Day 14 Cabalgata!

Andrea and I had the pleasure of attending a cabalgata today. What in the heck is a cabalgata, you ask?  It is basically a party with horses. In this region of Costa Rica, the Guanacaste, cattle ranching is a big part of the landscape and of the culture. Not everyone is involved of course, but the cowboy culture is alive and well and many people ride horses for work and for pleasure. A cabalgata is a chance to get together and socialize---and show off your horses.
Friend Wendy had been invited to attend and was loaned a horse, she in turn suggested we might come to see a slice of local life, Costa Rican style. We made the drive over the mountains and arrived in the village of San Pablo as the first trailers full of horses were unloading. Soon the field was full of horses and the big shed was full of Ticos in boots and hats, many wearing matching western style shirts with embroidered club names on their back.

Wendy and Perlita

Beer flowed freely and we were all served meat soup and rice at big tables. As the only gringos in attendance (in addition to Wendy and another neighbor Mike) at the table of one of the most prominent ranching families, it was suggested we speak only in Spanish out of respect to our hosts. This we did, although for me that means I was pretty much limited to saying that yes, I have horses at my house in the United States and, I like your hat! I really regretted not brushing up on Spanish more before I came down.

Don Antonio flanked by two friends

We were under the impression that the horse riding activities were going to start in the morning but we soon came to understand that the party would continue until it started to cool off in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, since we had planned to visit a nearby nature preserve that day as well and we didn’t want to drive back in the dark, we reluctantly left before the horse activities started. We did get to enjoy looking at them, the different tack they wore, and heard from Wendy later all about what the riders did. What we reluctantly missed were games on horseback, herding water buffalo, and a demonstration of horse dancing in which horses under saddle prance in place on a small wooden platform in order to demonstrate their training and even cadence. The day ended with a trail ride through the lush countryside.

I will certainly look forward to attending another cabalgata perhaps even having a horse to ride there!