Rodeo

I've realized that by now, there is too much to write about in the past.  I have done too many things at this point, and it has become daunting to have to put it all down in the blog so I've avoided it.  Thus, I am starting anew here with present day activities.  If you would like to ask me about Lollapalooza, Pablo Neruda's house, the rest of Torres del Paine, Ushuaia, Dad's visit, or other things I've done in the past couple months, please do and I will respond completely.  Otherwise, these things are just going to trickle into the blog as I keep up with the more or less daily grind.  It's for the best, I promise.

Anyway, today we went to a rodeo!  It was on the outskirts of the city, just south of the really nice part of town.  I met my German friends Andreas and Luisa there at about noon.  The place itself was pretty wild, as we had to walk through a holding pen for public busses, and then into a little wooded area before we got to the gate for the rodeo.

Once inside, it was impossible to tell we were still in Santiago...

 Not exactly what I've come to expect within our little hole in the mountains.

The rodeo had been underway since about 8 AM, when the sun was significantly weaker.  Here, we 3 WASPs felt her in her full glory as we watched teams of Chilean cowboys mull around the rodeo ring.

It wasn't what I expected the rodeo to be.  No ropes were used at all during the entire competition, the only way the cowboys would control the cow was with the bodies of their horses.  Every so often they would have to turn the cow around 180 degrees, and they would then be given points according to some measurable degree of proficiency.

 Here we see 2 of the cowboys going at it with the cow.  It looked quite hard - I expect it takes a lot of training to get one's horse to perform this task proficiently.

From the left: Me, Luisa, Andres, 2 chumps.

For the intermission, we went over to the outdoor restaurant and had a couple cokes.  Pisco was considered, but ultimately declined.

Horses penned up outside.  It was like a scene from the wild west.

The lineup of cows waiting to play.  They had 30+ cows in line, which seemed like overkill to me.  Chileans do not know moderation when it comes to planning, it's either way too much, or not at all.

We moved over to the other side for the second half of the competition.  Before being let loose in the big ring, the cows would run through this little mini-ring, presumably to burn off some of their pent-up energy.

Me, elated.