On a weekend in February we got to Cochrane (a town on the Chilean Carretera Austral) on a Saturday in time to see a parade of horses and cattle headed for the rodeo grounds - we were lucky, it was the weekend for the annual costumbrista festival.
Costumbrista translates as of local customs and manners. The festival involved a showing of horses of horsemanship, of rodeo snd camp draft type events, and local knitting and weaving exhibions as well as music.
We stayed for a good part of the evening but left before nightfall. We really enjoyed the event but I was surprised to see the men riding very small bulls in the rodeo events, and whipping them. The champion bull rider not only rode the bull the longest but also jumped off and back onto the bull to be facing backwards and ride some more. He deserved the prize money (I think it equated to about $100) for entertainment value. The poor guy in the photos didn't go so well.
I liked seeing the traditional costumes of the horsemen, and I met one who insisted I ride his horse a bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment or ask a question, I'd love to hear from you!