Entertainment
Today we went to the nearest movie theater, which is an hour and a half driving distance. The movie theater, CCM Liberia, opened in 2003 inside a small mall just outside the province’s capital. Each one of its four theaters, with multi-colored carpeted walls, had a peculiar smell of popcorn oil and humidity, and the a/c transformed the air from unbearably hot to uncomfortably warm. Nevertheless, we were watching a movie for the first time in over three months, and the price was cheap: about $3 per ticket, and popcorn, just under $2. Besides ourselves, there were two other families, both English-speaking. Being a Saturday, it was surprising not more people, and no local residents, were there. I asked a young man who works at a car rental agency what he and his friends did for entertainment. Do you ever go to the movies?, I asked. Well, it’s far away, we would have to get a big group of people, and someone to drive there, and... He didn’t finish, but I understood, what movie is that great to make the trip worthwhile? He explained: After work, I usually just go home and watch TV. Another young man had told me the same. Television is the source of Hollywood movies, news, entertainment, the medium most people use to feel connected to what is happening outside their small towns. What do you like to do on your day off?, I asked a local man in his 30s. Fishing and hunting, was the immediate answer. What do you hunt?, I was curious. Well, there’s deer, but I don’t kill them, it’s just fun to be out in nature and walk around, he answered quickly, just in case I would disapprove (correctly) of hunting venado cola blanca, a species that’s protected under law. And what do you fish? Tilapia, there’s plenty of tilapia in the river. It’s interesting that local residents spend their weekends at the rivers, rather than at the beautiful beaches. I commented to the younger man, the one who likes to watch TV: People here don’t go to the beach, do they? No, he laughed. What do people like to do for fun?, I inquired. I should have guessed: ir al rodeo. Every small town in rural northern Costa Rica hosts a rodeo in summertime, between January and April. First, a wooden rodeo is constructed in the town’s plaza, which usually is its soccer field. Then more trucks come with food stands and carnival rides, such as a carrousel and bumper cars. The rodeo typically lasts three or four days, each day’s festivities announced by two loud rockets shot into the air. Many people from neighboring towns attend the rodeos. There are horsemanship shows and music but the most popular activity, the reason people like rodeos and attend them, is the toros. A bull is let loose in the ring and anyone over 18 years old can go inside and confront the bull. These brave souls, usually drunk, are called toreros improvisados. At least one ambulance waits next to the rodeo since three injuries per night is the norm. In Costa Rica, it’s illegal to kill animals as spectacle and bulls are treated as kings. The grand entertainment is seeing one of these creatures throw a grown man up in the air. No movie theater can compete with that kind of extreme, live, raw spectacle.
Saturday, March 28, 2009