Friday my family had also started gearing up, because our house was the most happening place in town for all of Saturday. The mom served meals to anyone who came, and there was a bar I helped set-up and load with more than 1200 beers for the day (they ended up needing to restock). On Saturday I tried to keep-up with the brothers on beer when they started drinking at 10 AM, but ended up falling asleep in bed from 2 to 4, and waking up with a headache I had to take some time to walk off. Rest of the day I just hung around watching all the antics, enjoying the live music (violin, drum, PVC flute, guitar-- all playing traditional music), dancing a bit (including with a chair after a pretty drunk guy decided he wanted to lend me his "woman").
Sunday afternoon was the juego del toro-- literally "bull game." When I showed up I was afraid it was going to be a bull-fight of the kind where they kill the bull. I was relieved that it wasn't. They bring a truck of bulls, unload them one at a time, let each one run around a bit while they pester it with red capes. Sometimes someone tries to ride the bull. Then the lasso the bull and struggle to get it up a ramp into a different truck. I'm not sure about the ethics of it, but I was relieved enough that no animals were being slowly killed (or killed at all) that I didn't feel too bad enjoying the excitement of it. I sat on top of the fence along with a bunch of friends. Sometimes the bull would charge the fence, but were okay as long as we raised our legs (other than the one bull that was into headbutting, which didn't cause any problems for me, but toppled my neighbor off the fence). I also went into the ring some, bolting up the fence when the bull came near. This happened over and over again, for 6 hours each day from Sunday to Tuesday. The last few days there was also live music. For most people it seemed to be just an excuse to gather, and for many of them to enjoy a good number of beers or seco (the liquor of the area, which is basically flavorless like vodka but made from sugar cane like rum).
At night after the bullfights, there was a "discoteca" with a DJ the first night, and "bailes" with bands playing traditional music the next couple of nights at the jardin (giant pavillion with a bar in the back). I went to the discoteca and the last baile. Both were fun because of dancing and friends and drinking and music and whatnot. The thing that surprised me most were how many seperate parts have to be paid for-- entry cost money (some nights), there were also seperate charges for dancing, lawn chairs, little metal tables. Ice however, was surprisingly free and bountiful.
Unsurprisingly, Monday and Tuesday were very minimal school days. Very few students showed up (60/160 on Monday) and so I didn't teach at all. More frustratingly, today, which was supposed to be my last day and big goodbye and whatnot, was cancelled because they were going to cut the water for the whole area for 12 hours. In fact, that didn't happen, but schools not happening anyway. I'm gonna drop by tomorrow for a quick goodbye, then I'll be off to a monkey sanctuary, followed by the hub of a coffee-growing area, and some tropical islands. Then it'll be an overnight bus straight back to Panama City where I'll get on my plane and be USA bound.
Sidenote: The USA beat Panama in the Gold Cup (Soccer championship for Carribean, North, and Central American countries) final on Sunday.
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