Horses, Beer and Beautiful Women Are What Tope Is All About
December 26 is the day for the tradition of the "el tope" - horse parade - in San José and yesterday some 2.500 horses and their riders took over Paseo Colón and Avenida Segunda in the last of the holiday festivities for this year.

The tope began at 1:00pm as parade Marshall, Maribel Guardia, led the annual event across downtown San José, from the La Sabana Park on the west to the Paso de los Estudiantes on the east side.

Some came early, lining up along the parade route from 10:00am, while thousands of others preferred to watch the annual event from the comfort of their home, as both Repretel and Teletica offered lived coverage.

Paseo Colón and Avenida Segunda were closed off to traffic from noon until about 5:30pm, when the cleaning crew followed the last of the horses through the grandstands in front of the Parque Central.

On hand were 700 members of the Fuerza Pública (police) to keep order and crowd control. Only a handful of minor incidents were reported by police, as they attended to them quickly and quietly.

This year the tope was organized by the Municipalidad de San José and not a festival commission as in past years, charging participants ¢5.000 colones each. Jorge Villalobos, a municipal official, said that the proceeds will go to the Hospicio de Huérfanos (orphanage). The take is expected to surpass ¢10 million colones.

Though the event was similar to that of past years, it did lack the spark as commercial participation in the event was limited.

A number of "caballistas" said that they had planned a demonstration if the Municipalidad had cancelled the annual event as it did for the Carnaval and the Zapote Fair.


















Keeping and eye on things!

Police had a helping hand from the "man of steel" who is vacationing in Costa Rica.



And what is a tope without beautiful girls!








The clean up crew, cleaning up the empty beer cans for recycling.