Tope ~ March 17, 2013

Every December and March there are local fiestas in Villa Real, the small town outside of Tamarindo.  These fiestas are small town carnivals complete with food stands, carnival rides, LOTS of drinking and drunk people and of course, a  bull ring.  

There's lots of fun activities that go along with the fiestas. One is the Baile de Polvo (the Dust Dance) which takes place in the bull ring (minus the bulls!!) and marks the beginning of the fiesta.  It's called the Dust Dance because well, when you get a few hundred people dancing in a dust ring, you make a big dust cloud.  

Another event that takes place during the fiestas is the Tope -- a horse parade where riders meet in the center of Tamarindo (the Circle) and ride to the fiestas in Villa Real - about 2 1/2 miles away. 

The Tope this year took place on St. Patrick's Day, Sunday, March 17.  I personally didn't care to ride.  It looks like a lot of fun, but sadly I'm not too keen on riding horses.  I think they're awesome to look at from afar, but I'm actually a little afraid of them.  And they say animals can sense fear so I thought it would be best not to take any chances.  However, the hubby and our good (hilarious) friend Fabio decided to participate so I opted to be the photographer for the day.

For those wanting to actually mount up and ride, you pay a nominal entry fee which entitles you to ride with the group, a free lunch and of course, a complimentary "drink" - which to most people means beer.   

Good For One Drink

If you have your own horse, that's great, but if not you can rent one from Jeronimo, who seems to be the go-to guy for the best horses.   He has a house and stables in Villa Real and for $30 you can rent a horse for the event.

We arrived at his place around 10:30 a.m. and hung out there for a bit watching him prep the horses.  The horses definitely sensed that a party was in the air.  I'm sure these horses have been through a million of these things before.  I'd think it's as big a party for them as for the people.

Around 11:30 or so, the guys finally got their horses and the party officially began!

After doing a bit of riding on the dirt roads behind town, me and the guys met up in Tamarindo to people watch, and of course, have a few drinks. Little by little, spectators, horses and their riders filled up the Circle.  Salsa music floated through air and everyone, including the horses, was in a festive mood.

Every year this guy mounts up his own sound system to his horse and blasts salsa music.  Classic!

 

By around 2:00 p.m. the show got on the road and the riders started heading out of town.  About midway between Tamarindo and Villa Real there is a rest spot (aka drinking depot) where the riders cash in their drink and meal tickets.  I'll take a long shot guess here and assume that most people have more than their "1 drink ticket" entitlement!

Us "non-riders" got in our cars and headed out to the fiestas.  It took the riders around 2 hours to get from Tamarindo to Villa Real and by the time they did, a good number of them appeared to barely be able to stay on their horse.  Poor horse!  We all stood along the side of the road like we were cheering runners coming over the finish line.  

I love this dancing horse!

As the sun set over the backdrop of the fiesta, people met up around the food and beer stands and in the cantina and shared laughs about the day.

Until December.......

Here's a gallery of all of my photos from the Tope.

Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

The Age Game

Growing.  Growing up.  Grown up.  Growing old.  Old. 

Why does it seem that everyone is getting younger and younger?  Or is it just that as I go through my own life journey, I realize how very young I was when I was that age??

The area I live in has a tourist season which brings lots of young people from all over the world.  Late teens, early-mid 20's.  Free. Traveling.  Having fun.  No worries (or from this perspective 20 years later knowing that there were rarely any real worries in the long run!)  Not worrying about tomorrow, today.  Not having a care.  And now that you mention it, not yet knowing exactly what it is they should be caring about in the first place. Ahhhh, the bliss of youth.  

A girlfriend of mine had a chuckle the other day.  I'm 41 and she's turning 42 soon.  Since we do live in this youth attracting area, it is really just about the only place on earth that we've been considered an "older woman".   What a hoot!

I caught myself watching a table of 3 of these "youngsters" at a bar the other night.  I'd say they were between the ages of 18-20, from somewhere in South America.  Young.  Flawless.  Beautiful.  Free.  Laughing.  And (hopefully) with their whole lives ahead of them. They can choose anything at this point.  I started to flashback/daydream about myself at the age.  The choices I made.  The roads those decisions led me down.  And it's funny because at that age, you have no idea what the outcome will be.  Or how much potential you have.  You only come to those realizations by making the choices, good or bad, and traveling the roads to which they lead.

But you know, "youth" is a funny thing.  It's determined from what point in time you take a look.   I may look at these travelers I encounter and think they are so young and with the vast world in front of them.  But 20 years ago, I was that young woman to someone and to someone 20 years older than me, I still am.

This occurred to me recently when I met two women I'd estimate to be in their early 70's.  We chatted about how I came to be living in this tropical paradise and all the standard questions "do you like it here?", "did you come alone?"  The one woman looks at the other and says "ahhhh, to have so much time and opportunity left." 

And she's right.

What a strange world it is that puts so many head-trips on the impossible task of remaining young forever.  I think it is so easy to lose sight of the fact that no matter where you are in this youth-game, you still have what's ahead of you - ahead. 

In the end, you just gotta embrace where you are and realize, that you are TODAY the youngest you will be for the rest of your life. 

Homemade Traditional Pastries

One of the best parts of traveling any where should be the food.  Especially pastries!  A typical (seasonal) pastry in this area of the country are tasty little cracker/cookies named "roquillas" (pronounced "roskeeyuz") which are made during Semana Santa, the week before Easter. 

Each year, my mother-in-law ("Dona A") makes about 1000 of these little yummy pastries along with other corn flour morsels, packages them up, sells them to neighbors and gifts them as long anticipated munchies to her kids and grandkids. 

Talk about homemade.

The whole process starts in her nearby corn field where the corn is grown, picked and de-cobbed.  The kernels are put into a hand grinder and ground over and over to create organic corn flour, the main ingredient in rosquillas.

A portion of this is separated and put aside for sweet pastries, and the remaining flour is for the rosquillas.  The flour is again put through the grinder with water, salt and a dry cheese from a neighbor's cow to form a dough.

Usually Dona A has a friend helping and the two women sit across from each other, sharing a huge tray of this mixture.  For hours, they sit there kneading, gossiping and talking with people that stop by to see how things are going.

They knead the dough over and over and form little rings around their finger, pinching the ends together.  It sounds easy, but it takes a lot of practice to get the right amount of dough and the right form.  I guess a 1000 or more of these a year for the past 50 or so years is enough practice.  Being unpracticed, I wasn't so great.

 

The flour that was set aside is mixed with sugar to create a sweet dough.

From half of this dough, Dona A makes amaaaazing homemade papaya jam stuffed empanas.  The papayas, which are grown outside in her yard, are cut and cooked with a little sugar to make a delicious, sweet pulp.

The other portion is mixed with a milk similar to buttermilk and put into a pan, making a sort of semi-sweet cornbread

Using all of the flour takes them from about 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The raw creations are stacked up all over the kitchen table and counters.  Let's cook these babies!!

It's time to turn on the oven.

But, not as in "Hey honey, can you put the oven on 450 for me?"   This is an outdoor wood burning oven normally used for cooking pottery.   Filled with just enough wood to heat up to about 450, about an hour later the trays are put into the oven and the cooking begins.

People continue to stop by and chit chat.  Someone goes to get some beers and everyone sits around the yard watching the trays loaded in and out of the oven.

Dona A starts to get worried because she's always so afraid that a tray will get dropped or that the oven is not the right temperature.  I suggest she come and sit down with me on the stoop and finish her beer.  She complies and keeps putting her head on my shoulder saying "I can't look" when a tray is lifted into the oven.  (In her opinion, the guys aren't using the right spatula to pick them up and they are going to tumble!)

In the end, it all works out and everything makes it safely from the oven.

My favorites are the papaya filled empanas and an afternoon cup of coffee.  Yes please!!

Creating Patinas for Copper

I'm definitely not a chemist and on top of that, I'm very clumsy.  Thus, I'm always a bit reluctant to work with chemical solutions of any kind.  Who knows what kind of toxic smoke cloud I could accidentally create!?!?  But when came across a pin on Pinterest about colorizing copper using a solution of ammonia and salt, I thought "Sheez, even I can do that!"

I've played around with the solution and few times now.  There is no way to control the colors or patterns that develop, however, I'm loving the randomness of the results. 

I made this copper cuff and decided to see what sort of magic potion I could create for it.

I placed the bracelet in a plastic, airtight container, layering the bottom with paper towels, a small amount of ammonia to moisten the towels and a layer of salt.

 

Then, I put the bracelet on top of the towels/salt/ammonia and again, layered it with salt and a layer of towels -- moistening it with the ammonia.  Not so much ammonia that the salt would get rinsed away - just enough to moisten it.

I covered the container and let it do it's thing for a short while. 

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

There isn't a specific time that the magic happens, I just had to keep checking back until the piece looked "done".  After about and hour I checked it to see how things were developing.

I wanted there to be a bit more coloration on the front so I relayered and resalted it and put it back for about another 45 minutes. After that, I felt it looked pretty good so I rinsed it with water and applied a coat of Renaissance Wax to help deter oxidization and seal the patina.

This was the end result.

I love the turquoise!

Here are a few other pieces I've experimented with.

Supposedly the solution works on brass as well.  That'll be my next adventure.

More Leather!!

As you may know from my previous post, I'm obsessed with leather.  I still buy most of my supply on-line, but in a dream world, I'd find local suppliers so that I could touch, see (and smell!) the leather before purchasing it.  Considering I live in the middle of the country where it's difficult to find many of the basics required for everyday life, you can imagine what a treasure hunt finding leather shops is.

My super duper talented friend Lydia (who also has a shop in town) makes the cutest leather feather earrings so I asked her where she gets her leather.  Come to find out - she stumbled across a little shop in Liberia (about 45 minutes from me) where they repair shoes, belts and saddles.  So the hubby and I set off to try to find the place to see if they might have something I can use.

After a few left and right turns, and then a U-turn or two, we located the little workshop tucked away on the backside of town.  As we stepped through the doorway into the dark, cluttered space - it was clear that time had stood still there for many, many years (especially in the organization department!).

Translation:  Leather Workshop - The Star - The Morales Brothers

Inside were three men in their late 50's to mid 60's hustling around mounds and mounds of leather, misplaced shoes, belts with missing buckles, tools and God only knows what else!

From what I was able to see, all of their equipment was antique - much like these sewing machines.

 In the back, a shirtless man hovered over one of the sewing machines, working on a piece of leather.

I inquired if they had scrap leather for sale.  One of the men came over, looking a little confused so I clarified that I make jewelry and was looking for thin leather.  The man said he thought he had some and proceeded to dig.  He dug a little here and a little there and slowly came up with bits and pieces of amazing brown, navy blue and black leather.  Jackpot!!!  The price was fantastic, the quality couldn't be better and only 45 minutes from home!

He said he gets different leathers from time to time and could probably find me some of the brighter colors I'm interested in, so I asked for a business card.  This was it.....

I love it!!