Costa Rica - Corrida de Toros

The Bullfights

My colleague Alejandro asked if I wanted to see "something different" and of course, I did.  "Ok, let me see if I can get tickets" he said.  He was genuinely excited.  He was back in five minutes to tell me we were on our way to the bullfights.  I've seen them in Madrid and wasn't exactly enthused - it's animal cruelty.  "Don't worry, this is the Costa Rican version, it's not like in Spain", he said, as if he could read my mind.

On Sunday night I picked him and his girlfriend up downtown and we made our way to Zapote, a neighborhood on the south side of town.  As we approached Zapote the sky began to brighten and I caught a glimpse of a roller coaster.  Then it dawned on me - this was a country fair - rides, food, agricultural exhibits, etc.

The first thing Alejandro and his girlfriend Maria Jose wanted to do was watch a particular ride.  "You have to see this, it's so funny."  The rides were like any you'd see in a county fair in the States.  Most were worn down and creaked with age.  We walked down the midway towards a ride that was shaped like a disk, with seating around it's edge.  Mostly young teens from the audience got on and sat down, holding on tightly to the railings behind them.  The disk began to spin and jump wildly, tossing the riders up out of their seats.  Alejandro began to laugh and slap his leg and his girlfriend laughed even louder.  It seems the point of this ride was to dislodge people from their seats onto the spinning floor.  It looked dangerous.  They continued to laugh.  I began to suspect I was in the company of two sadists.

While queuing in line to enter the bullring, a couple in front of us turned and began to chat.  They were very friendly, the most friendly people I'd met this trip.  After we got to our seats Alejandro explained that they were from the countryside and had driven in specifically to see the bullfights.  The ring itself was about 100 yards wide with a dozen rows of wooden benching.  It was a full house - this was the last day of the fair - and tonight's bullfights were to be televised.  It started out with a bull riding competition.  The first contestant rode without using his hands and stayed on until the bull had spun wildly to the middle of the ring.  The bull pitched the second contestant onto his head straight away.  He jumped up dazed, ran straight into the wall and was carried off. 

The announcer then barked something inaudible and the crowd erupted, standing and cheering.  A lone bull trotted out from a gate and a handful of garishly dressed men approached from the opposite side of the ring.

It took me a few minutes to realize the men were all dressed in superhero costumes.  It was so bizarre.  There was a Batman and a Robin, Mr America and the Flash.  My favorite was the chubby Superman - he moved slowly, his feet getting stuck in the mud.  He was destined to get trampled.

The superheroes were clearly pros.  They got close to the bull, egged him on to charge and then expertly stood aside at the last second, turning their backs and soliciting applause.  Batman was the best of the all.  He stood 40 yards from the bull, waited for it to begin its charge and then ran straight at it, like an ant charging at a train.  At the very last second he jumped up, somersaulted over the bull and landed back on his feet.  The bull slashed at the envelope of air where he used to be and the crowd went mad.  They clapped and cheered and I noted out of the corner of my eye a large video screen showing slow motion replays for the live television feed.

After a while the bull sensed he was outmatched and began to grow bored.  Three cowboys on horses came into the ring, lassos spinning, roped him expertly and coaxed him out.  Alejandro elbowed me "Ok, now it gets good."  Audience members began to walk out into the ring.  They were mostly young men though I saw a few young women as well.  They were dressed in brightly colored clothes, a few had on blonde wigs and one was wearing a helmet with a camera.

Then the unimaginable happened - a giant 2,000 lb bull charged out.  I looked at Alejandro and he was nodding "yes" and smiling.  "Vamonos toro!!"  he shouted.  He was cheering for the bull, as was most of the audience.  He was right - this was nothing like the bullfights in Spain.  It was crazy.  The goal was to grab the medallion affixed to the side of the bull to win a cash prize.

There were a variety of tactics employed but none of them seemed to be working.  The bull was big but deceptively quick.  Five minutes in, the bull was leading five to zero.  The luckiest were those who were catapulted high into the air, smashing to the ground behind the bull, forgotten.  The unlucky were knocked down, trampled, gored a few times and trampled some more.  The announcer kept raising the price of the medallion - now it was up to 40,000 colones.  That calculates to around $75 - a paltry sum to risk life and limb for.  Nobody ever managed to get this bull's medallion so the cowboys were back out with their lassos and had quickly replaced it with an angrier one.  It began a new.

The crowd wasn't without its own show.  Well endowed women were competing to show as much cleavage as possible to gain the attention of the tv cameras.  A young lady sitting next to me was a particular favorite of the cameramen.  The next day Alejandro told me I was on national television by virtue of sitting next to her.

There were freebies galore being handed out  - the large chicken gave out coupons to a fried chicken franchise.

Maria Jose, Alejandro and yours truly.

The superheroes toured the crowd selling calendars and soliciting donations for the injured, some of whom were on hand, pointed to their bandaged limbs.

There were a variety of ways the bulls took on the humans.  Each more bizarre than the previous. There was one in which twenty men stood inside a chalk marked circle, 30 feet in diameter, while a bull charged at them.  Last one to stay in the circle wins.  Another had three men pull a woman in a hand cart across the bull ring.  As they pulled, the woman's seat spun around in circles making her final dash back across the ring all the harder due to dizziness.  Miraculously, the bull was not interested in running her down.

Near the end of the night there was a dance contest.  Three large-bottomed ladies did an elaborate number which included both country line dance moves and more suggestive gyrations.  Two contestants from the audience then tried to match them step for step.  The crowd voted for the winner by clapping.

Strangest of all was the grand finale.  A flatbed truck rumbled into the ring, carrying a live band and dancers.  The truck was ringed with metal grates and surrounded by all the bullfighters.  The band was playing a kind of countrified salsa and the crowd was up on their feet dancing and singing along.

While I was shooting a video of it, two angry bulls sprang from the gates and chased the crowd around, trying to kill them all.  The fighters, when not dancing and singing, ran for their lives.  It truly was "something different."