San Jose: Strangeness

Every city has its peculiar features, customs, and parks, and here are our favorite bits of weirdness from San Jose. First off, many stores have a hawker standing outside shouting into a microphone in an attempt to draw people to their store. This was new to us, but not THAT strange. What WAS strange was walking around in the evening and watching two competing butchers shop employees engage in a rap battle about who had the best meat...

 La Sabana park was a nice little green space we walked into one day to stretch our legs and get out of the downtown core. The park itself is very nice with several food vendors, boat rentals, and pony rides. What I found strange was the giant sculpture of a pile of bones in the middle island, without really any signage or context. Luckily, Kathryn was only too willing to have her picture taken in a Hero Pose to commemorate her apparent battle with the beast.

Peculiar to Costa Rica in general (especially in Guanacaste in the north-west) but most apparent to us in San Jose, is their variation of bullfighting. The sport is hugely popular at the end of the year and was literally on the TV of every restaurant we visited and nearly every channel at the hotel.

Now, as you will all know, Kathryn and I are pro-animal in most every way and expected to be appalled by Costa Rican bullfighting, but instead became utterly hypnotized by it. Before you judge, here's rule #1 (and pretty much the only rule):
1) Nobody is allowed to hurt the bull.

In each event, a bull (who is admittedly hungry and has a rope around his midsection to make him grumpy) is ridden into an arena where he inevitably bucks off his rider. Then dozens and dozens of people (who are PAYING to be in there) try to get his attention and somehow earn fame in the process. We saw "winners" being given groceries and whatnot, but many people apparently do it for the thrill. Eventually, when the bull is bored of chasing people around and starts to tire, people on horses lasso and remove it. Bulls that perform well are brought back year after year and generally have a far better life than Canadian beef cattle.