Expo Riviera Maya 2008 — Midget Bullfighting
The local fair is going on right now. I went on opening night to see the attractions and check things out, it was kind of cool. The real reason I went was for the midget bullfighting, a big draw for a child of the “Jackass” generation. I was told on one of the online forums that “Midget Bullfighting is to a Corrida(bullfight) what midget wrestling is to Olympic grappling.” I think the metaphor was meant to discourage my enthusiasm, but it honestly just made me want to see it more.
A group of six friends went to the fair after dinner, I was sure that the event started at nine but I had also heard seven and I couldn’t remember exactly, so at about eight we started out that way to see, we stopped in front of PlayaResale to look at the poster that I had originally seen there a couple of weeks before. The poster said the “Enanitos Toreros” started at six-thirty, but I was pretty sure we could still make it, because I am familiar with scheduling practices here on the Yucatan peninsula.
The fairgrounds is rather hidden, you drive down Juarez until you get to the line of cars turning left, then follow the car in front of you until you get to all the police telling you that you cannot park here. Then you find a suitable spot in a vacant lot or sidestreet and walk the few blocks back to the very well lit entrance. Sorry folks, I can’t give better directions than that.
So we got to the gate and I was expecting to pay an entrance fee, a police officer waved us over and asked if we spoke Spanish. Allie(Mexico-or-Bust) jumped in and said that she did, so I kept quiet. The police officer basically gave us the typical speech about this gathering is pretty far off the normal tourist route and if we want to be here we need to behave like we live here and don’t do anything that would jeopardize our safety. I got sort of a “This ain’t spring break in Cancun” feeling from his message.
As we were walking up and talking to the police, the fireworks display had started, it was the closest I have ever been to a real fireworks show. Burning embers were falling on us and the crowd around us, it was pretty vivid, I spent the whole time wondering if they were going to catch something on fire. True to form, there was a chapel at the entrance of the fairgrounds, during the fireworks show, the large Virgin-Mary-holding-baby-Jesus on top of the chapel burst into bright pyrotechnic flames, a nice touch to any opening.
The first thing we did was made our way to the bullring, the Midget event didn’t start until 10pm according the the flyers, so we had plenty of time to look around. We got something to drink, I tried an agua-de-naranja, which was a lot sweeter than the aguas-frescas that I am accustomed to.
There was a show being put on at the main stage, so we went to check it out. Singing and poetry and dancers with baskets of fruit, pretty typical to many of the dances I have seen but always entertaining.This show seemed to be put on by the Honorable Ayuntemiento de Merida, at least it said so on their sashes.
We walked around for a while, noticing lots of food booths and puestos selling various fried goods. I have never been a big fan of deepfried hotdogs, but I did notice that if that was something you were interested they were in stock. Allie’s husband Hans and I often venture about Playa Del Carmen looking for new and interesting culinary experiences, so I convinced him that he should try Marquesitas.
A Marquesita is a crispy crepe fried right in front of you and then sprinkled liberally with a parmesan-like cheese and your choice of caramel, lechera, or nutella. I found the booth that seemed to have the most people frequenting it and we each got one, I got it with lechera and Hans had his with nutella. None of the rest of the group was feeling up to trying these sweet treats, but we certainly enjoyed ours.
Next, we wandered over to the rides area of the fair, joking how there was no way we would get on any of these deathtraps. Then I suggested to Hans that we ride the spinning wheel of death, sort of as a joke. I was sure he would turn me down, because it was quite apparent that it was not safe. Unfortunately, he took me up on the offer. We climbed the stairs to the ride and hopped in, what the hell, it was only 20 pesos per person. We were buckled in(well, the buckle in our seat was broken, so the attendant tied a nice knot in it), and off we went.
The ride was an interesting spin-you-this-way-and-that-until-you-puke affair, I think they must be outlawed in The States because I don’t remember ever seeing anything comparable. We started to spin but then stopped, the loud grinding noise had been a clue to the operator that we were out of balance, they shuffled some people around and we were off again. It started out fine this time and the only complaint we had for the first few minutes was that the cart we were in seemed a little small. Then, the loud grinding noise returned and at this point we were moving too fast to do anything about it, but we didn’t stop. We spun forwards and backwards and sideways and the operator made fun of us…then the burning plastic smell came. Nobody else seemed concerned, so we didn’t scream too much about it.
The spinning was really starting to make me sick and I wasn’t sure how much more I really could deal with, but mercifully the ride ended. We wobbled down the steps and got on firm ground, I quickly made a mental note of where the nearest garbage can was in the case of spontaneous vomiting. We had about 20 minutes before the midgets started, so we decided to walk off the nausea. I am proud to say that neither Hans nor I got sick, though that was still questionable as we found our seats for the bullfight.
The tickets were $100 pesos each, I am amazed that they can charge that much but they about halfway filled the arena. The midgets made their grand entrance soon after we sat down and the show began.
The main event was rather anti-climactic for the evening, we watched yearling bulls get manhandled by two midgets in torero suits and two normal-sized clowns, they had some comedic(?) acts involving a midget acting drunk and making cute little plays on words, then there was a weird midget dancing session. Overall, it was entertaining but just barely.
The experience was worthwhile, even though the midget bullfighting wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. I guess there was no way it really could have lived up to the expectations I had for it. I had a very entertaining evening and I am glad I went, I think I spent less that $200 pesos for the whole night, which is pretty ok in my book. I don’t know if I would say I recommend the fair to everyone, it is definitely not a typical 5th Avenue experience, but I really had a good time.
