Bull Fight

 Hmmm Bullfighting, we had no idea of what was involved ……. We certainly do now! Here is a website that pretty much explains it in layman’s terms.

I was ready to leave after the first fight, near the start of the fight the bull charged and rammed into the horse – I couldn’t watch but Trev said this horse was ok, so I continued to watch, the horse seemed to have some kind of armour on and didn’t seem to be uneasy or frightened, even though he was blindfolded.

We didn’t realise that they killed the bull I couldn’t watch that part, but it is amazing how quickly we get desensitised to violence and cruelty! We stayed on. There were two rounds of three fights on the second to last fight it was a particularly difficult bull and, I think, that once the matador has lost his killing sword he has to use a sword that has a kinda of stopper thing near the tip end of it so it only goes in so far to the bull (about 3 inches or so) he kept stabbing it into the particular part behind the bull’s horns but the bull would not die (he must have done it about 15 times) the crowd was booing and jeering him, the bull charged him and rammed him, ripping the backside out of his pants, he seemed ok but limping, he got up and had another several goes at killing the bull, the bull charged him again and this time threw him into the air (I wasn’t watching at this point), the other matadors came out to distract the bull and carried the injured matador off. 

Obviously the Bull won and the crowd cheered and chanted Toro, Toro, they then tried to tire the bull out until he collapsed, all the while the crowd was booing. They then brought some steers out to try and herd the bull back into the pen, but he wasn’t having a bar of it. Eventually another matador came out with a short knife and tried to kill it, it took several goes and the crowd was going mental booing and jeering and throwing their seat pads down into the ring, eventually the bull died – that was the end of the night, obviously the don’t want to fight any more rounds once one of the matadors has been injured. 

Because the internet is dodgy where we are staying - here is the website of the bull ring (Las Ventas) it will be in spanish (if you don't have google translate) and it shows pictures!! But the translation is that he is ok, phew we had no idea until we could get online at the next hotel.

That will be the first and last time we go to a bull fight!