Day 12: Festival de la luz!

Today, I got to sleep in... yay!!! It wasn't enough though, as I yawned my way through the day and was ready for bed by 8pm.
For the past two weeks, on the television, on the radio and from person to person there has been a huge build up for the event that was happening today, the festival de la luz! The festival was in it's 18th year and is basically a huge parade down the main street of San Jose in celebration of light and dance and music.
Yesterday, when I had been talking to Nathalie and Louis about it, they said that they had been told that you have to arrive really early in the day, like 8 hours prior to it actually starting to get a good viewing spot. That's how many people attend.
So, Jose decided we would aim to get there about 12 and hope for a good spot. We left home at about 11:30, we were running late, and caught the bus into San Jose. I will now just mention a big problem I have here. I am too tall. This country was not built for people as tall as me. Sitting in the buses my knees are squashed up against the seat in front, in the cars, my head touches the roof in some seats, and even in the houses, my head hits some lights, I have to be very careful.
We arrived in San Jose, and I had something to eat quickly while we waited for Brayan to arrive. Once he had, we walked, when I say walked, it was more like a very brisk march, to find a spot. After nearly being hit by a few cars, as you do here with the roads being as crazy as they are, we were finally getting to where we wanted to be. But then I realized that my Costa Rican coloured bracelet had fallen off. Jose had told me not to worry about it, but, I decided to backtrack along where we had just recently walked, and was lucky enough to find it... phew.
We finally reached where we wanted to be, and by now it was 1:30pm. We had McDonalds on our left, KFC opposite us, and Wendy's just a bit down the road; there was a little café for me too, so we were sorted for food. After quickly purchasing one of the stools that vendors were so eager to sell we quickly spread out over a large area as more people were going to be arriving.
It was insane how many people were already there.
After playing a few rounds of cards, a pre-show parade started at 4, with bands and clowns and other stuff to keep everyone entertained.
At 6 on the dot, fireworks signaled the start of the festival. There were police vehicles flashing their lights, sirens blazing, motorbikes, bands, colourful floats, cheerleading groups, roller skaters, bands, unhappy looking people carrying signs, oh, and did I mention bands? There were a lot of bands, but all were very good.
The show lasted for about 3 and a bit hours during which about 10 more friends of Jose's had arrived.
We then walked back towards the central plaza of San Jose to catch the bus home. However, while walking there, I was introduced to a very strange tradition of throwing handfuls of little white circles, like the ones that are left over after hole punching, at each other and complete strangers. People were selling them by the bag load, and the ground was covered in loads; Costa Rica's answer to snow. I did get a face full from a random at one point, but managed to make it through the area without any making it in my mouth.
Overall it was a great day, I think I did expect a little more from the festival, maybe more lights, or maybe it was just built up too much for me, but I still enjoyed it, and the atmosphere.

One of the many bright floats in the parade