el árbitro nos ha robado el partido

On Saturday, as it was Valentine's Day (el día del amor y la amistad), and as Colin is such a romantic, he took Zoë out for a date... to the football!

A word of warning, if you have absolutely no interest in football you can probably stop reading here!

Ideally we would have been able to go and see our local team C.S. Herediano (English) play in their own little stadium. But as there hasn't been a suitable home game available we decided to take a trip to Tibas, a town/suburb just north of San Jose where Heredianos were away to Saprissa (English). At least this way we would get to see our home team and also get to visit Costa Rica's largest stadium, Estadio Ricardo Saprissa (English), where Saprissa, and also currently the Costa Rican national team, play.

When you visit Costa Rica, and if you have any passing interest in football, you cannot fail to see or hear about the football team Saprissa. They are the Manchester United and Chelsea of Costa Rica. The richest and most successful team in the country and who it seems nearly every second person in the country supports as their "home" team. As you walk the streets of Heredia or San Jose, or in the malls and street markets you will always see at least one person in the purple of Saprissa. It is a shame that Saprissa are the Man U of Costa Rica, and therefore we can in no way bring ourselves to support them, because their purple and white strips are quite fetching it has to be said (although perhaps wearing a shirt with "Bimbo", Saprissa's sponsor, across the front isn't smart in the UK).

We are not quite sure what the appeal is in supporting a team than nearly everyone else also supports (or at least it would appear that way). Saprissa do have one other team in the country that they are large rivals with, and that is Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (English). However, and this might just be in the areas we have visited, even this team seem to only have half the support of Saprissa. In the sports shops in malls and in towns, the only football shirts on sale are Saprissa, LDA and the Costa Rican national strip. Walking around we do occasionally see people wearing foreign football tops, these are only ever Barcelona, Real Madrid, Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal, no one else.

On approach to the stadium there were plenty of opportunities to purchase (mostly) Saprissa and (some) Heredia merchandise from the various street vendors that had set up stalls on street corners. Zoë was particularly attracted to the spiked furry hats with tails, but managed to resist. There were also one or two touts selling tickets. At the stadium itself there were quite large queues formed at the boleteria, but there was one window selling tickets to the palco and platea which had a very small queue which we joined.

The stadium seats just over 23,000 people, so it was very similar in size to what we are used to with our own home stadium, Pittodrie, home of Aberdeen. However, Saprissa's stadium has two very large covered stands on the east and west sides (along the touchlines of the field) and two smaller uncovered stands on the north and south (along the goal lines).
As it was a special occasion we purchased two palco tickets. These were the most expensive seats available and were for the boxes that were half way up the east and west stands. They were 8000 colones each (which is about £18 for both - you would struggle to get one cheap seat ticket in Scotland for that). On this occasion the tickets were not for specific numbered seats, so upon checking with a steward were were informed we could sit wherever we wanted. The palcos were really just sections of this part of the stand that were partially separated by wooden sides to their neighbours. There was no glass front or soft seats here, although some of the palcos must have been private or corporate as they were locked and had televisions. Each of the boxes held about 40 seats, and we picked one that was empty at the time (about 25 minutes before kick-off). At kick-off time though, it and most of the other boxes filled up quite a bit with men, women and children all present. The stadium looked about half full (so again similar to Pittodrie!) but the attendance probably wasn't helped by the fact that the game was on television. The only area of the stadium that looked particularly active/rowdy was in the South end (the sol sur) where the Ultras and a brass band were located. This group of fans were continually jumping and seemed to be the only section that were singing any songs during the game.

That's not to say that our own section was completely quiet. In the front row of our palco was a male Saprissa fan who occasionally got quite animated and would allow us to hear some curses in Spanish. There were quite a lot of "hijo de puta" coming from him whenever a Saprissa forward missed another sitter.

It was also interesting to note that the few Heredia fans present were just dotted about all over the stadium, there was no one single area dedicated for them. Another difference was the fencing all around the pitch, something that hasn't been seen in the UK for a number of years. This did mean that no ball boys were situated around the field as the ball usually didn't make it over the fence when played out. The pitch at Saprissa is artifical turf and the ball did appear to bounce slightly more than on grass.

The game itself was quite entertaining, and the overall quality seemed very similar to that of an SPL game. As you would expect of a latin american country, the individual skill and technical ability was present, but it did seem that the players would often try to beat one man too many and then lose the ball too often. Crosses of the ball were often good and many of the goal chances came from these or fast counter-attacks. The goalkeepers, like many in Europe nowadays, preferred to punch the ball out rather than attempt to catch it.

Saprissa are currently rated 122 in the IFFHS World club rankings. As a comparison with Scottish teams, Glasgow Rangers and Celtic are 24 and 78 respectively and Aberdeen are currently rated 195.

Saprissa won the game 2-1, after Heredia had taken a 1-0 lead. Despite Saprissa dominating much of the game, they were helped by some dubious refereeing decisions including the award of a penalty and subsequent sending off of a Heredia player (Mauricio Solis). After this decision and the penalty it took about 5 minutes for the game to restart and the Heredia players to stop surrounding the dodgy ref. At the end of the game the ref was again surrounded (after he blew the final whistle while Heredia were about to take a corner) and we read later about the Heredia coach, Paulo Wanchope a name familiar to British football fans, complaining that his team had to play against 12 players (including the ref).

It took a long time for us to catch a bus back to Heredia as the queue was long and numerous full buses passed without stopping. But despite there being both Saprissa and Heredia fans in the queue everyone was in reasonably high spirits after a pretty good evening's entertainment.

Match photos from La Nacion.

City Culture & Cool Creatures

On the Thursday and Friday of Zoë's parents holiday here we visited San Jose and INBIOParque.

We followed (more or less) the walking tour of San Jose that was suggested in one of our guide books, this allowed us to see the main features of the capital city, including it's numerous parks and plazas, and also to visit a couple of museums.

The National Museum of Costa Rica is a good place to find out about the history of the country, Pre-Colombian and after Spanish colonisation. Entry was relatively inexpensive too ($5). It is housed in an old fortress, still pitted by bullet holes from the civil war, and there are many exhibition rooms, one section with photographs explaining the building's past life, and a very disappointing butterfly garden. Perhaps the beautiful butterflies don't like living in a fort.

The Jade Museum houses the largest collection of jade in the Americas and there are also displays of pre-Colombian pottery and sculpture all of which gives an insight into the lives of the indigenous people of Costa Rica. There is also a gold museum in San Jose which we have visited on a previous occasion. To be honest we preferred the gold museum as there was a bit more to see. The jade museum entry cost $7 per person.

Our own private walking tour ended at the grand Teatro Nacional which was built thanks to a coffee tax in the 19th century when the country's social elite decided the country was lacking a theatre suitable to attract world class performances. We didn't see any world class performances whilst we were there but we did stop in the theatre's lavish cafe for some top class (but pricey) ice-cream and coffee.

On Friday we visited INBIOParque. This is a large park and educational area where you can experience various types of Costa Rican ecosystems, see lots of different plants and a few animals, insects and birds too. We were unsure whether we were going to come here with Zoë's parents, but the unfortunate closure of the La Paz Waterfall Gardens due to the earthquake made up our minds for us. We have been here before and enjoyed the feel of the place, so we were quite happy to revisit. We had a lovely few hours strolling around and as a bonus saw a sloth with its baby moving slowing through the trees. Delightful!

INBIO also has a man-made lake which is inhabited by various wildlife including iguanas, a real favourite of Zoë's.

Toros a la Tica

Having not had our fill of farmyard animals, Colin thought he would find out whether he was allergic to bulls as well as horses. So yesterday, we went to see Toros a la Tica. Las corridas (literally: the runnings) of the bulls is the Costa Rican answer to bullfighting. This event takes place in many locations around Costa Rica, but at this time of year the main event is at the Fiestas San Jose (which opened on the 25th December and ends on the 4th January). Toros a la Tica is very popular and is shown live on national television.

Fiestas San Jose is a huge party with fairground rides, megabars, concession stands and of course Toros a la Tica, which takes place in Zapote on the other side of San Jose to where we live. To get there we had to take a bus into central San Jose and then another bus out to Zapote. Total cost one way, for one person, was 480 colones – a bargain considering that parking at the Fiestas costs between 2500 and 7000 colones. We weren’t quite sure where to get off the bus in Zapote but it became obvious when we saw the cordoned off roads, police officers and tall structures of fairground rides.

We arrived shortly before 12 noon, and as we wandered through the quiet fairground – most of the stalls were still closed or just opening - we saw a queue forming at the boleteria (ticket office) of the redondel (bull ring). So we joined it without knowing how long we would have to stand there.

Fortunately for us, the ticket office opened shortly after 12 noon and the queue started to move. Upon reaching the front of the queue we encountered an improbably small and low down hole in the wall (you had to bend down and even then it was difficult to see the person you were talking to). We managed to get our tickets for the afternoon toros without a problem, they cost 5000 colones each.

After leaving the fairgrounds in search of something to eat (we stumbled across the Zapote branch of Vishnu, a nice vegetarian eatery which has a branch in Heredia), we returned just before 2pm to find small queues at each of the entrances to the redondel. So once again we joined the queue without knowing how long we would have to stand there. Again, fortunately for us, the doors opened about 20 minutes after we joined the queue (just after 2pm).

When we entered the redondel we were greeted by about 8 rows of “seats” – somewhat like an amphitheatre where the “seats” are also the steps. We made our way to the top and sat down. In hindsight we’d have entered at a gate slightly further round the redondel so that we had a seat in the shade as it quickly became very hot. We dutifully applied more suncream, but being in the sun also meant that Colin had the opportunity/perfect excuse to buy a cowboy hat to provide some shade (Zoë had taken a hat with her).

I’m a cowboy. Howdy, howdy, howdy.

The first hour was filled with pasayos, oxcarts and a marching band from Guanacaste advertising the Fiestas in Santa Cruz in January. There were also some folk on horses (the horses appeared to be marking time – though Colin thought they were moonwalking), an announcer wearing yellow, and another guy dressed as a clown with a red nose. There was also a man in drag who arrived on an oxcart and made frequent appearances throughout the afternoon running with the bulls, acting as a cheerleader and jumping on and kissing men in the crowd after leading chants of “Beso, beso, beso” (“Kiss, kiss, kiss”), after which he would give them a prize of a stuffed toy.

At 3pm, about 100 young (mostly) men* entered the ring. They gathered together while a prayer was said, and then it was time for the first bull. They huddled round the gate, from which the bull would enter, before running away as soon as the gate was opened. Several seconds later the bull came careering out, to cheers from the crowd. Once the bulls initial charge was over, the men proceeded to try to get as close to the bull as possible and provoke it into charging at them.

They employed several methods to achieve this: waving an article of clothing at the bull (for example a scarf or t-shirt) like a Spanish matadors cape, kneeling down with arms outstretched in the bulls eyeline, jumping around waving their arms, or running quickly past the bull (brave men ran in front of the bull, those not so brave ran behind it patting its buttocks a they passed). Most of these attempts at provoking the bull had no effect whatsoever, and the bull just looked on with either disdain or confusion (depending on the age and experience of the bull). However, occasionally, the bull would enter into the spirit of the game and charge at one of the young men. This would always encourage large cheers from the crowd.

On the very odd occasion that the bull caught up with one of the men and either trampled him or tried to gore him with his horns, the crowd would go silent until the man got up. Whereupon, there would be a really loud cheer. We are not sure whether this cheer was for the man or for the bull.

Whenever one of the men did have a close encounter with the bull, their first stop was to get interviewed (and of course show their battlescars to the cameras) and then on to visit the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) for treatment if necessary.

Each round lasted between 10 and 20 minutes, whereupon two cowboys on horseback would come out to lasso the bull and take him away. Then it was time for another bull to come out. Sometimes, there would be a different challenge: occasionally, the bull would come out with a rider on his back, and there was a strange game that involved three men standing on beer crates while another man ran around them being chased by the bull (the object seemed to be to stay on the crates).

The last round finished at about 6pm, and the unluckiest man in the ring (who had turned his back on the bull thinking it was all over) was attacked by the bull as the cowboys were coming out. He was taken out of the ring by his fellow young men, and although he was then scooted off to the Red Cross on a stretcher he did have the wherewithal to ask for his cap back (which the bull had trampled in to the dirt) before being taken out of the ring, so we don’t think he was that badly injured. And we didn’t see any blood as he was taken past us.

Overall, it was a fun (if somewhat bizarre) afternoon. We didn’t want to see people being trampled or gored, but at the same time when the bull charged it did add some excitement to what otherwise looked like 100 young men running around playing “tag” in the playground. To the Ticos, this is a national sport and a fun, family, day out. When you go to the toros you are hoping for something to happen, but at the same time, hoping it won’t. As with many spectator sports a lot of the attraction is the atmosphere.

This bull decided to change the game by entering the "safety zone",

causing the men to flee into the ring, rather than out of it.

All in all, it seems that this is a somewhat more civilised (if you can call it that) way to mess about with bulls in a ring than anything involving a matador. The word matador comes from the Spanish word matar, meaning "to kill". At least here the bulls seem to be the stars of the show, and leave the redondel alive (and often kicking), if maybe a bit miffed or bemused.

*There were no women in the ring. Either they are not allowed to take part, or they are just more sensible.

Horsing around in San Jose

December 26^th was not a typical Boxing Day (for us). We took the bus into San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, to see El Tope. The bus journey into San Jose was unusual because it only took 30 minutes – normally this would take at least an hour. El Tope is an annual horse parade which travels along the main avenues in San Jose.

As we were having a general wander around downtown San Jose, we noticed that people were already filling up the sides of the streets in order to get the best positions for viewing the parade. So at 11.30ish, an hour and a half before the scheduled start time, we joined them.

While everyone was waiting for the horses to come, there were numerous street vendors making their way up and down the parade route selling items varying from drinks and snacks to seats and hats (oh, and little nodding horses). It was only a matter of time before we purchased a couple of little seats for ourselves (3000 colones for 2).

Just before 2pm, the parade reached us (we think we were about half way along the parade route). Yesterday’s La Nacion stated that 4000 riders were expected and we certainly have never seen as many horses at one time before. Just as we thought they were finishing, a new herd would come along. The guide book says “many Ticos come from outside the capital to show off their specially trained horses”. Let’s just say that some are more trained than others and there were times when the horses were in control of their riders rather than the other way round.

Many of the horses and riders stopped to allow members of the public to pet them (the horses, not the riders!), much to the delight of the children in the crowd. We don't think that the occasional habit of riders picking up small children out of the crowd and riding with them would have got past the Health & Safety Executive in the UK, and we're not sure that the use of mobile phones or drinking while in control of a four legged vehicle would have been allowed either.

There were little horses, big horses, young riders, old riders, riders with chickens on their heads and even a gladiator (on a horse, of course)!

By 4pm Colin was feeling the effects of being around so many horses (we suspect he is allergic to horse hair – there was a lot of it about) and even though the horses were still coming, we packed up our stools and went to catch the bus back to Heredia.