Church, street meat and BULLS!

Sunday mornings mean one thing in Central America: CHURCH! It seems so far in our travels, no matter how small the village or how desolete the town there is always one consistent and definate staple: the existence and possibilty for religion with prayer in a communal surrounding for the purpose of fellowship and worship in a CHURCH!
What this means to tourists like us is only one thing: nothing open and nothing for sale = no morning coffee!!! Albeit, the tradition and dedication is still very much appreciated.
Now that we feel like professional local bus travellers, riding back to Santa Cruz is actually pleasant as we anticipate what awaits us at this festival. All we know is that Liberia is totally deserted and can't help but wonder if every Tico, Chico and his cousins are in attendance....YUP, pretty much!!! The place is jammed with people everywhere and there is an air of total and complete celebration. There is only one thing on these people's minds on this glorious Sunday afternoon: PARTY. We have arrived.
We walk the strip and it doesn't take us long to figure out that we are the only tourists from outside of the country as far as we can tell. This is exactly what we are looking for on this trip: to be immersed in the culture with language, food, people and festivities.
The Bull Riding Championships start at 2. Plenty of time for us grab some street meat and purchase our tickets. The show is entertaining to say the least. The highlight for me was when the overhead main speaker caught fire and all I could imagine was that the entire stadium we were sitting in, including our seats was made of wood.
Taunting and teasing an innocent Bull in an enclosed circle is not my first idea of a game fairly played. It was however very interesting to witness how tradition sticks whether it makes sense or not. Then again, people may say the same thing about boxing:-)