¡Olay!
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2008
1
28
83
Trip End
Sep 18, 2008
Madrid,
Spain and Canary Islands
Sunday, March 23, 2008
There were a lot of people outside the stadium at Los Ventas. Some just walking around and others queuing for tickets. Walking anticlockwise around the stadium, we found what looked like a showing area and a lot of people lined up but not for the museum. We walked back the way we came, asked someone for directions and found ourselves back at the queue where we had turned around. They were there to hear the pairing of the matador with a toro (bull) for the afternoons fights.
In the museum there were swords, capes and matador costumes complete with blood stains from famous fights and matadors. The heads of brave bulls and bulls that killed their matador were hanging on the walls above art representing bullfighting and its traditions. The curator of the museum told us there were special fights on for Domingo de Resureccion (Easter Sunday).
Returning to the ticket ques we nought the cheapest tickets we could find ($8Au each) and headed to the Metro and Madridīs Sunday markets. They were very crowded and given that we had no euros to spend, not that interesting. We watched the crowds wander around (locals and tourists) as well as some photographers perched up on a balcony taking people shots. It was cold and loked like raining, so we headed back on the Metro to Angel and Estherīs flat. We cooked up a quick pasta meal for Spanish lunchtime (3pm) and then it was time to get into our thermals and head back to Los Ventas for the bullfights.
Teh first of the six bullfights was underway as we located our seats.
The Toro Stadium in Los Ventas, Madrid
We couldnīt have been higher up in the stadium but we were happy to be sitting in the sun on such a cold day. There were a few locals up with us, although the stadium was not packed. A lot happens in a bullfight. I was surprised that it was not just the matador and the toro. The matarador is supported by three torodors and two men on horse back with spears.It goes something like this. The horns (musical) sound and the bull enters the stadium to be greeted by the matador and torodors with pink and yellow capes. Teh men use this time to test the bull out and get to know him. On the second blast of the horns the horsemen ride into the ring carrying spears and take up their positions. The torodors bait the bukk towards the horse. The bull sees the horse and decides it is a better target than the man with capes and charges it. The bull runs into the spear aimed between his shoulder blades and usually hits the horse. The horses wear armour now because too many used to be killed. They are also blindfolded. The horses exit on the third sounding of the horns and the torodors set about spiking the bull between the shoulders with razor sharp barbed batons. (See the photos.) The barbs hook into the bulls back. All this tires and bleeds the bull before the matador works the bull.
The enters the arena with a red and black cape and a sword. He baits the bull into charging and the bull twists and turns to attack the cape. The matador uses the cape and sword in his right hand and then just the cape in his left. The final act of the matador is to thrust his sword between the bullīs shoulder blades aiming to severe the bullīs spinal cord. On Domingo de Resureccion none of the matadors achieved this, even after receiving replacement swords from their support crew outside the arena. the first matador was gauged by the bull performing this manuevre. He was rescued, taken to hospital and fighting the next week despite his deep injury. At the end of a fight one of the torodors, a specialist, kills the bull. A horse team is then used to drag the bull from the arena.
We were told a lot of this information later by friends in Madrid. In fact we were told that the bulls had not been brave as they didnīt charge the horses from far enough away and that the bullfights had not been so good. After one session it was difficult to understand why the fights proceeded as they did and who the crowd was cheering or jeering, the bull or the matador.
