Dancing Saints and Cold Beer

We are in the small town of Diriamba about an hour south of Managua. Here, in the third week of January, is held the oldest, most traditional festival in Nicaragua , th Festival of Saint Sebastian. It has something to do with the statue of San Sebastian being washed up on a beach near here 500 years ago and the statue was in perfect shape after being in the ocean a long time. Anyway, San Sebastian has a couple of buddies, also saints in nearby towns who get together three times a year and parade around in the streets in big processions with troops of folkloric dancers. The statues are all about six feet high and carried around by 6 or 8 strong men. Th procession lasts all day and covers many miles. It is proceeded by many folkloric dance trops and many thousands of people. All were Nicaraguans except maybe 10 foreigners.

The dances in the festival all have to do with making fun of the Conquistadors as all the dancers wear masks depicting some kind of Conquistador. There are old men and old ladies dancing to marimba music, young men and ladies twirling around, and many young men dancing to drums and flutes who wear tall hats made out of ribbons and peacock feathers.

Once the three saints have met up in the next town, they are greeted by the Virgen Mary, who sends them on thir way back to Diriamba. Here, in the church, they mar h in with the dancers with thousands of people whistling, cheering and waving flags in which only can be compared to a giant, very racous pep rally.

We are being shown around town here by the very nice owner of our hotel, Roberto. He is a very fun loving man who built this hotel on his family's old coffee plantation. It is called Jardin and Vivero Tortuga Verde. Rooms are $35 and are very nice. We have had dinner with Don Roberto each night and of course he knows everyone, so we have got to meet a lot of folks. Roberto enjoys his cold beer, so of course we have joined him on a number of occasions. Nicaraguan beer is pretty light, but who is going to complain about a cold beer on a hot day? Yesterday, we met Roberto's 90 year old mother, who was serving food to all her friends, which is a local tradition on this day.