Torro Time - Festivities of Quito Week

The first week of December in Quito is Quito Week. The festivities
include daily bullfights, nightly concerts and huge fiestas. So we thought when inb Rome, and headed off to the Plaza Del Toro to see some carnage. Bullfighting over here seems a bit like the Spring Racing Carnival back in Aus - people get dressed up, there´s heaps of fine food and wine, beer (and of course beer promo girls see photo, which are decent spectacle in themselves).

The main event we were there for was of course the bulls. We saw six fights, six deaths and apparently the worlds best Matador (who funnily enough is French). They treat these faily feminie looking fellows like celebs, just as big (if not bigger) than the local soccer/rock/movie stars. As far as we could tell a good matador achieved the following things - dance and play with the bull using his cape (which the crowd responds with an Ole), minimal movement of your feet and legs when the bull charges, and a clean, accurate stab of the bull with the final sword to result swift death of the bull. The matador is then rewarded with either one ear, two ears, the tail, the leg, and if he is really good the whole frickin bull. We got a two earer. It was fairly brutal, and both don´t feel the need to go and see a bull fight again. Ebs found the fight suprisingly entertaining, as it seemed artistic and the matador was talented, graceful and displayed great finesse in what he was doing. She thought even though it was a one sided fight, it´s still symbolically man against beast. We had debates about this point for the rest of the day as Richo thought they were a bunch of fairies dancing around in marty gra gear killing bulls.

The rest of the day was spent as all good race days end, drinking, eating, checking out the promo tents, checking out the promo girls and boys. We had the pleasure of seeing the Latin equivolents of Simply Red, Michael Bolton, Bon Jovi, The Edge, and many Pamela Andersons. Cath and Ebs came away from the day feeling proud that they were two of the few women present who could state that their ¨breasts don´t come with bar codes¨.

Awesome day.