Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In Act I, the horseman
(cavaleiro)
skillfully plants four beribboned barbs in the bull's
back while trying to avoid the leather-padded horns. The horses are the short, stocky Lus-
itano breed, with excellent balance. In Act II, a colorfully clad eight-man suicide squad
(called
forçados
) enters the ring and lines up single file facing the bull. With testoster-
one sloshing everywhere, the leader taunts the bull—slapping his knees and yelling,
“touro!”
—then braces himself for a collision that can be heard all the way up in the cheap
seats. As he hangs onto the bull's head, his buddies pile on, trying to wrestle the bull to a
standstill. Finally, one guy hangs on to
o touro
's tail and “water-skis” behind him. (In Act
III, the
ambulância
arrives.)
Unlike the Spanish
corrida de toros,
the bull is not killed in front of the crowd at the
Portuguese
tourada
...but it is killed later. (Some brave bulls with only superficial wounds
are spared to fight another day.) Spanish aficionados insist that Portuguese fights are ac-
tually crueler, since they humiliate the bull, rather than fight him as a fellow warrior.
Animal-rights groups enliven the scene before each fight.
The ring is small, so there are no bad seats. To sit nearly at ringside, try the cheapest
bancada
seats, on the generally half-empty and unmonitored main floor (Metro: Campo
