Running the Bulls, Ayacucho, Peru

Diane: TM's best friend, Paul, arrived in Ayacucho early this morning just in time for the final activities of Semana Santa.






The marvelous pedestrian promenade was now the site for "running" the bulls. I had read reports that young men were seriously injured every year trying to run with said bulls. Regardless - we headed to the plaza to be part of the action. As we waited, we watched small processions pass by every 10 minutes or so.






There were marching bands.






There was drinking.






And there was non-stop dancing in the streets. It was a very mild form of dancing, in which the revelers hold hands with one person leading the line in twists and turns and figure-eights in time to the music.






TM and Paul joined in, spending hours dancing around the central plaza. A panic would arise every 15 minutes or so, when all those in the street thought that a bull was coming. They would all lunge for the assumed safety of the sidewalks. I managed to keep my position on the sidewalk, but I was pushed, pulled, and jangled in any number of directions. Thankfully, I befriended a family standing next to me, who helped protect me from being run over by the crowd. Sometimes these false alarms were the result of horses riding through the crowd. And sometimes, I had the feeling that a bull must be somewhere near due to the level of intense alarm all around me, but I never did see one.

It was a hot afternoon and those dancing, including TM and Paul, were working up a sweat. The local firefighters brought a pumper truck to hose the crowds down every half hour or so. In between the large water blasts, many in the crowd implored those watching from upstairs balconies to pour water on them.

After a few hours in the midday sun with no bulls in sight, TM came running back to me to report that he had just touched the horn of a bull that had come charging down the street. There was corroboration from Mikki. TM had been trying to run away from the bull, but the bull had been more successful at running away from its driver and had come within inches of maiming my sweet baby.

Calliope and Tom had decided that they'd had enough of standing around sweating and had already retired to the hotel. TM and Paul decided to join them.

I hadn't realized that any bulls had actually been in the vicinity, but now it seemed that all those around me had seen several. I decided to make my way past any security and get a front row seat in one of the balconies. I was intent on seeing a bull. The hard part was breaking through the crowds on the sidewalk. After that, the rest was easy. Mikki and I walked into a building, found the stairs leading up to a restaurant, and joined in with those on the balcony. We must have been charmed, because there were thousands of people on the streets who would have loved to do the same thing, but there were only a couple dozen of us who had succeeded. Although the feeling upstairs was not as spirited as down below, we did have a great view of the firefighters spraying water on the crowd. We also watched from above as folks created human pyramids.






We watched caballos de paso prancing down the streets. And finally, we watched a bull run through the central plaza!

After finally seeing a bull come ploughing through the crowd, I went home to review the videos I had shot. I was astonished to find that I had shot footage of several bulls running through the plaza, even though I had not actually seen any at the time. I had been holding the camera over my head, so it's possible that all the bodies in front of me had obscured my view. However, this was unlikely, since all the short Peruvians around me had seen the bulls. As a thought-provoking aside, with these videos, I have created a new reality of my own experience.