Fairs and Markets

One night we went to the fair in town. There were thousands of people there of all ages. There are about 6,000 people who live in the town and half of them must have been at the fair! They had many ferris wheels and lots of rides for kids. They had many different things to sell - everything from food to household goods, like pots and pans, to clothes, CDs, etc. They sold these cookies that were very popular as they are only available during the fair. The cookies looked like little pretzel bagels, but tasted a lot like our animal cookies - I was hooked! All of the women were in their typical dress, which consists of beautiful and colorful skirts and blouses of all different colors. The men pretty much all wore jeans and t-shirts, but I was amazed to see brand names like Puma, Nike, Gap, Old Navy, Nautica, etc. There was a salsa band wearing full white suits and red shirts and dancing to their set dances. It was hysterical. Tons of people were dancing as well, but Scott and I didn´t make it up that close. I was hooked on watching the kids on their rides. They were so cute with huge smiles. There was one little girl on a ride who had a winter cap on (the kind that I call a tobogan) and she couldn´t have been more than 2 or 3. Everytime the ride came back around to where her family was, she would move her head down and back up really quickly and squint her eyes and make a huge smile. She was precious! I didn´t take any pictures because I didn´t want to be rude and we´ve read that it´s not smart to take pictures of local people here without their consent.


The next morning, we went to the market (mercado) in Santiago, which is the next town over on the lake. It was very much a traditional market for locals, where they sold absolutely everything. They had typical things like what we have at our markets, for example fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. But they also had everything else you can imagine, like toiletries, clothes, shoes, raw meat hanging everywhere, hair things, and even animals! They sold chicks, chickens, rooster, and puppies all over. When a chick or other animal would run away, they would have to run after it and grab it, so they didn´t loose out on their profits. Scott told me he would love me more if I wrestled a rooster right then and there, but I decided the love he already has would have to be enough. There was a woman on our boatride back who had bought a rooster and had it tied up by the feet and laid it down at the base of the boat. When the poor rooster woke up, it started squawking like crazy - it didn´t know where it was! It was amazing to see all of the things that everyone carried around. All of the women would carry large amounts of things balanced on their heads - absolutely amazing! We saw young girls carrying things on their heads too, so they must learn this incredible balance from a very early age. We saw men coming off the boat after shopping at the market with tons of things strapped to their backs to carry home. These are some strong people!

We also went to see the local diety called Maximòn (mah-shee-mohn). It was a ridiculous looking thing with tons of expensive clothes, hats and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. People come in large numbers - tourists to see what he is all about and locals to give gifts up to this god. They believe that they will have very good luck if they give money, cigars, flowers and other offerings to Maximón. We had a cute little local boy take us to see him. I had a big bunch of flowers in my hands that I had bought for Vicenta, the mother in the house where we were staying. The guy that was in charge of Maximón thought I had brought them for the god and he tried to take them away from me! He was pretty upset when I grabbed them back from him.

We finished up with our lessons and had to say goodbye to Angelina and Letty. They were great and helped us so much to learn more Spanish. You can see the 4 of us here saying goodbye. I was finally able, too to get a picture of some of these skirts - amazing, eh!?