The Niños and the Circus

.Puerto Vallarta, Feb 13, 2011...The Circus is in town and it's time to take our neighborhood niños on an adventure. Starting at 4:30PM the youngsters were treated to hotdogs (3 each) and refreschas in our condo, and then with Dolores’ purse completely stuffed with various treats it was time to embark on our adventure. The circus is located on the large vacant lot directly across from the Holiday Inn in north Vallarta.

Dolores and I, along with the 6 neighborhood kids, ranging in ages 8 to 15, loaded into our SUV at 5 PM, and headed to the Circos Do'Portugal lot where we were able to park for a grand total of $20 pesos. Of course we misunderstood the attendants request for $20 pesos and gave her $200 for which she patiently made change. I believe they must have made special provisions for all the “gringo’s” since this was the first time in all my years in Mexico that I was able to get change for such a transaction, i.e., $180 pesos change returned for such a small, $20 peso, cost.

After waiting at the front of the line queue we were released into the tent and had our choice of seats. Performances lasted approximately 2.5 hours and covered everything from clowns, chorus lines, animal acts (camels, horses, panthers, tigers), aerial acts (trapeze, tightrope, acrobats), and motorcycles racing inside an enclosed sphere. Believe me there’s nothing more fun than watching a circus with young persons. The “Wow’s, Oh’s, and Ah’s were constant.

Leaving the parking lot was a true local experience with all of the next performances guests trying to enter and all of us early "birds" trying to exit without anyone directing traffic; however, with Dolores aggressive driving talents and lots of encouragement from all her passengers we finally escaped. One of the things that truly amaze me about the Mexicans is their patience and graciousness under stress. No horn honking, finger waving, etc. during the exit process. And it really didn’t take that long to leave. Once out we returned home shortly after some last minute shopping at Sam's where I believe all the circus attendees were ahead of us in the checkout lines.