Animales! Malabaristas! Payasos!

I arrived in Flores yesterday. Flores is the closest sizable town to Tikkal (Guatemala´s most famous Mayan site, I will be visiting it tomorrow) and as such is quite touristy. On the way in, I noticed the tents of Circo Barley, and decided that i´d have to check it out. I made my way down there for the last show of the weekend, and was accosted at the door by an endearingly obnoxious israeli lady in her 50´s, asking if I could translate. She needed to know if it was a good show, what types of animals there were, and said that if the show turned out not to be good she would come back and kill the ticket lady. Since the tickets were two for one that day, I went in and sat with her for the amusement and the half price ticket.

The show was a mixed bag, but overall well worth the $2.60. (Non circus freaks, please forgive the play by play here.) They opened with flying trapeze, which was quite impressive simply for the amount of space it took up in the small tent. The level was not especially high, but it was well presented, and the 7 or 8 year old boy did very well. After a clown bit was the areal fabric act. The first few moves were things that I can do (which means that they´re pretty basic). After that though, she flubbed her way through a couple rather complicated drops. Her form was deplorable, but really, overall it was a very impressive performance for a 10 year old. Her size was also an advantage because it meant that she could be raised and lowered by two guys, without the need of a winch.

The juggler was top notch. He kept aloft 5 clubs, 7 rings, and 4 sombreros, with that flashy spinny style, epitomized by his low 4 club triple shower while running around the ring. And he even had a lovely assistant. After an intermission and some more clown bits (given the language barrier, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt). I did see something that i´ve never seen before: head balancing on a trapeze, static and swinging, and with ring spinning on his hands.

The animal part of the show was a bit sad. Thankfully, there were not tigers or elephants, just a couple tired horses that could jump over a low rail and put their front hooves up on the ring curb for a pose. The llama was actually the most talented of the three. (The advertised monkeys were absent, but i saw them clambering around the bleachers after the show).

The young aerialist returned for a hula hoop act that was actually quite impressive. The finale act, the wheel of death (yes, this is the technical term) was again, not technically top level, but still quite watchable and impressive.