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Brief description of a Corrida del Toros (more photos below):

            Each traditional event has 6 matches and 3 matadors [Matar = to kill, Matador = the one who kills].  Each matador has a team of 4-5 guys and a Picador.  Each match starts with the bull charging into the ring.  The matador usually watches while his teammates get the bull to charge at them and/or their capes [capotes; heavy cloth, usually magenta on one side and yellow on the other].  They often run and hide behind the wooden barriers you'll see in the photos.  The matador watches for characteristics of how the bull reacts and charges.

            During the first phase the Picador, usually a bigger guy on a heavily padded horse, comes into the ring and gets the bull to charge the horse so he can pierce the neck muscles of the bull with a long lance [some say that the horse is heavily drugged and may have his vocal chords cut so that the crowd isn't distracted by his cries].  The lances cuts weaken the bulls ability to thrust his head up when charging, but more importantly keeps his head lower for what is to come in the third phase.  The matador gets the bull to attack the cape over and over throughout the whole match.  He is essentially training the bull to attack the capote so he can better predict his actions and draw him closer without being hit.  When he does well the crowd yells "Ole".

            In the second phase the Banderillas are stuck into the bulls upper back, two at a time, usually by the matador and often with the help of 1-2 teammates to distract the bull.  Banderillas are brightly colored razor sharp barbed harpoons [usually blue and white in these pictures].  They weaken the bull further.  The accuracy of the matador helps determine his success in the next phase and is being watched by the judge and crowd. 

            In the third and final phase the matador trades his heavy capote in for a lighter red one, and his sword.  The color has no impact on the bull; bulls are color blind and react only to movement, regardless of color.  His goal is to thrust the sword down directly between the bulls shoulder blades, a target the diameter of a medium sized apple.  If the matador is accurate he will pierce the bulls heart and it will drop almost instantly.  The element of surprise is very important here for two reasons:  If the bulls front legs are not evenly situated it makes the target smaller, due to the position of the shoulder blades;  Also, the matador has to essentially lean over the bulls horns to get a direct hit; obviously dangerous.  It's easier for the matador if the bull stands with his head down, emphasizing the importance of the Picador's job in the first phase.  If the bull doesn't die by the sword other instruments are used.  Below is an example where they used a lance to try piercing the brain stem of the bull.

            In the 6 matches I watched it took anywhere from 20 seconds to about 10 minutes for the bull to fall after the sword.  The performance of the matador is heavily weighted on his accuracy here.  If he doesn't do that well in the match he gets nothing.  If he does well he gets an ear.  A little better he gets two ears.  Even better he gets two ears and a tail, which is rare, and even better he gets all the above and a hoof, extremely rare.  The judge determines the award and is influenced by the cheers of the crowd.  I'm not sure what a matador does with his prize.

            The bull is almost always killed and sold for beef after the match.  Occasionally the bull shows such outstanding characteristics that he is kept alive.  He's patched up by a vet and lives the rest of his life grazing and breeding. 

            There are more bullfight pictures below and on the next page.  The pictures are in relative order, but don't show every part of every match.  It's fairly easy to tell what's happening in each picture.  On the next page a matador gets his ass kicked by the bull...