San Marcos, Santa Barbara…I will never forget you.
My time off in this beautiful town was full of excitement. First my friend Claudio Pena introduced me to his amazing herd of Quarter Horses.
“These mares came from Texas,” Claudio said as we watched the horses graze in his ranch.
President of San Marcos’ cattleman’s association, Claudio loves the great american quarter horse.
“Their (Quarter Horse) strength, intelligence, stamina – I love everything about them,” he said.
After seeing Claudio’s beautiful horses he drove me to the town square where Xilmara Zelaya, presidential candidate for the Libre party, was having a rally. Alongside her husband, Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup in 2009 when he was president, the two arrived to a welcome worthy of a rockstar. People literally surrounded their car chanting and screaming as the two tried to get out. When they finally did leave the car, the crowd followed them to the stage freaking out. It was as if the Beatles were trying to enter Shea Stadium circa 1965.
After filming the political chaos, it was time to go to the Carerra the sinta. This is a horse race traditional to Honduras and other Central American countries. The day before the race Claudio told me he would get a horse for me to race and join the fun. He explained how I would use a lance to rip off a ring attached to a suspended rope as I raced by on my steed. In my mind I went back to medieval times imagining a large lance in my hand as I galloped towards a big ring.
The next day when I arrived at the race I laughed for a good 10 minutes when they handed me a lance the size of a pencil and showed me that the ring was no bigger than a quarter.
“Wait is this a joke,” I asked my friends.
“This is why it’s so hard to get a ring,” Claudio told me.
Riding a horse by the name of “Clown,” I galloped towards the rope holding the rings for the first time. As I aimed my little pencil size lance towards one of the rings I thought to myself, “Oh I got this.” In a split second the rings flew by and I was left holding my lance with nothing on it. The Hondurans had a good laugh.
This continued all afternoon as I had 5 tries. Not once did I manage to get a ring. I felt like a failure. Especially because those who did earned a kiss from the local beauty queens. My ego has seen better days but I had a ton of fun.
