At each fight, there are 6 bulls and three matadors that get 2 chances each to make the bull bow down to them. It's a battle... man vs beast. :) haha
But I wish I understood more about it. We had a Spaniard behind us explaining things when we looked confused so that was helpful, but I really needed the books Corridas de Torros (Bull Fights) for Dummies haha
So this is the jist of what happens. There are different stages. They release the bull from the door and it runs into the arena where all of the matadors are waiting for it. There are a whole bunch of them, probably 6ish, but I don't remember. They hide behind the walls and one by one, come out and taunt the bull, the bull charges them, and then they run behind the wall.
Then, the band plays the music and it's time for the next round. A man on a horse comes out and the matadors guide the bull towards the horse. The guy on the horse is holding a big spear thing and after the bull charges the horse (almost knocking it over sometimes) he stabs the bull in the back. But it's more like he is pushing the bull away with this spear to the back... gross. That is when the blood starts flowing. They do that two or three times. This was my least favorite part because although the horse is padded with the equivalent of a bullet proof vest, the bull pretty much picks it up. One time the horse fell over and the guy on top jumped off and ran off the arena.
And then, music again and then next round. The horses leave and then comes my favorite part. The part that I think is the most dangerous for the guys. Two guys have these baton spear things for lack of a better description and they run at the bull head on, jump up, jab their spears in its back, and then run away as the other matadors distract the bull again with the capes. This is the part that I'm pretty sure their moms refuse to watch.
After they do this about 3 or 4 times, there's more music and it's the final stage. The stage that everyone thinks about when they think bull fight. During this stage, the head matador comes out with a smaller red cape instead of the huge pink ones, takes off his hat, and the rest of the matadors go behind the walls. Now, the bull is worn down quite a bit and the matador gets him to run around him getting as close to the bull as possible each time. You can tell when they did a good job because the whole crowd yells/murmurs, "Bien!" (Good job!). But the whole rest of the time, the crowd is really quite kind of like a tennis match. Whistles during this time are not good. Good to know :) haha
Finally, after a while of this, the matador has a sword and gets the bull face to face and stabs it through the shoulder blades straight to the heart. After this, what is supposed to happen is that the bull bows to the matador. At this point the back up matadors come and offer their support.
Once the bull goes down, one of them stabs it in the head to put him out and then the horses come out and whisk it away... and that is fast! One second they're there and the next they're sprinting off the arena.
We were at a novice bull fight so the matadors weren't amazing yet and the bulls were smaller. The whole time we were asking each other, was that supposed to happen? Did he just mess up? At one point, one of the bulls apparently wasn't being aggressive enough and they exchanged it for another one.
It was all super interesting and gross at the same time... but the worst part, I'll say again, were the horses!
Hope you enjoyed Bull fighting 101!
I've got all of my stuff packed and I've completed all of my classes and finals as of 2 hours ago. Last night we went out with my senora and her husband and had a great time complete Spaniard style. We went to a little bar, had some tapas (including camarones which are baby shrimp and you have to eat everything including the shell and head and all... weird!).
I leave tomorrow night for Italy and I'll be home 2 weeks from today!
So excited for everything and I'll update you guys again about Italy after I'm home.
Can't wait to see everyone!!!
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