Socialist farming collectives, Easter Sunday cockfights, and eventually returning home

---

Amateur cockfights attract a very interesting crowd of people. This is even more true when the event takes place on Easter Sunday, weeding out the more Christian cockfighting aficionados, leaving only the most heathen and irreligious of an already less than puritan group. But after an entire week of watching crowds of people carry effigies of Jesus through the streets of León I was ready for a change, and so committed to watching roosters try and kill each other, just for a change of pace. I realize that cockfighting is morally questionable at best, but as a person who eats chicken and worked at the Stampede I refused to play the role hypocritical and uninformed foreigner, and thought the best idea was to just go and see the spectacle with my own eyes. Also, Richie has finally arrived and we collectively decided that it would be immoral for the two of us to NOT go to a Nicaraguan cockfight on Easter.

I will spare you the more gruesome details, as the carnage is not really the draw of these events...it is the ambiance. Basically a cockfight is the stereotypical expression of machismo that you would imagine it to be; never have I seen so many men drinking, gambling, and continuously yelling the word "puta" at a farm animal. People were very friendly, and even gave us some pointers on how to choose the best rooster...these apparently didn´t set in for me, as I bet with Richie 3 times, and lost each one. Either he is a prodigy or I know very little about how to tell if one chicken will beat up another. I can safely say that I am glad I went to one cockfight, and glad I will never be going to another.

Richie and I are going to try and live on a farming collective near the city of Estelí for a while. We are not sure exactly where it is, and they don´t seem to be checking their emails for holy week, but we figure things will work themselves out, and that we will be living the simple but rewarding lifestyle of Nicaraguan farmers by tomorrow´s end. This decision to leave is prompted by both the allure of farming with a bunch of crazy Nicaraguan socialists, and the simultaneous will to escape the backpacker/hostel scene, which tends to wear thin very quickly.

In other news, I will be home soon. I have booked a ticket out of Costa Rica to Chicago for the 23rd of April. I will stay in Chicago for a couple days to check out the University there, and then probably head straight for cowtown.

Love you all, and keep me posted during my last month of wandering. I need to get back in the loop...

Tim

---