Bulls – Well ... Almost

The town fair and rodeo continues on in full spate. Lots of fun, interesting things and surprises. The strings of coloured bunting provide canopy for the streets surrounding the city square. Beer tents are set up along one side of the square with a number of the town’s restaurants and pubs setting up shop. There are plenty of carnival food places with the familiar fair food smell permeating the atmosphere. The Catholic church has a food stand in front of the church and it is busy, presumably with Catholic customers (that is who I have seen there). It would be a grave political error to bypass the Catholic booth and patronize another booth from “who knows what religion?” down the street.

Last night, before mass began, a brass band struck up music on the church steps. One sousaphone, one tuba, three trombones, two saxophones, one trumpet and two drummers (one equipped with a saucepan type cymbal set up that he clanged in time with his drum). They were very good and had some nice numbers. I believe that one of the reasons they were hired to grace the steps was because the mass featured a wedding as well. The one song I recognized was, “Those were the days my friend.” Obviously my wedding repertoire needs brushing up. As you can guess, the silent adoration section that sometimes precedes mass was not on the agenda.

The wedding was lovely and the church had been decorated with streamers and flowers. Along with flowers and so forth to go with the Holy Cross festival (the real reason for the fair at this time) (Christ is always the reason for the season), the church looked rather spectacular. The bride and groom seemed quite young (but ... what do I know – I’m getting old?). I will digress a tad bit. In Africa, the churches preached monogamy and went to great lengths to ensure that that was the norm among their adherents. Well, the importance of fertility and children within the traditional African religions did not go away quite so easily. It was critical that each couple be certain that children would be a part of the union. So, as one of our friends said, “You don’t get married until your tummy is pointing to the altar”. Nuff said.

An amazing surprise last night was the inclusion of a fifty plus piece youth orchestra from Tegucigulpa. What a sight to see these young people dressed in black, semi-formal outfits and to hear classical music from the grandstand. Completely unexpected.

Friday afternoon we went to the rodeo. So fascinating. The Lavoy Community School Rodeo was a class act. Still, this rodeo had plenty of entertainment. The stock consisted of twelve head of cattle. Three of them were bulls and the rest were cows that ranged from somewhat stocky to downright screws. Each animal was roped around the horns or head and then dragged into the chutes. That was really the exciting part of the show. After long minutes the cows/bulls were readied for riding and, provided they didn’t lay down for a rest, equipped with a suitable bull rider. The chutes were opened and the animals came out. A couple of times they came out bucking. At the eight second mark (give or take) they stopped and the cowboy gracefully dismounted. The clown made up for the lack of bucking entertainment by playing fake matador. One cow was very obliging and, as a reward, given half a can of beer to drink before taking up the chase again.

In between animals (and with only twelve animals there was plenty of in between) various musical numbers were featured. One gentleman, clad in classic Mexican sombrero, tight pants with lacy stripes and bolero type vest was a great entertainer and had the audience laughing. In fact, one of the cows was laughing so hard that she had to lie down for a while as well. Another of the bands featured a drummer who was chosen, I suspect, for her abilities off the stage. She made the “Kitchen Band” in my mother’s Golden Hills Lodge seem ready for the road (get those walkers and pots packed gang). We did enjoy the whole event immensely.

Today, on the opposite side of the road, horses and riders were competing in an event that featured small bands of ribbon looped over a rope. Each of the riders was equipped with a specially carved (lathed?) pointed piece of wood or metal about six inches long. Riding at full gallop they would try to pierce the ribbon and have it stay on the “lance”. Each time they succeeded, they were given a handkerchief to tie at their belt so that it was easy to keep score. Some very good horsemanship and some beautiful horses made the stop very worthwhile.

The carnival queen has been crowned, along with the junior miss queen. We were lucky to meet the procession of all the queens and princesses (along with escorts in black suits and ties) being brought to the evening stadium by a school band. The band made sure that the procession took its time so we got to wave to the queens and escorts for some time.

Today we went to a nearby park which is protecting a watershed. A lovely hike took us to a beautiful waterfall. As well, we were able to see a view of Lake Cajon (a man-made lake) that was spectacular. All sorts of ideas came to mind with the closer look at the lake. It was nice to find an access to the lake that is so easy to get to.

In a restaurant we stopped in there was, displayed on the food service counter one half of a caribou rack. Dave, who has spent a number of years in the north of Canada recognized it right away. I have no idea what it is doing in a Honduran restaurant.

TTYL
Bryan