Spanish Bull Fight

This past weekend Mark and I checked off one of his "Spain to-do lists"...go to a Spanish Bull Fight! I was a little hesitant about it but it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. There were a couple moments that were hard to watch but overall the worst part (where the bull actually died) went pretty quick. There were 4 Matadors there, each Matador went against two bulls (the first round, we looked up some facts about it afterwards just fyi ;), were 4 year old bulls, the 2nd round they each went up against a 6 year old bull). We ended up leaving after bull number 6 though...it was getting pretty late and we decided that was enough cultural experience for us for one day :) 

So I'm gonna go over what happens at the bull fight so if you don't want to read it, don't go any further, you've been forewarned :) I'm not posting these pics on facebook cuz I don't want to deal with people's comments regarding it...this is definitely a unique cultural experience to go to in Spain, I'm glad we went, but definitely won't go again. I did enjoy the artistry and cultural aspect of it, but the actual act of what was going on was a little hard to watch. This is a long long standing tradition (first bull fight dates back to 711AD!) though so we wanted go see it once while we were here :)

The bull ring in Sanlucar

The poster for our bull fight...unfortunately the last Matador, Roca Rey, was gored last week in the butt so he was unable to come. He was replaced by El Fandi. Padilla is one of the more well known fighters...mostly due to the fact that in 2011 he was gored in the face by a bull...nearly dying. He did lose an eye and hearing in one ear. The info on him says that 5 months after his injury he returned to the bull ring with an eye patch and ever since has been called The Pirate. PRETTY darn crazy I must say. He was the best one to watch though---had the most "artistry" in his performance. I found out after that he was born in Jerez (a neighboring town) and lives in Sanlucar not too far from us! pretty dang cool. 

When the bull first comes out (this stage is called tercio de varas, "part of lances") they do a series of maneuvers to test the bull out, see their quirks, traits, etc. Many of the bulls came out running and were pretty intense- a couple of them would run up to the little wood panels that the banderilleros (these guys are part of the main matadors entourage/assistants, they go behind the panels to get away from the bulls) and the bulls would chip away big chunks of the panel when they hit it. The bulls are color blind btw....most people think they use the red capes because they are attracted to the red, but that's not true. The bulls are attracted to the movement and attack when they see the movement of the fabric. The color is more traditional and to mask the blood that might get on the cape later. 

I didn't take many pictures of this part cuz I took more video here...but of course my stupid blog, even after all these years, still cannot upload videos :( :( :( 

Next came out two picadores...these are two guys mounted on horses, who have heavy duty padding around them and are blindfolded (the horses not the guys ;)) The job of these guys is to stab a mound of muscle (morrillo) on the bull's neck leading to the animal's first loss of blood. This loss of blood further weakens the bull and makes him ready for the next stage. This was pretty crazy....the same guys came out each time and at I think the 2nd or 3rd bull, the bull completely knocked down the horse...it took a while to get up but it wasn't injured or anything. But when it came out for the next bull it was pretty darn scared. It was skittish and knew there was another bull in there. Kinda sad :( We read on the information thing that they used to not have padding on the horses so thank goodness they changed that in the 1930's. With another of the bulls, it picked the horse up from the front although that time it didn't get knocked over. Pretty crazy though. 

The next stage is called tercio de banderillas, this is where the banderillas, or the Matador, take turns planting barbed sticks into the bulls shoulders. This further weakens/tires out the bull.

as I'm sure you can tell....this is Padilla :) The main Matador wears an outfit with gold in it...the assistants wear silver. 

I think this was El Fandi

The last stage is called tercio de muerte (part of death). The matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape or muleta in one hand and a sword in the other. The matador performs a series of moves/passes, called the faena. The faena ends with a final series of passes (which are fairly artistic in style..it's the job of the matador to make this "dance" dramatic and in some ways take the audiences attention off the bull when it dies) in which the matador with a muleta attempts to maneuver the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the heart. 

this is Lopez Simon...he was a lot more flashy in his performance....very much into himself- he was always looking out at the crowd and doing this hair flip with his hair after he did something "good". 

cocky little thing for sure ;) 

these matadors are pretty crazy though...it was amazing the things they did and how close to the bulls they got...very daring moves

After the bull dies the presiding dignitary, or presidente, awards the Matador a trofeo (trophy), either one ears, two ears, or two ears and the bull tail. Then the bull is taken away by a team of horses and the Matador usually does a "victory lap" around the ring. People throw things down to him (hats, cushions,  flowers, etc)., which that Matador kisses or rubs in the dirt or across his brow and then throws back to the person. 

The Pirate is definitely an appropriate name for him :)

Padilla with the two ears and bull tail. He definitely was the best Matador there. 

someone threw him a shawl and he wore it around the ring ;) 

So there is our bull fight experience! :)

Adventures in Spain with Carmen....Part 1! {Chipiona, Sanlucar, Rota, Seville, Vejer}

My wonderful niece Carmen arrived in Spain at the end of August for a long stay with us! We were so excited to have her come and are excited for all the fun things we get to do while she's here! So far we've done mostly local stuff since school started but we've gone to Seville for a day trip and then a weekend trip in Granada. So here's the first leg of her trip! :)

After a little hiccup on the last leg of her journey (plane troubles :/ ) Carmen made it! :) 

For local stuff we've shown her around Chipiona and a little SanLucar and a dinner out in Rota.

This is the beautiful chapel on the beach on Chipiona

They had pony rides in the square in Chipiona and since our original plans to watch the parade (it was a festival day) fell through, we let them ride the pony instead :) 

Ice cream time! we eat a lot of ice cream.... ;) 

remember the Barbie display with the Feria dresses? Well we walked by it in Rota and they had a beach scene...

which of course included a topless one....oh Europe... :/ 

dinner with some church friends :) 

Seville is amazing and we all enjoyed our visit there. We got to see a couple places we didn't on our first visit there so that was nice. It's such a cool town and only an hour away so that's always a plus!

Our first stop was the Cathedral, which had a super long line last time so we didn't even attempt to go. The line was long this time too but luckily moved quickly. Inside you just wandered around looking at all the splendor and awesomeness of the huge building. According to Wikipedia, it is the largest Gothic Cathedral and third largest church in the world. It's amazing. The details put into it are just so crazy awesome...kind of mind boggling to think of the workmanship and craftmanship they had to build it! Beautiful... Inside was amazing too. I loved the arches and beautiful little chapels/altars. The treasure rooms were also amazing...beautiful gold and silver pieces and the artwork the had was awesome too. They also had quite a few tombs...including Christopher Columbus.

we hit up Starbuck's before we walked around :) 

Entering the Catheral!

This place is so amazing

stained glass windows....

tombs...

I love the arched ceilings...they're SO TALL

the altars and chapels all throughout were so amazing

the organ

more amazing ceilings

treasure room! 

Andrew was so excited for the treasure ;) 

and the most intricate/detailed/amazing altar we saw...it was crazy

One of our favorite parts was the tower...which was quite a feat pushing a stroller up (it was ramps all the way up except the last flight of stairs). But the views were spectacular and so worth it!

through one of the windows going up

 Next we ate lunch at a little cafe next to the Cathedral where Carmen enjoyed some disgusting looking squid....although she liked it so I guess that's good ;)

yuck...

Lizzie ate a piece too

we stopped for a minute to watch some Flamenco dancers

someone was getting cranky/tired

not even ice cream made her happy

she finally conked out though

 After lunch we went to the Plaza de Espana which was also amazing! I loved it there....it's a beautiful open plaza with this awesome building wrapping around half of it. There's tons of beautiful tile work EVERYWHERE. There's stairs and bridges over this little waterway (where Mark took the older two kids on a little boat ride on it which they had lots of fun). Then the whole arch of the building is lined with benches from every Province in Spain which is pretty cool. We found the province we live in (Cadiz) and the province my mom's ancestors is from (Almeria).

I love the bridges!

and all the painted details on the tile...so pretty

On Labor Day we went to a little town nearby (a white village) called Vejer de la Frontera...I have a lot of people recommend it because it is the epitome of a white Spanish village and they all love to go to this Moroccan restaurant there. It's just shy of an hour away so it was a nice little day trip to do. The town was super cute...set on a hill so it was quite a good day's exercise hiking around the hilly streets. We had lunch at the Moroccan restaurant, which was good, but not as splendid as everyone was saying...it's not my favorite cuisine though so that's probably why :) It was fun to go though and we enjoyed the town and the views from it.

ready for our little drive :) 

it was such a pretty day!

the Plaza de Espana in Vejer ;) 

beautiful white village!

the views were beautiful

I loved the tiles here

the little tile clock I got in Vejer with the tiled name I got in La Rambla