Bullfighting

Well, I did something a little dumb but exhilarating this week. I bullfought, toreador style, in the next town over.
We´ve been celebrating the festival of San Isidro this weekend, which seems to revolve round bulls more than anything. The people of the town brought their yuntas, or plowing pair of bulls, to the church to get them blessed on Friday, followed by the usual marching around with a band and dancing that all festivals here seem to feature. On Saturday, the next town over, Lari, had a bullfight. I had heard that they would let whoever felt like it enter, and had been mulling it over, because as experiences go it would be one of the more unique I´d likely have to boast of in my lifetime.
It turned out that indeed amateurs were allowed in the ring. I decided to check out the first bull and see how that went. One guy got knocked out and as I was taking a picture of that the bull turned and threw another one about five feet up and out. These two were drunk, as were the majority of the amateur talent out there. After that a real toreador showed up, in costume and all, and I figured that that was the end of amateur night, but as it turned out a few folks jumped in anyways. In one of the less thought out decisions I´ve made I hopped right in as well.
At first I just intended on using my coat as a kind of makeshift cape, but the mayordomo, or the guy financing the festival, took off a decorative cape he was wearing and let me use it. The first bull I tried was a pretty mad one (or maybe it was a cow- as it turns out they get just as pissed off when goaded and their horns are just as sharp, so there were a few mixed in with the bulls) I soft-stepped up to it and got it to paw the earth at me, but I was a bit surprised (I have no idea why) when it actually charged. I was able to misdirect it with the cape and hightail it to one of the board set up for toreadors to duck behind when a bull is right on their tail. The next few I was more daring on and I even faced off a group of three who in the end didn´t do a whole lot. All-in-all I fought four bulls (not including that lame group of three) with increasing confidence and walked out of the ring without a scratch and a lot of enthused drunk folks (who had a habit of falling of the wall surrounding the ring and having to be helped up in the middle of fights) yelling for the gringo toreador.
So, I´ll get those pictures up this next Friday when I´m in the capital and the internet can handle it. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries half way through so I only have pictures of the first couple of bulls and the group of three, but you´ll get the idea. And mayhap I´ll try it again at my town´s bullfight in July...