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architectural marvels of Bogota
FINALLY, I got the gloves too!
Café Negro
cazuela de mariscoCock Fight
While many (myself included) would consider this extremely cruel and barbaric treatment of the animals, the fact of the matter is that this stuff happens. Since I am of the opinion that one must do and try everything at least once, I decided to go check it out.
This is taken very seriously by many people there, particularily the chicken owners and 'trainers'. There are bets on the fights, and everyone gets right into it, screaming and cheering on their chicken.
We were able to go behind to see the chickens being weighed and matched and 'prepaired' for the fights. The owners of the chickens shave a little stump type thing into the back of the chickens legs, on top of this stump they melt candle wax and fit a spike over this. It is then secured with tape. After this they would talk to the chickens to relax them, and strech their legs and so on. Many were also praying and doing the catholic crossing themselves thing. The chickens are now ready for the fight.
There are two ways to win the match. One is if the other owner forfitts the match if he feels his chicken is in a bad way. The other being, when a chicken goes down an hourglass is turned over, if the chicken does not get up in this time, the other wins.
We watched two fights (both about 5 or so minutes in duration), the first was a forfitted match, though I doubt that the chicken survived much longer afterwards. The second match, the chicken went down, and before the hourglass was done, the other chicken had effectivly pecked out the losers eyes and pecked a hole in its head, exposing the brain...very gruesome. The losers owner was crying, this just goes to show how seriously they take it. Anyways, two matches was enough, we left after that.
In Bogota, chicken fights are held Thurdsay and Saturday nights from 10pm until 2 or 3am at Calle 57 # 14-63. Take the transmilenio to the Calle 57 station, and it's about one block from there. Admition 10,000pesos (less than $5).
