We finally got to
sleep in and that is just what we did!
We woke up around 10 feeling fully rested! Malena wanted us to make
something for her so we walked over to walmart to do some grocery shopping. We make a creamy pesto pasta with chicken and
a salad. She loved it!! She couldn’t get over the fact that we knew
how to cook. She stood there and watched
us a lot of the time saying how cute we looked in the kitchen!
We had plans to go to
a corrida en a small town close by later in the evening so after lunch we took
a little nap and then got up and got ready.
It seems like we sleep a lot here but that’s all you really want to do
since it’s SO hot and the bedrooms are the only places with air conditioning.
Anyways…the
corrida! It was quite the
experience. It was not like the
bullfights in Spain—not even close. The
people that do it here in these small towns are young teenagers who want to be
like the professionals. It’s really like
comparing T-ball to the major leagues.
But it was fun to watch none the less.
The little pueblo that
we went to is called Caucel. It’s a very
poor area filled with mostly Mayan people.
There were dogs running everywhere and people just hanging outside their
houses. This is how I imagined Mexico to be. I imagined poverty, and lots of people
drinking while playing very loud music with a strong beat, and people on little
motorbikes trying to dodge the dogs while driving through town.
We got to the corrida
and people stared at us like we were from a different planet. I guess we’re quite the sight to be
seen. So I knew this was going to be
small but what I didn’t realize was how “homemade” it was going to be. I should have known! The “stadium”—if you can even call it that
was made out of sticks and branches and palm leaves.
So we climbed up onto
the second level—and yes I was sure that I was going to fall through the
plywood flooring onto the people underneath me.
But I didn’t. There was a band
playing and everything…I was pretty excited for my cultural experience! First the toreros came out; they were all
teenage boys in very tights outfits with sequins. I knew that they were going be be amateurs but
I didn’t realize that they were going to be little boys!!
We stayed to watch them
“fight” 4 different bulls. They only
stabbed one but they weren’t very good so they pretty much just poked it a
little. So apparently if the guy with
the Spears or the sword miss the bull, that is the only chance that they get so
a bunch of “cowboys” come in the arena and rope the bull and take him out and
bring in a new one. You better believe I
was having a panic attack! They were
insane. None of them know what they were
doing. One guy’s bridle came off and his
horse wouldn’t stop running around and he was running against the flow of
traffic. Then another guy’s saddle
started to fall and he went under the horse’s belly Needless to say they are all trying to rope
the bull but instead they are roping others’ horses’ legs, hitting each other
in the face, then the horses were tripping over all the ropes…It w as complete
chaos!
Over all it was a good time! Nobody else that went with us liked it but I
did. For me, it wasn’t about the kiiling
of the bull or torture of animals…it’s so much more than just that. It’s something that they have done since the
inquisition. It’s culture, it’s how they
show how brave they are.
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