The roads were beautiful! Filled with grape vines- it looked like California wine region. We got to the Rioja Region and it became even more beautiful! By this time it was ~1:00 and we were beginning to get hungry. We began looking for restaurants-traveling past some great-looking small towns but not finding exactly what we were looking for.
Finally we arrived at a town called Hora. It was very quaint but when we arrived we found all the stores and restaurants closed. There was policia directing traffic also. He wouldn't let us drive down the main boulevard so we circled .back to see why. We began seeing men and women, boys and girls, everyone dressed in white clothes with red scarves around their necks. Most people were stained purple and were soaking wet. It didn't take long to realize that Hora was having a wine festival!! And we just stumbled upon it!! We parked and followed the crowd. Who cared about eating!! This looked like fun!!
We arrived just in time to see the last of the parade with tractors pulling carts of wine-vine decorated arts and people laughing, stumbling around with even more red wine!! It was great!! Kids were running around wildly. And people held glasses and bottles of red wine everywhere! Mardi Gras in Spain!!
We noticed that everyone was stumbling into what looked to be a small sports arena. We followed and couldn't believe what we saw: in the middle of the stadium was a bull and several "matadors". They were actually semi -drunk young men who were teasing the bull. The bull had pads on its horns so as not to gouge the young men. Apparently the matadors made points for getting close to the bull and making it mad!! They got even more points for placing clothing or hats on the bulls horns!! It was amazing to watch!! There were a couple of men who I know will be hurting in the morning because the bulls actually got them. One matador was so good that he actually did a flip over the bull. The crowd roared, spilling wine everywhere!
Notice in one of they pics I was able to capture one of the guys actually getting gauged with the bull's horns. No blood- thank goodness!! He was between the ring and the wooden barrier. The crowd tried to help but couldn't get him up in time. He will be feeling that one tomorrow I'm sure!!
We stayed for an hour or so, enthralled. At the end of each session the bulls would be exhausted, salivating and the matadors became more brave. They would taunt the bull further and just when you thought he wasn't going to charge any more away he'd go after another matador!
After ~15 minutes a whistle would sound indicating the end of the round. At that time two very large bulls (twice to 3x's the size of the charging bull) would come out of a wooden gate opened onto the arena. They were guided by a huge burly man walking, following close behind them, using a whip to prompt them and large leather reins to guide them. I had no idea why they came out at first...then i got it. The big burly man and the huge bulls were there to "gather" the black bull who had been "playing" and charging the matadors. The 3 would easily trot into the back of the stadium!! It was amazing. The larger bulls were there to "lead" the smaller black bulls out. The black bulls were extremely agitated when they would first burst out into the arena but those incredibly large bulls were there to passively lead them back to the holding cell. Brilliant really!!
We sat on the stone benches along with thousands of locals anonymously witnessing their incredible annual wine festival and bullfight in the north of Spain. Talk about luck! What are the odds, eh? We ate at a small convenience store two hours outside of Salamanca. Who cared about food now?? We got to see a bull fight in Spain!! Crazy, eh?!?!
What a party! Ole!
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