Happy Independence Day!

Sarah: Today we celebrated Costa Rica’s Independence Day. Ana, QERC’s housekeeper, had asked David yesterday if he wanted to ride horses up to the top of the valley to the highway and watch the passing of the torch. He asked if I could come too, and her response was “Well…it’s a long way up there…”. However, I decided to brave the long horse ride and go along. The passing of the torch is a really neat tradition. A couple days ago the official torch was lit up in the Guanacaste area of Costa Rica and people have been traveling around the country, passing the torch off to different towns and cities along the way to take it to the next destination. A group of runners left this morning from Cartago at 1:00 am and the plan was to make it to the top of our valley at 7:00 am for the next handoff.

David and I met at Ana and her husband Felo’s house at 5:00 am this morning, had some coffee and a quick breakfast, and hopped on the horses. Apparently it’s an old tradition to ride all the way up the valley on horses (at least for the men to do so…part way up I realized I was the only female!), so there were about 20 of us total. The women drive up with the kids and lots of coffee and more breakfast foods. After an hour and a half ride up, we made it just in time for the torch to arrive. Along with it came the runners and a bus full of people traveling with the torch. It actually felt like Independence Day, with flags everywhere and the torch preceded by police cars waving flags and honking their horns.

In addition to the Costa Rican flags being flown, there were lots of signs and flags showing their position against TLC, which is the Spanish version of CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement). This has been a huge issue for Costa Rica ever since last year’s presidential elections, when one candidate was in support of ratifying the agreement and another candidate was against it. Costa Rica is the only Central American country who has not signed the agreement with the U.S. Oscar Arias won the election last year, and although he was in support of TLC, it has been such a huge debate in the country that it has been decided to go to an all-country vote. The vote will take place in October, and it will be the first countrywide vote since Costa Rica gained its Independence. Our valley is predominantly against TLC, since they are all small farmers and TLC would bring an influx of multi-national factory farms that would basically put them out of business.

At the passing of the torch ceremony this morning, a few people spoke about the tradition and some good patriotic stuff, we all greeted each other, and then the group left for the next town. All of us from the valley then hung around the cars and all the food the women had brought up. The ride down on the horse also took about 1 ½ hours. A couple of the kids got to ride along side-by-side or in the saddle with their fathers, including Carla, Ana and Felo’s youngest daughter. By the time we arrived back to the house, our buns had had enough of being in a saddle!

This evening we went to another celebration at the school in honor of Independence Day. We sang lots of patriotic songs and watched the school kids perform many typical Costa Rican dances. After the festivities we ate lots of typical Costa Rican foods. Last year at this time we had been in Costa Rica only a few days. We had gone to the school for the festivities, but the evening wasn’t nearly as extensive as this year’s, and we of course hardly knew anyone last year! It was such a great feeling to be a part of the passing of the torch and the school celebration this evening and feel like we are accepted members of the community here. Quite the difference one year has made!