The Bull

Today marks a year in Panama for me. Over this time, I’ve seen and done a lot of things I never would have experienced in the States. After all, I am living in a totally different culture. However, one thing was missing - seeing the running of the bulls.

Now this isn’t exactly like what you would see with the famous running of the bulls in Spain. Instead, here in Panama, the activity features bulls shot out from a gate with a person sometimes riding and sometimes not. There are also a ton of people milling around the ring deciding whether to challenge the oncoming bull or run for their lives. Most cases the people would run as fast as they could for fence and climb it for protection. I’ll let you guess why that choice was most often taken.

And I have to say, I don’t blame them one bit. When you see something like this charging at you, what would you do?




That’s what I thought.

The highlight of the day was when my friend, that lives in the town where the bulls were at, decided to give it a shot and ride the bull. When he went shooting out of the gates on the back of the bull, his hometown folks in the surrounding arena exploded in approval. It was a cool scene. My friend gave it his best effort and lasted about 10 seconds. Afterward as we were milling around the crowd, people were coming up left and right to congratulate him on his ride. That was really cool. The exchange cultures at its finest.

Now, I just need to work up the nerve to go next year. Although, that nerve will likely never come.