Jaripeo in Oratorio!

Check out this guy eating it.

Today I saw my first rodeo in Guatemala. Many here think, oh he's from Texas, he should know what rodeos are. Well, I haven't lived in TX all my life, and I can only vaguely remember going to the rodeo once or twice. The jaripeo was in town because the feria (town fair) started this weekend. The fair will last for a week, and there are all many video arcade games, foosball tables, fair games (where you can win prizes), and random food stands - pizza, french fries, Mexican tacos, and milkshakes. Also there are some bailes (dances) and rodeos. All these, of course, cost money. Today I went to the rodeo with Calin, Wilder, Claudia, and Carlita (Claud's little sister). It was supposed to start at 2pm, but because my friends are Guatemalans, we didn't get there until 3:30.

In addition to getting there late, we sat for about an hour in the hot sun before they finally started. And they didn't really start. Gotta love these Guatemalans. They started getting the bulls in the enclosed part of the pen, except one crazy bull didn't want to. They tried lassoing him, and he just broke the lassos. They let the rest of the bulls out to try to get this one to follow the herd, but, it didn't work. They tried to pull him in with a couple of lassos and he almost jumped out of the pen to attack the guys holding the lassos! Finally they got him in, an hour later, with 3 lassos and 4 or 5 people pulling the lassos. So they finally started at 5:30pm (maybe this was all part of the show?). They introduced the cowboys, and the one at a time, a cowboy came out on a bull, did his thing for a few seconds and ate dirt. There were two guys with lots of padding who were supposed to protect the cowboys once they fell off to give them a chance to climb to safety. During the halftime entertainment, and a lady came out and started singing ranchera songs and using crowd involvement techniques that probably wouldn't happen in the states.

The last cowboy came out on the crazy bull; he was supposedly the best one, and he even stayed on for longer than anyone else. He finally ate it and quickly attempted to climb to safety. Unfortunately, the crazy bull charged at him while he was climbing up the bars on the pen. The two guys who were supposed to be protecting him just moved out of the way at the last instant, and bam! The bull rammed into the cowboy's back! The cowboy was barely able to get over the fence and fell down on the other side. He didn't move and the crowd went silent. Finally a couple guys went up to him and tried to help him up. They still had the bull running around in the pen, and once again, it took them awhile to get him in the line but they did. A couple guys helped the cowboy up and he limped off to the side. He had this look on his face, what good are the protectors if they don't protect me? The show ended shortly after that.

You can see the pictures here!