Bullfight??

After reading my last post I am reminded of another story.

After graduating college my brother, mother, and I went to Cancun mexico for a vacation. Yes we went with my mother, but she was paying for the trip so we just took it in stride. As soon as we got off the plane we boarded a bus to our hotel room and the tour guide in front of the bus starts selling bottles of beer out of a cooler for a buck. I like this vacation!!! After getting to the hotel we met with a tour advisor and looked over the opportunities for day trips and sightseeing stuff to do. The one thing we notice was that there was a bullfight, but it was that day only (I think only once a month) and it started in a little while. We decided to go, but it was a bit unnerving being in a foreign country for only minutes and getting into a taxi cab that could have taken us almost anywhere (we had to dicker with the taxi driver for how much he would charge us to take us to the bullfight). But we pulled up to the stadium and it looked like a pretty nice place. We entered the stadium into the actual arena where the bullfight took place so you got to see what it looked like on the "field of play" so to speak. It was kind of like the first time I walked onto the football field at the Hoosier dome. After you mingled and took pictures, you climbed up some stairs to the bleachers for a seat and they removed the stairs. Again I liked this place since they had people strolling around the stadium selling beer for a buck. Let the bullfight begin...

Let me say now that everything I knew about bullfighting was basicly from bugs bunny cartoons where the guy comes out and waves the red cloth. The bull tries to run into the red cloth, chalks up his horns, and has a ring through his nose. I never thought of what really happens at a bullfight. I thought the bull comes out and they dance around for a little bit until the bull gets tired and they switch matadors and bulls. I WAS SOOOOOOOOOO WRONG.

The bull comes out, and the matador and him dance around a little bit, then a guy on a horse comes along and stabs the bull between the shoulder blades with a spear causing the bull to start bleeding. WTF! I never saw this on cartoons. Then the matador and bull continue their "dance" until the bull basicly bleeds out and can barely breathe or stand, whereupon the matador takes out a sword and stabs the bull until it falls. I sat there with my mom and brother in total shock as the crowd cheered. Then another guy on a horse drags off the dead bull carcass out of the ring. I think they did this like 6 or 7 times (no wonder it was once a month).

The last matador thought he was hot $hit and proceeded to kill the bull and cut it's ear off. He paraded around the ring with the ear and the crowd cheering. Then he looked right at my mom, blew her a kiss (again WTF), and threw the ear up to her. We all basicly dove away from the flying ear but it was caught by the woman behind us (who he was actually throwing the ear to). On the way out of the stadium we passed the area where they had put all of the carcasses. I hope they were headed for a hell of a good BBQ. Of course on the way back to the hotel I leave my fanny pack (yes a fanny pack) in the taxi, whereupon I loose my sunglasses, camera, and other stuff... on the first day of my vacation!! Needless to say I headed right for the bar.