FESTIVAL IMPERIAL

I have decided to skip out on talking about Cahuita. It can be summed up pretty quickly: stayed alone at some amazing cabinas with a German family (owners), went to the beach, walked on the beach, saw crabs, got tan, went home. It wasn't a boring trip, I just don't feel like writing that much about it. Check out the pictures for more "stories." (Dear reader: You did know that you can see all my photos by just clicking on that link on the top of the left-side menu? Love, Ellen)

So let's talk about the FESTIVAL IMPERIAL! For those of you who aren't aware, Imperial is the beer of Costa Rica and they were the ones who sponsored this amazing two-day festival. It was in La Guacima, quite a hike from Barva... about 2 hours on three different buses. But only about $2 in total.

Day 1: I woke up at about noon (tehe) and called Amelia and Brittney to see where they were at. They had gotten up early and gone at 11 when the doors open. Brats! Haha just kidding. I called up a friend of mine, Marco, to see if he wanted to come with me... of course he did. So we took the buses over there together which was good because I really didn't know what I was doing. When we got there, I was able to go in because I had already bought a ticket, but Marco had to stay outside and wait to find a cheap ticket. I called Brittney and she said that they were packed in like sardines since about 2 o'clock (I got there at about 3:30 or so) and that I wouldn't be able to squeeze my way in. But when I got into the gramilla preferencial (the good spot), I spotted Amanda and Renee' who had decided that the mosh pit wasn't for them. Good thing too, because I definitely wouldn't have been able to get to where Amelia, Brittney, and Nathan were. We stayed in the open air, and we still had a great view of the stage. At 5 or so, some random nobodies started to play, followed by Le*Pop who had the craziest backup dancers ever. They, unfortunately, were booed off the stage, and followed by Cafe Tacuba who were pretty much amazing. They reminded me of Ok Go when they all started to do this little dance that was pretty much amazing. [http://youtube.com/watch?v=xzp4En5ftcg] They got the crowd going crazy, and the girls and I were dancing like crazy even though we had no idea what was going on. I made "friends" with this guy behind me who heard us speaking English. He decided, drunkenly, that he needed to translate everything that they were singing. Um, hun, I speak Spanish but thanks. I then later found out from Renee' and Amanda that he had been grinding on me when I was dancing... I guess I had figured so, but didn't really want to turn around. We tried to get closer to the stage so we would be able to see better, but got sucked into the craziness that the girls had tried to escape earlier. I had to resort to whipping out my inhaler and pretending that I was really sick, just so people would let us get out of the middle of the mayhem. Babasonicos came on... again booed off the stage. We weren't a bad crowd, we just wanted to see INCUBUS!!! They came on and let me tell you, Brandon Boyd, the main singer, has a pretty amazing body... good thing his shirt came off :) We sang along to Anna Molly, Drive, etc. and were very pleased. We weren't super close, but in the scheme of things, we were like whoa close.

I got a call from Amelia, and unfortunately, she had to be taken out of the crowd by the Red Cross. Not really telling Amanda or Renee' what was going on, I ran out of the gramilla and made my way to the barriers by the Red Cross station. The imbecil guard would only let one of us go through, so I sprinted to the tents where I found Amelia a little shaken up. She had been pushed against the railing and in a bad spot in general. Luckily, a medic was able to get her out of there, and they let her cool off and lay down with some water. I made sure she was alright before we headed back, but we just went to get food and didn't go back to the stage area. We listened to the Smashing Monkeys, ahem, Pumpkins who sucked. Billy Corgan did the USA National Anthem on the guitar and it was so lame and made me angry. We waited until it ended to meet up with Brittney and Nathan because we didn't want to be in there anymore (the Smashing Pumpkins started playing at 10:30... 7 hours of standing...). We tried to catch a bus back to Alajuela, but there was no way that anyone was moving because there were cars for as far as the eyes could see. We found Nathan's host brother who had supposedly rented a bus with his friends that we were able to get in on also. We had to walk forever, through the web of stopped/parked cars but we finally got to it... at about 1:30 am. We arrived to Heredia at about... 2:30 am and I was going to take a taxi to Barva, but Jaime called me and told me that him and Cuca were going to pick me up because he didn't want me going alone. Note to self: Never get in a car that Cuca is driving. Then, I went to sleep at about 3 am. Yawning still.

Day 2: I had to go alone because no one had bought tickets for the second day. This time, I knew how to get there, and I arrived a little later... about 7:00 pm. I got there in time for me to eat some pizza and then be ready for SEAL!! Oh my gosh, he was so good!! His voice is so amazing it's a little unfair. He was wearing all white and talked in his little British accent and was a great performer in general. I videoed Kiss From A Rose, of course, along with some other ones. He sang about 10 in total I think.

Then........ ENRIQUE IGLESIAS!! And boy was he amazing! He only sang maybe 6 or 7 songs, but they were all fantastic. He was the only famous headliner that actually could speak Spanish. Incubus and Seal just kept saying, "Muchas Gracias Costa Rica!" and that was about it. But Enrique was talking to us, he pulled this kid up on the stage, Freddi, who apparently was in love with him. He got to sing Donde Estan Corazon with him, so I was pretty jealous! I got some great video of him, and then out of no where, he jumps off the stage and starts walking down the center aisle which no one had done... and then he went all the way to back, where I was, and started to climb on the camera deck... right next to where I was! I got someone to take a picture of me with him behind me. SWEET! He was pretty great. I had to leave after him and miss out on Duran Duran because Jaime was going to drive me home, instead of me trying to find buses in the dark. But that's okay. I saw ENRIQUE. I can die happy.