Friday, April 1, 2011

Bullfighting and burning sun

Right next to the sports center there is a round building - the bull fighting arena. Already a week before the big event the whole city was pinned with posters of a bull fight to take place on Sunday evening. So we decided to check it out as well. I've been warned by so many people that it is quite gross and not pleasant at all.

My interest with seeing a bullfight was just to get the experience. Afterall it is part of the culture in Spain. And I refused to believe that it is something so discusting that I'd leave after the first 10 minutes :)

Before the event I tried to read up on the history, meaning and customs associated with killing those poor animals at the arena in front of all those people. Apparently this is a huge sport around here in Southern Spain, top matadors earn as much as top football players. There is a long ritual that gets carried out throughout the process, each trumpet sound that comes has a meaning, each movement the matador or other toreros perform have a story. During each performance a certain set of actions are carried out, slightly differing of what matador de toros decides - he is the one who runs the show.

So on Sunday evening we set off to the bull fighting show. The place was suprisingly crowded, I'd guess about 30% were tourists checking out the big event. There were going to be six bull fights today performed by 3 matadores, each fighting 2 bulls throughout the evening.

Shortly, killing the bull is traced to ancient sacrifice ritual. Nowadays, death of the bull is dedicated usually to the president or to the crowd. Matador and his assistants wave colorful capes in front of the bull making it charge. At some point men with horses enter the arena, this is done to spike the bull to relieve the blood pressure so that the animal doesn't get a heart attack while racing around the place. It sounds really bad, but it really wasn't too horrible. Then the show continues with small spikes put to the bulls back and is ended with a final leathal sword hit killing the bull at about 15 minutes into the show. Now the crowd can petition the president to award the matador an ear of the bull by waving white hankerchiefs. If his performance was exceptional he will award two ears.

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The show was good. Even us, first timers, could distinguish between a skillful matador and not so skillful one. Perforamnces were quite artistic and I'd even say graceful. It was a bit bloody and the killing was fierce but it was quick and clean. There were some American tourists behind us crying their eyes out even before the bull was let into the arena - they left after the first fight.

Now I know what the bull fight looks like :) I'm not sure I'd attend it a second time, but it was definitely worth it to see it once.

The sun and burning - for the second day in a row I have not seen any clouds. My nose is going to fall off soon (using one of the girls words) from all this sun exposure. During those 2 weeks we've been here there has been only one day with no sun at all and we have not seen any rain yet. It's been quite perfect weather so far.

Tonight we are all going out to dinner together as half of the people are leaving the training camp on Sunday - paella night is coming up!