Day 1 (of 2) in Arequipa city before we head off to our sites and we are invited to the bull fights. You can only imagine how disinterest swelled in my cheeks. But, right now, the priority is being together. These 5 other American volunteers that will live in Colca Canyon are going to be my support system for the next two years, and I will be theirs. The last thing I want to do is separate myself from the group on my first day in the Department with them. Reassured by a volunteer at his close of service that the bull fights are humane and they don't get hurt, we go. Looking back on the day, I am filled with contentment that I decided to attend.
When we arrived at the "stadium" we find it to be mountains of people piled up in some make-shift bleachers, and trucks containing the 'torros'-bulls on the other side of a large sandy ring. Once we found a place where we could all see I stopped to breath in the visual. Bottom to top: at my feet a caja of Arequipenian beer, in front of me women in their traditional hats seated sipping beer, standing beside them friendly and tipsy men in cowboy hats betting on bulls, ahead of us two bulls head to head in an honor contest- not a fight to the death match, behind them the trucks that brought them here painted in pride with the bulls' names, in the distance snow peaked mountains and between them the moon raising in the dusk.
The game we were seeing was entertaining and harmless. Just as the bulls and rams do in the wild, the two bulls push head to head when they see one another, and the first one to turn and trot away is the losing bull. No one gets hurt, the fun is in the betting. They make little 2 sole (60 centish) wages on who will win based on weight, neck girth, and ball size just for the fun of it. Our Peace Corps boys learned a bit or two on betting, and not to bet on opposing bulls to the same Peruvian, cause no matter what, the Peruvian wins. Haha! Disinterested in beer I treated myself to cotton candy at this fair-like event. It was delightful; the day, not just the puffed candy.
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