For the last two weeks Liberia has held a big exposition celebrating the joining of the Guanacaste province to the rest of Costa Rica. July 25 was the actual day of the joining and is celebrated as a national holiday throughout Costa Rica. The Liberia fair went from July 21 to July 31.

On the first Saturday, me and Sarah, the new girl from the States, went to check out the fair. The first weekend was slower and they were still setting up some of the tents, but there were still a lot of people there. Many of the tents were temporary restaurants, some were selling different Guanacaste cowboy stuff and there was also, strangely, a large number of car and other machinery dealerships set up. I guess some people need something to drive home after the fair. The biggest buildings by far were the three or four temporary bars set up in one corner of the fair. The bars were two and three stories high, and in the night they were crammed with people and extremely loud. We watched a bunch of horse competitions because Sarah was involved in similiar competitions in the States. The horses here are smaller and the riding style is different but it was still entertaining.

In the evening we bought tickets for the rodeo. They brought in two truckloads of bulls and each one had a rider who would try to stay on as long as possible. There were a couple of bullfighters with red capes in the ring who would distract the bull when it knocked the rider off. Also, any spectator could jump in the ring at any time for a thrill. They had two ambulances waiting outside the ring with a special door to shove injured people through. One guy got his foot caught in a rope and he was shoved through to the ambulance. After the bull calmed down, two men on horseback came out with lassoes and roped the bull. It was very entertaining, but I didn't try my luck outsmarting the bull in the ring.

The next weekend was a three day weekend because of the Guanacaste day holiday. On Saturday we returned to Liberia because they had a big concert. Unfortunately it was raining very hard and we got soaked and muddy. The concert was still packed and the entire fairground was full of people despite the weather. It was a Spanish reggae band which is extremely popular in Costa Rica, especially with the kids in my family. The band was very popular and people looked like they were having a good time despite the rain and the mud.

The rest of the weekend we spent at Playa de Coco, a nearby beach. It had a lots of good restaurants and tours for snorkelling and scuba diving and other things. The beach was nice, but rather small and crowded.