The past week (up until Dec. 6th) was "Fiestas de Quito". December 6th (or seis de diciembre) is Ecuador's independence day and the ten days leading up to that day are fiestas de Quito. The whole city throws tons of free and fun events such as concerts, art exhibits, car races, carnivals, bull fights, parties in the streets, free alcohol and wine tasting at MegaMaxi (the local grocery store) and many more things. I went to a few of the events but my two favorite / most memorable were the Bull Fight and the Calle 13 concert. My friends and I got tickets for a friday at noon bull fight. The tickets only cost $12 and the stadium (plaza de toros) was in walking distance to from my house. So we got to the stadium at about 11:30 and the first thing I noticed was that everyone in the crowd was very upperclass Ecuadorians. They all were wearing cowboy hats and panama hats and were dressed extremely nicely. The men all wore button down shirts and khakis with sweaters tied around their necks and the women wore dresses and jeans with leather boots and designer looking sunglasses. It was a very different crowd than you see on the streets everyday in Quito.
The bullfight began with music and all the matadors walking out together and putting on a bit of a show with dancing horses and bright sparkling costumes. It was exciting until the first bull came out. The matadors hid behind parts of the wall and egged on the bull so it kept running into the wall and got more and more angry. Apparently they stab the bull with flaming pieces of metal before they let it into the stadium so it is very angry and riled up. After a while of running around, one of the matadors stepped into the middle of the arena and fought the bull. He started with shorts decorated swords that he stabbed the bull in the back with until it got weaker. He finally stabbed a two foot long sword in the back of the bull and bull finally fell.
Once the bull fell, the matador ran around the arena while people in the audience threw flowers and hats down to him and the bull was attached to horses and dragged around the arena to lots of applause. As soon as they started stabbing the bulls with the small swords, I knew I wasn't going to like the event. I couldn't beleive that they will kill such innocent animals for sport and make such a big show of it. The worst part is, after the first bull was killed, there were 5 more! I had to watch 6 poor innocent bulls get killed for people's pleasure. No wonder bull fights are banned in Spain. It was a very interesting experience but something I do not wish to repeat.
The next day, my friends and I went to the Calle 13 (trece) concert. It was very far south in Quito and there had been a festival with food and smaller concerts and other activities all day and the day ended with Calle 13. Calle 13 is a very popular band from Puerto Rico. The venue was enormous and was outside. Luckily, the weather was perfect. It was completely full of people and the music was great!
Since there were so many people, my friends and I kept loosing each other. So Zach and Liz both bought awesome light-up ears. That way, when we got lost, Zach and Liz just had to hoist someone on their shoulders to look for the other pair of ears. It worked great!
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