Ostriches, llamas, and snakes oh my!

So I went to the circus last night and my, was it quite an event.  There were shows at 6 & 8pm but Jasser told me the 8pm would be better because the earlier show would have more kids and such.  Well, the 8pm show didn't start til about 9pm and went until 10:45pm.  Yikes!  Good thing I didn't have to get up too early today.  Anyway, on to the details...

In the words of Barnum & Bailey: "Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Children of all ages! Step up, step up! Come one, come all, to 'The Greatest Show on Earth!'"

Well, I wouldn't call this the greatest show on Earth, but it was pretty entertaining.  I eagerly waited outside the large tents with Jasser, Hazzell, and her friend.  We bought the tickets and then got in line to go inside.  (side note on lines in Nicaragua: people cut.  It's unfair.  It's dumb.  I don't like it.  No matter where you are--post office, internet place, street restaurant, health center, etc.  Some people just walk up right in front of you because you weren't close enough to the front apparently.  Sometimes I feel invisible.  I've tried to step up and push my way through but I feel so rude--definite cultural difference.)  We finally got to go inside and pick out our "seats".  There were two prices: one for general admission (wooden bleachers) and one for "VIP" (plastic chairs on the floor in the front).  Jasser said that if you sit in the plastic chairs the clowns both you, so that was a definite tip to stay far away from those chairs.  (another side note, but on  clowns in Nicaragua.  If you hate clowns in the USA, then you'll hate these clowns even more because these ones love to pick on gringos...and sometimes they're hard to avoid because they get on buses and do their act there--all I want to do is just ride the bus home...). 

So, we walked very carefully up the wooden bleachers to pick out our seats to see the action from the best angle.  Why did we have to be extra careful?  Well, because these bleachers were just put together with long planks of wood with no parts in between (you know how bleachers usually are, where you sit on the bench part and there’s a part below where your feet go so you don’t have to put your feet where the people in front of you sit, well yeah that part wasn’t there) leaving large gaps that I dared myself not to fall through.  It didn’t help that the wooden planks rocked a little while you stepped from one to the next.  I can’t believe we sat near the top.  It was just an adventure getting to our seats, and then why did they have to be selling popcorn?!  I have a weakness for popcorn, so down Hazzell and I went, holding hands to support each other on the way down, and then once again back up, now we the distraction of a full bag of popcorn in one hand.  Neither of us fell into the black abyss below thankfully.

                                                                  

                                                                             Safety regulations???  
 

The show started with a little presentation of the Nicaraguan flag and introduced some people that would be participating from various countries.  The first act was the man on the motorcycle inside the large metal ball.  He rode around in circles from the top to the bottom and around the side so he was parallel from the ground.  The next part was crazy.  He asked for volunteers to step inside the ball with him.  Um, no thanks.  A young man and woman both entered and stood in the middle of the ball while the man zipped around them on his motorcycle.  There weren't any casualties at this circus.

There was a man who laid on his back and spun things around with his feet, clowns on tightrope wires, and lots of animals: horses with monkeys on their backs, twin llamas, and large snakes/boas (they put them out on the ground in the circle and turned off the lights--it was hilarious to hear all the screams, only because I was up high on the bleachers...)

I really enjoyed watching the guy do the fabric spinning type thing in the air, kind of like cirque du soleil.  Also, the kids on the trampoline were pretty fun.  Although that trampoline looked way dangerous!

 

Then it was time for the man to walk inside the metal cylinder as it spun around with a weight on the other end.  He did a couple "tricks" where he was blind-folded, jumping rope, and "fell" but landed back inside the cylinder.  He got me the first time--I thought he was a goner. 

That was pretty much all of the acts, oh wait, I forgot to tell you about the part in the middle where they let the audience come down to greet the animals and take pictures...

Yes, that's real and I was a little scared...  Jasser was even more though because he made me hold the head haha