Running of the Bulls-Terciera Island, Azores-June 2015

Whenever a town has a festival or party they rent Bulls and run them through the streets.  Somehow this is entertaining.  These bulls are large mean animals.  The local athorities block off a section and let the bulls have free run.  The area we were in was probably a six block area.  They use large semi trailers with boards on the sides and all sorts of barriers.  The timber barrier in this picture is where I hid.  I was behind the barrier and even had an escape route figured in case the bull knocked down the barrier.  In this picture the bulls had not been released and every body was feeling brave.

 OK the bulls are out and everyone is becoming less brave.  Look at the quilts hanging from the balconies across the street.  That is decoration for the festivities.  Also notice that people have their doorways blocked to keep the bulls out.  They were selling beer over the top of the barriers though when the bulls were on the other side of the block.  

 The white bull seems to be zeroing in on our side of the street.  Notice that there are no children just macho dudes who want to play the game. 

 Just to show that this is all real, there was a guy about fifty feet from us that was hit by one of the bulls.  We believe he lived because he raised his hand as the truck took him away.  That took some of the macho away from the rest of the folks.  

  After an hour or so the bulls are pretty sick of running on city streets with people taunting them.  The streams of saliva are clear to the ground and they look like they want to be done with this game.  They are still on the mean side.  Our buddy the white bull is back. 

 Notice how the bull became the king of this mountain.  He cleared off the lawn and everybody who was formerly brave disappeared. 

 I imagine that the guy on the street sign could have held on for hours if he had to.