We went to the rodeo yesterday! It was fun and hot, we saw 'charros' ride fine horses, saw Mexican locals dress in their finery and (we cannot go anywhere without mentioning this) we ate well. Now for the details.
Having seen all the signs for the "Nacional Charro Championships" hanging from most streetlight poles we knew the cowboys were in Town. Telling us all that the event was being held in the 'Arena Vallarta' was the easy part finding said Arena was much harder. This new Arena had been newly built this year way out of Town. A small village called "Colorado" in fact. Thirty minutes out of Town. So how to get there. Most taxi drivers wanted twenty to twenty-five dollars to take us and there was no guarantee that there would be a taxi to bring us back. So on to the trusty computer at nine-fifteen in the morning to "Mr Thrifty", my car rental pals and booked a car online for ten o clock. BTW booking a car online is the cheapest way to do things. We got a five-seater Nissan for $11.53 per day , but hold the rejoicing, by the time mandatory Mexican insurance and sixteen percent tax is added the final tally came to forty two dollars - still cheaper than two taxi rides to Colorado. So fitted with wheels we set off. Pointed towards the mountains and got out of Town. Navigating the usual danger of "Topes" - vicious speed bumps that are hard to see until one is right on top of them, we made it following the huge blue directional signs. The signs became smaller until the last turn when we saw the incongruous sight of a motorway sign in the middle of nowhere telling us to turnn left onto the dirt road. The dirt road took us through the usual Mexican village sights, dusty houses, smallholdings, chickens and roosters in the yards and horses tied to hitching posts - we were in the Country. Finally we came onto a very wide dirt road that had obviously just been graded. Looking ahead we saw, in the middle of a freshly cropped corn field, the Arena, A brand new steel competition ring with an impressive vinyl roof. We had arrived. "Twenty pesos Senor" ($2 parking fee) "Admission is free" the attendant told us in perfect english. Waved over to the next parking person he meticulously guided us to park on the white line marked in the field that designated the rows. He would not let us park until we had put the front wheels on the white line - such is the mindset, we have a line you will park on it.
 |
| Charro on a cell phone - the old meets the new |
Suitably impressed by the Stadium we found seats in the nearly front row, we deduced later that had this been a paid admission these seats would have been the "golds" as they were up front and padded flipdowns, as opposed to the nearby 'bleachers'. The show we had come to see was the celebration of the end of the Championships and a fun competition for the local charros. The atmosphere was a fun one not a competition by any means. That meant we saw bulls that had to prodded to buck and missed lariot tosses by the younger charros. What was impressive was the riding displays by the female riders - all riding side-saddle, see the pic, and the way all were dressed in finery, These were not charros dressed in working clothes. One touch of the modern was the one time, during a speed run, one of the charros received a cell phone call. He immediately pulled up his horse and proceede to answer the call. A clash of centuries.
After a while we were enticed by the smell of the barbecue to investigate. Finding a restaurant, with table cloths in a tent, we looked at the menu - all beef items (what would you expect at a Rodeo?) Doreen chose a burger, she declared it was better than the previous winner of OldTown and I had a plate called "Arrachera". For those trying to translate this Spanish forget it there will always be items on the menu that don't appear in the Berlitz lists of food items, this was one. Turned out to be grilled beef strips and dipping sauce trimmed with grilled green onions. Very tender, good food all round.
Back to the ring it was time for the bullroping. The idea was to demonstrate roping skills but started off with the release of a bull from the chute, and one of the more daring charros would try to be bucked off. The problem was that the bulls must have been more at home in the breeding (hey this is a family tale but the more poetic of you can change the word to rhyme) ring than the bucking ring and they were not inclined to jump. But undeterred the ropers still looped the first toss around the bull's neck and tried to hold tension on the rope to make the bull stand still long enough to allow a second roper to toss a loop under the bull's back feet and then entice the bull to step into it. Once looped at the back the bull was then hauled down, presumably to be branded. Enough of that and the lengthy presentaions, we were off to look at the vendors, Charles wanted to buy a hat, couldn 't find one, they were all either too big or too tight. We left - it was fun - great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment