to get out of the ranch, the caretaker took us during the last rays of moonlight 2 hours on the horses as the sun rose and then we walked 2.5 hours (me in my cowboy boots, with my heavy pack, out of shape, up and down and over big and small rocks, twisting my ankle and collecting blisters, ow!). then we hitched from the road the last 5 miles to the little town with some gold miners and had a bite to eat before settling down to try to hitch a ride to cuahutemoc, the next bigger city. we sat in the sun 1.5 hours before a 2nd generation chilean circus clown and his 2 retired circus pups picked us up. in la junta, about an hour from cuahutemoc, the gasoline man told our clown that there was a circus in town, and since circuses are like families and any member is welcome, and it was getting late and the roads are dangerous at night, we went to the circus and asked to park for the night. we watched the circus twice (tiiiiiiny little mexican circus, completely and perfectly ridiculous), eating cotton candy on the house, and then i slept in the rv filled (i do mean FILLED) with colorful plastic balls while stef slept in the truck cab.

The last show was May 21, 2017.

Gone.

Kaput.

And yes, animal activists are trying to shut them down.

My sister-in-law was for one day a daring young woman on a flying trapeze.