Festival Nacional de las Artes

This week, there was the Festival Nacional de las Artes in Turrialba and Siquirres.  It transformed the whole city and there was too much to see it all.  Here's a list of things we did and saw.

There were projects, like making masks and making rain sticks.  James, Maggie and I all made masks, but they are a little too big to wear.  Maggie's friend Hector made a rain stick, but we didn't get to.  Some locals had crafts for sale, such as green glass earrings that Mom got.

There were also exhibits all over town from professional Costa Rican artists.  One person took pictures of reflections and turned them upside down. The show was called 180 degrees. I thought it was cool because it looked like the reflections were real people. Another exhibit was in the Courthouse. It was of sculptures and paintings and photos.  And there was this really cool, high-tech "road from Turrialba to Siquirres". There were toy cars that you could move on a special board that had a map of the road.  When you did, it was like colors burst all over the place.  Then, at CATIE, there were junk sculptures made of old pieces such as drill bits, bicycle chains, gears, poles, and an old fashioned bicycle.  I really liked the exhibit in the Courthouse.

Another major part of the Festival was the shows.  In a school field trip we went to see a puppet show production of Jack and the Beanstalk.  It was cool because it took place in Costa Rica.  There were concerts every night, but we didn't go out to many of them - we could hear the music from our house. One that we did go to had (in the first half) pre-Columbian music from Chile, Mexico, and other Central American countries.  It sounded like jungle animals with drums and maracas.  The second half was a Guatemalan theater/musical/dance performance telling the story of the fight between humans and spirits.  Their costumes reminded me of Native American ceremonies.  The whole family liked it, but we were really tired and hungry at the end.

Overall the Festival was very interesting and... FESTIVE!

Respectfully submitted,
Grace