Our friends Francisco and Landy invited us to spend the day with their entire family and friends for the Feria Telchac Pueblo 2013 in the Yucatan. This is a time honored event and we were very excited to be invited to spend the day with them. The party in Telchac was for San Francisco de Asis, the Patron Saint of Telchac. Many different cultural events can be viewed on this day and we got to see several of them. Many religious ceremonies, bull fighting, folk dancing, drinking, fair, food, and music could all be seen. Unfortunately, we left Telchac at about 8pm so we did not get to see all of the festivities but it sure looked like they were going to have a great party!

First we got to try Lechon, which is a pork dish that is served all over the world but originated in Spain. Lechon, refers to a suckling pig that is roasted over charcoal. I was asked by the grandfather to accompany him to get the pork, this turned into a little beer drinking event! We drove to the local bakery, which was closed on Sundays, and called them to say we were there for the pig! Ten minutes later, a guy rode up on his bicycle opened the door to the bakery and came out with our slow roasted pig leg!! If you ever need a bigger oven, just ask your local bakery! Then we drove to where we would eat the meal, and had beers. I was educated very quickly that the first one is to be drank quickly to quench the thirst while with the second you can take a couple of breaths as you drink it… They always bring the beer in twos, slam the first one, enjoy the second one because the next pair of beers is on the way! Of course I didn’t understand all the semantics of it so it was like I had to slam both beers because the next ones were there already! I am a slow learner:)

The ladies served this delicious slow roasted pork, Lechon, to us on tortillas with home made avocado salsa, pica de gallo, onions, cilantro, limes and a baked bean soup. The first bowl of bean soup was ok, but after I watched everybody else load their soup up with onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime I had to try it again and it was fabulous!

The kids managed to keep themselves somewhat occupied in the yard until we were ready to go explore the fair area and watch the bull fight. The bull ring was one typical of small towns in Mexico and was actually better than the first one we went to. I wasn’t as scared that my chair would fall through the cracks in this one but I was still very careful where I stepped. I especially like the front row seats…where your feet dangle down and you can kick the bull as it runs by… or the little 4 or five year olds with the spray cans to spray streamers of foam on the bull as it runs by under their feet. We managed to convince Evan that he should not sit out there and it didn’t matter if that kid was only 5.

Ok, so this is the third bull fight we have seen, and we continue to be amazed by what we see… Not sure if the amazement is all good, or just pure amazement… We had fantastic seats in the Telchac ‘coliseum’ and a great view of the proceedings. We had initially thought that it was just going to be what we refer to as ‘bull dancing’ where the matadors, picadores, banderilleros, or toreros all “play” with the bull, then a whole bunch of cowboys ride in to rope the bull, before letting the bull out the side gate. We enjoy this type of bull fight. However, due to the festivity of San Francisco de Asis and the cultural aspects involved with this, the first two bulls were to be killed. Then they were to be brought out to the fair where the bulls are butchered and then served or sold to the general population. I am ok with this as it is something that happens around the world and is a reminder of the cultural importance of the bull fight… but the bulls didn’t seem to be very excited, so they were quickly roped and killed in front of us, then dragged out of the area to the kiosks to be butchered and sold. This could be a little disturbing to the average viewer.

My recommendation if you do not want to watch the bulls get killed would be to go later to these local events and miss the first couple of bulls that are destined to be butchered. If you arrive later, they still have about 15 bulls doing the ‘bull dance’ and you may miss the killing of the bulls. Next time I believe I will arrive later.

We do understand the cultural importance of the bull fight but we are certainly not used to it. It was certainly weird to walk through the area surrounding the bull ring afterwards and see the skinned and butchered bulls there. I will not post all the pictures as they could be quite disturbing to the average viewer but no part of the bulls were going to waste and they were being cooked up right away and being served to many people.

Evan had the chicken shish-ka-bob from the stand next to the bull butcher! Nobody else ate. I went to Boston’s in Merida and had chicken wings and pizza.

Ok, so I am posting some of the pictures from the day here. I will also be very careful as to what comments I will allow on this post regarding the cultural importance and personal views of bull fighting. This is not the opportunity to express your views on bull fighting and whether you support the cultural importance of such events or not. Personally, we are living in Mexico so that we can see and learn more about the culture of this great country and are glad that we can partake in as many cultural events as possible. Everyone has a choice as to whether they go to see these events or not.