Just an ordinary day...

Nothing special has been happening today.
That's usually a good thing!

The Carnaval from last Saturday and the Hipica or Horse Parade of Granada from last Sunday have past, and the city got back to normal.

The Hipica is the one day in the year that people with horses join an hours long parade.

There are $75000 horses and piano black carriages with rich farmers' wives waving at the spectators.

And there are the $200 horses with carretones made from used pieces of old trucks...
On the back of these carts, there are some plastic chairs with the wife and kids of the guy who uses the carreton all day to deliver rice, beans or wood to their customers.
These people are as proud as their rich counterparts.

And the nice thing is that the participants join the parade in the order as they arrive.
So it is the one day in the year that rich and poor mingle and everybody is as proud as the other to be part of the event!

The street children were the only ones absent. Not because they wouldn't like to watch this incredible event, but because of the police who doesn't want them around because of their looks.
But, just like every other year in the past, hundreds of nicely dressed guys come in buses from Managua on a day like this to pick the pockets of the innocent standers by.

Some things will never change...

Anyway... some of the children were watching from afar and did enjoy the show a little bit!
So they told me this morning when they came by to pick up a couple of bars of soap when they were on their way to the lake to go bathing...

For them these nice smelling (hardly) used bars of soap are a great gift...
They don't understand that our guests don't want to use soap that has been used by somebody else!
But at least this way the chavalos have some aroma therapy soap for them to use!