some sort of dough that's fried and covered in sugar, or filled with chocolate or dulce de leche. Google "churros" and you'll see some good pictures.

Wednesday morning I got up early and met with some friends at Central Park around 8 for the parade. We were there early, so we got good seats right on the curb. Even though it was early, the sun was HOT, and we all got pretty tan. All the schools in the city of Heredia participate in the parade, with bands, dancers, cheerleaders, and/or flag bearers. Some of them looked pretty hot and tired by the time they got to us, but there were plenty of parents walking with them, offering them water and making sure they were okay. It was cool to hear the music, some tunes I recognized and some were new (xylophones are very popular in the bands) and some of the dancers were really good. It was neat to be sitting there, crowded on the sidewalk with probably hundreds of Ticos, all celebrating their freedom and their country. There were two things I noticed about this parade: first of all, it's long. They started about 8:30, and I don't think they finished until almost 1 (although we left around 11). Secondly, and this probably contributes to the first point, they are slow. One group would walk up, and then march in place for about five minutes before moving on. On the one hand it was kind of nice, because we actually got to see the dancers perform, and hear a good part of a song, but on the other hand, sometimes we were just watching the flag bearers march back and forth. Oh, and they don't throw out candy. But all-in-all, it was a good time, and afterward several of us went and got granizados, which are ice cream and slushy and powdered milk and cream and fruit (it may sound kind of weird, but they are delicious). Wednesday afternoon I mostly just hung out at home, and then in the evening a bunch of us went up to Barva and surprised our friend Lauren for her birthday. Her host mom made lasagna, and several of the girls had made a cake, and it was really fun.

So that was my experience of Independence Day. But now it's back to work, as I have a take-home midterm to write for my Anthropology class this weekend. ¡Hasta luego!