Colombia- Day Two

       As I stepped off of my plane from Pasto to Bogotá the capital city of Colombia, I put my bags at my hotel and immediately got some breakfast of eggs and bacon, and some very delicious coffee which came from a neighboring country of Colombia’s, Brazil. When I was done with my breakfast, I started out on my day. The native tribes who lived here before the Spanish took over were famous for their very beautiful artwork with lots of gold, and as I was walking past some kind of museum, the was a statue of what looked like a native tribe leader with gold feathers. I couldn’t figure out why the foot traffic and bicycle traffic was so heavy as I was walking on the sidewalks. I grabbed a newspaper that was laying on a bench and there was a huge ad on the front page for a bullfight, and I knew that was why the streets were probably so crowded. I ran back to my hotel because I remember there was a guy selling some tickets to the arena. I was hoping he had not sold them, and he hadn’t, because they looked like pretty good seats, but even more I was hoping I/National Geographic didn’t pay good money and these tickets turn out to be phony. The arena was huge and on the floor was sand with many white stripes painted on it. The arena looked like it could hold a ton of people. There were people of all ages there who looked like they were eagerly awaiting a tragic death of a matador getting stabbed in the back with a pair of massive bull horns. I couldn’t wait for the event to start. Once it finally started, a matador came out in his elaborate bedazzled outfit and a ruby red cloth. Once he had gotten the crowd pumped up, they let out the bull, free and wild, with no restraint whatsoever, ready to try and kill what whoever was holding the red cloth. Luckily the matador looked like he knew what he was doing and did not get injured. The event was very fun, but I was a little over it because there was an obnoxious man next to me who seemed a little intoxicated yelling “Hit that dang man, bull!” When I finally arrived at my hotel, which took forever because of the crowds, I was very tired and ready to go to bed.

A matador as he tricks a bull into falling over with the brightly colored cloth  

The beginning of the bullfighting match

Some gold artwork made by native tribes