Bad Dog Pip: Feria de Quito

As part of the 'Feria de Quito,' or the Festival of the Founding of Quito, bullfights run from November 28 through December 6. I was really excited to attend some of them, since some of the best bullfighters in the world are here. This festival is one reason why we picked this time to come...so we were pretty excited to go today. We have tickets for the final, main event on Wednesday, but we decided this morning to go for a walk and see if we could get tickets for today.

These are some pictures that I took and put together to show the action. You can click on them and see them larger if you'd like.

This was Susan's first bullfight and she really liked it. I got to wear my black cap and we got a wineskin and filled it with Sangria outside the plaza. It was great weather, nice and cool with the warm sun...and every now and then the planes would fly almost directly overhead, sometimes distracting the bulls. Susan wants me to point out that her hair isn't greasy, she DID take a shower this morning, and that it's just that it's been drizzling a bit, which is why the other, more prepared people are wearing ponchos.

Outside the plaza all the vendors were out, so Susan had some Ceviche de Camarones and I had a Serrano Ham sandwich. MMMmm...

Sebastian Castella was one of the matadors who did very well, and after his second bull he walked around the ring while everyone gave him a standing ovation. He's the one on the far left in the picture:

For exceptional performances, matadors can be awarded an ear, two ears, or two ears and the tail. By the end of the six bullfights, two of the matadors had done very well, being awarded two ears each. Here is a picture of Miguel Angel Perera on the left and Sebastian Castella on the right, taking their final bow:

After we left the Plaza, we walked around for a bit and snapped this picture of a plane flying in for a landing at the airport, just about a quarter of a mile from the Plaza.