Uh, ole or something.

Okay, so all of Oaxaca and Michoacán are up. They're all posted to the date of November 5, so make sure you read them all, if you care. You might have to get into the archives to see it all - I'm going to try to get it to display all of them on the front page. Also, there are more pictures on my Flickr account; I dunno how to post a link to that, really, so just go there and look for pictures under the name of McBearclaw. Uhh, BbB, could you please post some advice in the comments, or email me, or somehow save my ass? Thank you.

This weekend went pretty well. I spent the first half of Saturday writing the posts you WILL be reading. Sunday, we (yes, I broke down and went with other people) went to Mexico City for two purposes: Xochimilco and bullfights.

Xochimilco is like Venice in Mexico. Hundreds of colorful little boats ply the canals between man-made islands. There are boats with drinks, boats with food, boats with mariachis - you can get it all, just floating around. It was really rather relaxing, and a good time in general.

Then, the bullfights. Staged in Plaza Mexico, las corridas are fought in six acts, two bulls each to three toreros. By the way, they're called toreros, not matadors. Who knew? Here's a note: do not go to bullfights with girls. They will annoy the shit out of you with their whining and simpering. Yes, it is sad, and I can't say I particularly enjoyed it, but they all knew what they were getting into. Christ.

Each act (corrida) is "fought" in three parts. First, a bunch of junior toreros wave their capes at the bull and get him to run around in circles, to wear him down a bit. Two men called picadores enter the arena on heavily padded horses. The toreros lure the bull over, although once it sees the brightly colored horses it tends to go apeshit. The bull charges the horses and plows into them, while the rider jabs his spear into the bull's shoulders to get it bleeding.

As if that weren't enough, in the next part, another group of men (I didn't realize it took 15 people to kill a bull) come out one at a time to plunge barbed "darts" into the shoulders of the bull. They need to get three pairs in. This is actually the most ballsy part of the whole thing, as it usually involves charging the bull, plunging the darts in, and then leaping out of the way before you get gored.

Finally, the hot-shit torero himself makes an appearance, now that the bull is already half dead. He swirls his cape and does a bunch of fancy stuff like that, and then plunges his sword into the bull's back. The bull still takes a good couple of minutes to die after this, depending on how much damage he took in the first two parts.

Of the six bulls I witnessed, only one was really interesting. It was a really angry bull, and he was not taking shit from anyone - he shook out over five darts and kept coming. The bullfighter was (I believe) a Spaniard, and fought better than the rest. Still, the whole affair just seems way too biased in favor of the toreros (although I have heard of the occasional disemboweled bullfighter).

The last match, though, was horrible. The bull was incredibly resilient - he attacked BOTH picadores at least once, and the poor horse on the far side of the arena got charged five times. Everytime this happened, the picadores stabbed him again. He then went on to take all six of his darts, and then - unbelievably - the torero stabbed him two or three times. He still would not die. Finally, too exhausted to charge but not about to die, they just let him out of the ring and back into the pens. I don't know what happened to him after that (the bulls that die are sold off to be butchered - I really want to eat a toro burger, man).

An interesting display, I suppose, but I would rather see it without so many assistants. Let's see how arrogant those toreros are without the entourage, eh? Some people claim that it's not so much a sport as an art, but that's... well... bullshit.