Touradas & bullfights

Vanessa, Ranjan, Fei fei, Aisha, Natalie, & Matt

Friday, June 24 was one hell of a day... there were bulls all over the place! This past week the city of Angra has been celebrating Sanjoaninas. First we went to a Tourada, which is when they release bulls into the streets. They blocked off the road and made a track and released 6 full grown bulls into the streets. People were standing on the sides of the barracades, behind them, in trees, and standing on top of freight containers. We were on top of the containers and had a pretty awesome view of the bulls and the people running with them. We watched for about an hour or so before we decided that we wanted a better look at the bulls. The Azorean men were all very concerned for our safety and told us to go back up the containers where it was safe lol. I'm pretty sure that If one of the girls had decided to run after the bulls they would have been tackled by the Azorean men and dragged back to safety.

Nonetheless we crossed the street and stood on ground level with the bulls and watched them. At some point they got really close so we all scooted behind a wooden barricade. The bull had to have been 20ft away from us! Pretty amazing!

We also went to a Portuguese style bullfight! It was INTENSE! There was 6 different bullfights and 3 different Cavaleiros (horsemen). The Portuguese style bullfighting is very interesting because they do NOT kill the bulls. According to our friend Alex who is from Terceira, the bulls ran the Spanish out of Portugal and so they honor, love, and respect the bulls. Therefore they let the bulls run in the streets as a remainder of how the bulls ran off the Spanish from taking over Portugal. The first 3 bullfights were amazing and perfect. The Cavaleiros did a fantastic job and the crowd was very pleased.

Then we had an intermission and the 4th bullfight started. After the first phase the Forcados come out and challenge the bull head on and let it hit the front man... the other Forcados then tackle the bull and subdue it. They bull hit the Forcado so hard that he fractured his horn and become very disoriented. It was really sad to see the bull running into the walls and bleeding all over the place. Eventually his whole right horn broke off and he fractured his left horn. It took a good 30mins to get him into the back to be treated. The 5th bullfight went off perfectly and then the 6th was going well until the Cavaleiros jumped off the horse unexpectedly. It almost looked like the horse was doing a trick but then his body stiffened up and he fell to the floor. A bunch of people ran to the horse and tried to restart his heart by jumping on his chest but it was unsuccessful. It was a sad and intense day.