Costa Rican Bull Fighter?

Clothes ripped off by the bull - a greatly anticipated event - good humor!

Costa Rica 3 415, originally uploaded by Mic2006.

We were returning from a scorching afternoon on the Tempisque river, (I was gathering information for a travel article that is appearing at some time in the New Zealand Herald”. Our driver had a great black chunk of plastic strapped to the roof of the van. While waiting for us to return from our outing he had bought this “thing” from the captain of a river boat who had fished it out of the river. Jason explained that the approximate value was around $400, but Juan, the driver, had got it for $30 - the liner for the back of a pickup truck.

Anyway, Juan is a big fight fan - bull fighting that is, we stopped at a paddock where preparations were underway for just such an event. The guy in the picture above was likely a bull fighter, a guy who rode the bull at great personal risk to himself.

How do you know he is a bull fighter? I asked. “He looks like one”, “Very manly”. Juan puffed himself up to show what he imagined a macho man to be. “Strong”.

Beside us there was a truck of three bulls waiting to be let into the paddock with the others. Two of the bulls had one pinned in the corner and they were bullying the poor animal - poking and gouging him with horns and he was bellowing horribly. A huge big fellow arrived in a van with a bunch of cowboy-like companions. “Love Hurts” is blaring on the radio. Big hairy back, around 300 pounds and a tanktop - “he is the owner”.

According to Juan, to be a bull fighter in Costa Rica you must train from early childhood, riding progressively more violent mounts as you age. The more people a guys bulls kill, the more of a celebrity owner he becomes. This owner is a local star. I asked Juan if he had ever seen anyone killed in the ring and he said that he had seen someone badly gored who later died in hospital but he thought it better when people had their clothes ripped off by the bull - this was -it seemed, one of the most amusing events to bull goers.

Juan said that the most feared bull in Costa Rica was “Malacrianza” - he has killed two people and his owner is from Nicoya. Incidentally the name means “temper tantrum”, “Like a child who does not get ice cream”.