We were fortunate to be visiting Nicaragua in August, when there's a weeklong festival with many events. Officially, it's a celebration of the patron saint of Granada, the Virgin of the Assumption, though not attending church, we didn't see much of the religious side of the festival. From our perch at the top of the main restaurant and bar street, it was a time for lots of outdoor concerts and beer company sponsorships. Toña set up huge displays like this in several places on the pedestrianized street and around the entrance to bars and restaurants that serve their beer, which is basically everywhere since it's the Bud Light of Nicaragua:
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| Immediately outside our front door |
Two of the especially fun events during this week were La Hipica, a horse parade, and El Tope de Toros, the running of the bulls. During La Hipica, people decorate their horses with fancy braids, saddles, and ropes and parade them through town. The parade was a lot more informal than we're used to at home - riders would come by now and again, maybe stopping in the street for a while to talk, maybe turning around and going back the other direction. The streets were pretty crowded, with people crossing, vendors working the crowds, and (fortunately!) horse clean-up carts doing their work. In the main square, there were several large stages with music. My fave was the matching sets of pretend horses in different sizes, where kids could pet the horses or climb on for a picture.
The day of the running of the bulls, we were having trouble figuring out where and when the event took place. We stumbled on it by accident while trying to show Bill some beautiful old churches the girls and I had visited one day while he was working. We couldn't get to one of the churches because the intersections were blocked off with tall metal fences. Talking to a nearby vendor, we learned this was where the bulls would be later that afternoon, so we returned there to watch. I was nervous waiting, because people kept climbing over or around the blockades to walk down the middle of the street. Finally, a couple bulls came charging down the street, surrounded by people running. (Yikes!) After that, some guys on the other side of our intersection were prodding another bull out of its trailer. It came running across the road toward the barrier on our side, which was filled with people who immediately started screaming and jumping off. No one got hurt here - it didn't hit the barrier, then turned and started running down the street. Glad we got to see this, but I don't think I need to be any closer to huge bulls in my life!