The venue is 'La Petatera' in Villa de Alvarez, which is an awesome theatre-like construction, consisting purely of wood and some kind of traditional twine, used for binding the wooden posts together. The Petatera is erected at the beginning of January each year, in preparation for the arrival of the 'Charro Taurinos', which comes at the beginning of February, and is dismantled by the end of the month. It is a really precious thing to see. There are some great photos on the government website - http://www.petatera.col.gob.mx/fotogaleria.htm
It is a really open structure, with 'tarpetas' or hessian mat-type things as a 'roof', which half covers the areas in which the audience sits. It can hold 4,500 people, (which's pretty impressive when you remember that not a single nail is used to hold it together) and when we were there for the sunday afternoon rodeo it was full to the brim.
After some pre-rodeo clown entertainment, the bull is released from behind the heavy iron gate, where it has been taunted with several cowboys' boots in the face, as well as an electric stun gun. The cowboys watch on, lassos in hand, as the rodeo begins.
The matador eyes up his competitor. These guys are amazing, and make it look incredibly easy to play games with this bull. But it was easy to see what skill is involved when, towards the end of the rodeo, fueled by cerveza, several Mexicans decided to try their hand in the ring - and probably won't do so again.
Finally, normally after many failed attempts, two newly-proud cowboys lasso the bull, pulling it to the floor, and then leading it back out of the ring. Who knows what happens next? We had some very tasty bistec tacos after the show...Souvenir cowboys were on sale afterwards....
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