Real Life in Paradise

This last weekend I went to the bullfights, a first time for me.  I was expecting the bullfight to be a brutal spectacle that would horrify me and I was pretty sure I would leave after the first show.  Why did I go, you ask?  Because I live in Mexico and have been asked by every person I know that moves here if I have ever seen a bullfight, as well as all of my friends that come down to visit.  I must admit that I had a cultural bias against the bullfights, because I was raised with the idea that animals have some sort of feelings.

I showed up at the bullring about the time the “Corrida” was supposed to start, there was plenty of seating but lots of people still showing up.  The tickets were $225 pesos per person, I was a little surprised because I can imagine that this price is a little prohibitive to some of the local population.

A band with about five players was seated at the back of the ring near the exit and the crowd started shouting for them to play something soon after I found my seat.  The band seemed rather hesitant to start but soon was belting out familiar traditional songs and the party started going.

I was amazed at the way the crowd seemed to direct the goings on of the event, after a few minutes of sitting a few of the rowdier spectators started shouting for the lights to be turned on. After a while, more and more people were shouting, some standing up and waving there hands, even screaming obscenities at an unseen (at least to me) entity, who eventually acquiesced to the requests.

The crowd started to get more and more rowdy, the band played rowdy music, venders offered cokes and beers and deep fried hotdogs and I felt right at home in the middle of this party.  I kept getting the sensation of “What is going to happen next?”  Finally, after about 15 minutes, the band started playing the typical bullfight song (I believe it is called “La Malageña” and the crowd quieted down for the show to start.

The bullfight starts with a parade of the bullfighters and support staff, all dressed in very bright clothing and very decorated.  They walk around in funny hats and salute the crowd, going to each part of the ring to get approval from all of the crowd.  One of the matadores appeared to be in his mid-sixties and was dressed in a black, grey, and silver suit with lots of piping and sequins, the other was wearing a hot pink suit with gold piping.  I am not sure if this is traditional but it certainly made an impression on me.  The crowd roared as the matadors walked around the ring and waved, receiving hats and scarves from the crowd, at one point even a pair of sunglasses, all of which was used quickly by the matador and then thrown back to its owner.

Another interesting player in the show was the “Picador” who is mounted on top of a horse that is wearing a thick blanket of armor and is completely blindfolded,  he wears steel boots and carries a spear, I didn’t put it all together at the time but his role gets interesting later.  There was also another guy wearing a red suit and a funny had, but I never caught what he was called, his role will be explained later as well.

After much ceremony everyone retreats back into the inner section of the ring and waits, this gives an opportunity for the crowd to get a little bit of excitement worked up as well as a window for the beer venders to wander around and supply the crowd with re-enforcements.   The anticipation builds to a head and the crowd starts shouting for a bull, about that time I started to hear a loud crashing noises from the side of the ring opposite my seat.

Finally, a door near the crashing opened, after about thirty seconds an angry bovine emerged from the dark hallway behind the door and started across the ring for one of the men who was waving a large pink cape at the bull.  At the last minute the man with the cape ducks behind a barrier that is especially for this purpose and the bull grazes the barrier but keeps going to another part of the ring to attack yet another one of the men with capes.  This goes on for a little while, I am not sure what it accomplished other than to give  the crowd the feeling that the bull is really pissed off.

After a little bit more of the bull running around showing that he would attack anything that moved the Matador enters the ring and waves the cape at the bull for a little while.  This pisses the bull off more, inciting him to attack the matador and everything else in sight.   The bull apparently needed more excitement, because next, the picador on the horse enters the ring and the matador leads the bull over near him.  Now, I am thinking, “Spear, bull, ok, I know whats coming”, but I really had no idea about the reality.   See, its not as if the bull stands still and lets the Picador come to him to stick the spear in.  I think he figures that the best defense is a good offense, so he attacks the horse brutally,  hence the steel boots and padded armor.

The horse seemed not to notice that a thousand pound bull was charging into his side, I guess because of the blindfold (I know people like this, actually), so he did not move or run or really even flinch.  I wonder about the training they used to get no reaction out of the horse in such circumstances.

Here is where the bullfight got a little more bloody, while the bull was attacking the horse, the man on top of the horse was ramming the spear into the hump behind the bull’s neck, opening up a large wound.  Not once during this does the bull stop and evaluate the situation, he just keeps pounding away at the horse until the crowd shouts enough for the horse to be retired from the ring.

Next, another crazy man who we don’t recognize, wearing a red and white suit sprints into the ring with pointy sticks with lots of flare, jamming them into the already frustrated bull.  These sticks, upon further viewing, have metal spike and a barb on the end, but the spike doesn’t seem to be long enough to do much other than annoy the bull, but the barb keeps it from falling out, therefore the bull exits the encounter with these sticks hanging out of his back.

After a little bit more of the bull running around the ring attacking things, the matador comes in with a  sword and his cape and toys with the bull a little bit more.  The bull follows the cape around charging it and barely missing the matador, it looked challenging getting the bull to do exactly what he wanted it to like that.  I knew what was coming now, the bull looked like he was getting a little bit tired, though he was not losing any of his resolve in terms of needing to attack things.

The matador went to the side of the ring after a little while and asked for a different sword, I wasn’t sure what this was about but it seemed important.  Right away, he started holding the new sword up with the business end towards the bull.  He seemed to be aiming, after a little while he lunged at the bull with the sword.  The bull lunged back at the matador and the sword glanced off of the back off the bull.  Twice more the matador aimed and lunged, twice more the bull attacked back and fended off the sword.

By this time the crowd started shouting insults at the matador, making jokes about his age and his inability to distinguish the bull from the surrounding area.  He seemed to take the insults rather well, on the fourth try he managed to land the sword squarely in the back of the bull.  It didn’t take but five seconds for the bull to fall to the ground, dead.  Soon afterward the man in the red and black suit came to make sure that the bull was dead, driving a blade into the base of his skull.

While the bull lies there the matador walks around the ring and people cheer and throw things for him to touch and throw back.  I found it a little odd that somebody threw a rag to him and he picked it up, wiped his brow with it and then threw it back.  Maybe it’s good luck.

After the matador pranced around for a while a pickup truck drove into the ring and hooked the bull up by its back legs, dragging it out of the ring.  I had heard that the bull would be pulled from the ring by donkeys, which I thought much more appropriate for the event than a Chevy.  What do I know?

The other three fights were more or less the same, nothing really to talk about.  The point I would like to point out is that at no point during the fights did I feel disgusted or horrified by the event and the bull did not seem to be in any pain.  I actually felt worse for the calves that were tortured during the “Midget Bullfights” than I did for the real bulls.

My favorite parts of the bullfight were actually when something went wrong and the bull got his chance to get some vengeance for what was happening to him. Once during the second fight the bull managed to catch one of his tormenters and drag him across the floor for a little while, I didn’t manage to get it on film unfortunately.  The other time the bull got points was when he attacked a horse and managed to get the Picador off of the horse’s back and onto his.  This caused a little bit of chaos and was pretty exciting; I managed to get video of this.

Another thing that really stood out was how the second matador was very showy, a little overkill in any other event really.  I think this might be a normal occurrence in bullfighting, I remember reading “Ferdinand the Bull” when I was a kid and it talked about the matadors and their egos.

Overall, I cannot say whether or not I would go to another bullfight, it was definitely an experience that I am glad that I had.   I can now say that I have seen a bullfight and my experience was not horrible, but I know that the event is really gory and very vivid.  

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This week I have gone to the Municipal Palace various times, each time they have told me to come back tomorrow.  I don’t feel too upset with this progress because the workers at the office have now assured me that the Licencia de Uso de Suelo is going to be approved, that there is nothing missing, it is just taking more time than they anticipated.  What I was told today is that the new boss has instated a new policy that she needs to read every piece of paper that comes across her desk, so it is just taking longer than it was supposed to.

When I got to the Municipal Palace this morning, the line in front of “Desarollo Urbano” was out the door, down the hall, and down the stairs, which really surprised me because I arrived really early to avoid a line.  I asked somebody if this was the line for the urban development department and he assured me that it was.  I hadn’t ever seen a line like this before, but I figured maybe friday was just a bad day for city hall.  I was told to come back today, so I was going to follow directions, that is an important part of any “tramite” that is done here: Follow directions.

After a few minutes of staring off into space I looked more carefully at the line and realized that some faces were very familiar to me, they seemed to be the people that worked behind the counter of Desarollo Urbano.  I quickly asked the man that I had asked before if he worked there, he replied that he did.  I guess I really arrived too early. 

The woman who normally helps me at the counter arrived shortly after and made a joke about me being there early every time, then told me that the boss who had the key was running late and we had to wait.  This gave me a nice opportunity to chat with the ladies from behind the desk and ask all sorts of questions about the job and how things worked.  In my time here in Playa Del Carmen I have really gotten a chance to learn about getting more flies with honey than with vinegar, a smile and a kind greeting works so much better for me than the normal curt gringo attitude that I was accustomed to back in the states.

After the Palacio I went to Lomas Mariposas to take care of some administrative tasks and was there just in time to hear the pump making funny noises.  I know the sound of the pump sucking water, so I checked the cistern and it was mostly empty.  I looked to see if the water was running in from the city, it was, it seems that we had just used a lot of water in the last couple of days.  I have noticed a trend in Playa during July that sometimes the water runs a little slowly, sometimes not at all.  It was about 11am so I figured it would be safe to leave the pump off for a while and give the cistern a chance to fill up.  The cistern was back at an operational level at 5pm, so the tenants have water tonight.

I am looking for a solution to this problem, I have heard that I can drill a well and have it metered, so I don’t have to rely on city water, but I need to look into how much this costs.  Note the “and have it metered” part, when Lomas Mariposas was first turned over to me the contractor had installed a well on the empty lot next door and did not have a CAPA(Water Company) meter installed on it, the city found out about the well and took exception to it, costing the developer of the building a hefty fine.

This afternoon was spent getting a load of furniture for PlayaResale, a local importer is changing his focus from furniture and he liquidated his entire inventory to us.  We now have a full warehouse and I am worried about where we are going to put any new stuff that comes in, but I guess it will all work out.  I have to fix the webpage so that it shows all the new stuff, but I guess that will happen next week.

We still have a few things left to do at PlayaResale but we will be open at regular hours starting Monday, July 28.  I am excited and I think it will do well.  My business partner and I keep coming up with new ideas for the business, something is bound to work out well.

Some friends of mine are starting a Playa Del Carmen food blog, called PlayaEats and have invited me to be a contributing writer.  I think that this will be a fun project too, because it will give me the chance to try new and exciting restaurants with and excuse.  I’m a journalist!

This sunday is the big bullfight at the Expo Riviera Maya 2008, I am hoping to get to go to that. Monday morning at 7:30 there is a beach cleanup at Coco Beach, I have been feeling like a little bit of volunteer work might do me good, so I am going to try to make it to that as well.

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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 5^th Avenue experience, but I really had a good time.

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So, I have been working this last week on getting the Uso de Suelo done and getting the building completely ready to open.  The Licencia de Uso de Suelo is a Playa Del Carmen legend, anyone who has opened a business can tell you how difficult and time-intensive the this license is.  I didn’t have that experience.  I got the contract from the notary on Monday, which was the first requirement.  I took this to the accountant’s office and he helped me add a business location to my company’s tax information, therefore giving me the go-ahead from Hacienda (the tax authority) to set up a business where the shop is going to be.  The accountant then gave me a basic format for a letter I needed to write to the director of urban development asking for permission for the Uso de Suelo.  I had already gotten a list of all the paperwork I would need to take to the city for the license.

That afternoon, I took pictures of the interior and exterior of the building, including bathroom space and all identifying features around the building.  I put these pictures on in a MS-Word document and formatted them nicely and printed them out with the letter.  I had to get copies of various records, previous licenses that were given to the building owner and paid tax bills, etc. 

I got everything bundled up nicely in a folder and put on a collared shirt and went to the city the next morning at 9am.  I was told to expect to wait in line the whole day, again I didn’t have that experience.  I think I was in line for 15 minutes tops, then was called to the counter where a very pleasant woman looked through everything that I had, it seemed like she expected me to be missing some paperwork, but she was quite pleased that I turned everything in that she was asking for.

After she told me that I had everything I needed and I could come back in 8 business days to get the license, she made sure that I know about the publicity license that is required in Playa Del Carmen.  She got the list of requirements for these licenses and went through them step by step with me, explaining them all in depth.  She told me that it is much easier if I submit this paperwork right after I submit my Uso de Suelo paperwork, and explained how to do that without actually having the Uso de Suelo, which is the first requirement for the sign license.  She sent me away to get my paperwork done and said to come back the next morning.

The sign tax is something that everyone pays and if they do not the city inspectors come around and put big “CLAUSARADO” stickers all over your signs, so it is pretty necessary, but I was expecting it to be a much bigger hassle than it was. We had already prepared a space to put the new signs, but hadn’t painted anything on them yet.  This turned out to be a really good thing because one of the requirements for the sign license is a design plan of what the sign is going to be, how it is constructed, etc.  I took pictures of the sign spaces minus any writing and then did a separate page explaining the signs.

So, that next day I went into the urban planning department again to turn in the paperwork for my signs, while I was was there the inspectors from the city came and looked around at the shop.  They talked to Valentin, the guy who has been doing most of the real work while I am running around like a crazy person, they took pictures of the place and looked at the tax-permit that I had posted on the wall, then they told Valentin to tell me that I could come get the permit next week.

When I talked to the accountant about how easy the whole process was going for me he didn’t believe me, then he suggested (jokingly?) that should do all the license work that he has to do because it never goes that well for him.  I think that opening a business in July must be the key.

During all this we got our first truckload of furniture, a bed and a sofa and some plant stands, but this week while I am waiting for all the paperwork to clear I will be going around looking at other furniture and hopefully filling PlayaResale with stuff so we can open our doors for business soon. 

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