Evening at the Circus

Evening at the Circus

January 25, 2006

Yesterday we went to the circus. If you are thinking animals, acrobats and clowns, you have the right idea. I haven’t been to a circus since the 1950’s when the Shrine Circus came to town. Such events may now be rare north of the border with the advent of animal rights and the Cirque de Soleil, but they are still alive and well in Mexico.

The Ayade Circus was held on the outskirts of the Oaxaca where they have shopping centres, multiplex cinemas, Sam’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King. “Wow, Todto, this must be Kansas.” We had taken a rush hour bus to get to the event for 6 PM. The bus ride was almost as exciting as the circus. The bus was packed and we were in the standing group. We knew immediately that the driver wasn’t paying for maintenance on this bus. All stops were done on a peso while take-offs were the types that usually follow bank robberies. My body was swaying so much that my trick hip went back into the correct position again.

We knew the name of our stop but had not the slightest idea how far we had to travel to find it. Every second minute, I would ask some fellow standee “Is this Plaza de Valle?” Nope and they would point further ahead. At last we saw a sign indicating our destination and off we hopped. Unfortunately we didn’t see anything that resembled a circus, only a shopping centre. Naturally we asked passers by in broken English if they could tell us where the circus was. As is the norm in Oaxaca, I was greeted by vacuous stares. Not to worry; out came the handy dandy electronic translator. “Donde esta el Circo?” Ah, ayi, ayi – over there. And so it was. We could see fluttering flags atop a tent across a twelve lanes of rush hour traffic but with perfectly flexible hips were able to play dodge ball with insane Mexican drivers to reach the other side.

The circus was actually in a tent, a perfectly round tent as a matter of fact. I hoped we could get good seats close to the action and hurried to the ticket wicket. Prices were $20, $15 and $10 US. I wondered how many Mexicans can afford this. I soon found out as the place was darn near empty. We got the front row seats in rows 1 and 2. In other words, we were about to become best friends with every performer, human and animal in the entire circus. To get to our seats, we had to go through three sets of ticket takers. Finally a gentleman dressed in tuxedo escorted us to the correct seats. Nice cushions were placed on the seats but they quickly disappeared when I declined to pay an extra $2 each.

The show began right on Mexican time and was pretty entertaining. There were the usual array of animal acts involving camels, llamas, ponies, dogs, horses and elephants. I have never been as close to an elephant’s ass and it is very large. In fact the beast was having a bladder control problem which was most alarming considering the unnatural positions the animal was forced to take only four feet removed from our seats.

The gymnasts were the most fun. They were very skilled and light hearted in their approach giving the audience a steady stream of laughs. There was a hire wire act that was excellent and several attractive ladies performed extraordinary feast on a thick rope hanging from the ceiling.

In between acts, a clown entertained the crowd and this fellow was a real pro. He involved as many people as possible in his act always seeking some poor soul to humiliate, but always in good fun. If you were a good sport you were given a sucker and everybody went home with one.

So now when people ask me what I did in Mexico, I can say I saw an elephant’s ass up close and had chiropractic treatments on a city bus during rush hour. I will again be treated to vacuous stares and once again think I am back in Oaxaca.