"¡Torrero!": My little encounter with a bull....

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I have yet ANOTHER random adventure to relate. Yesterday I decided to take a walk by myself for a few hours and get to know Nueva Guinea´s back streets, as I only have a few days left here. My boss had asked me to take some pictures of "cultivos" (crops), for an article about Nueva Guinea that will be appearing in a local bulletin/magazine next month. So I used that as an excuse to take the afternoon off work and go exploring. I managed to find a few fields of crops in the part of Nueva Guinea called "Linda Vista" (Pretty View), which (strangely enough) is right in the MIDDLE of the city, yet is pretty much untouched forest and wildlife.

After taking a few pics, I decided to head back to the University-- as the midday sun was scortching. I asked a family who were sitting around on their front porch (pretty much the ONLY pass-time of Nicaraguans, it seems) if there was a route through the fields to the University, as I didn´t want to have to walk all the way AROUND the neighbourhood to the main street. They said that there was, and pointed toward a mud footpath. So I crossed the barbed-wire fence and began my little adventure. I was soon totally muddy, and sweating like crazy, but it was so BEATIFUL! I crossed a little stream, and was excited to see a large field of corn on the other side-- perfect for my assignment, I thought. After scrambling up the muddy incline on the other side of the stream, I approached the corn field and took out my camera. Suddenly I noticed a large herd of cows in the neighbouring field. As I looked closer, suddenly I realised that there was no FENCE: by crossing the river I was in the same field as them. Well, stepping in a few cow pats can´t hurt me, I thought-- so long as I avoid one of them stamping their hoof on my foot or something. I snapped a shot of the corn. And then I saw it: a large bull had spotted me and was walking swiftly toward me. He seemed pissed. Now that definatly CAN hurt me, I thought!

"Ok, ok, relax, Seeta. Just calmly turn around and walk in the oter direction. Just slowly back away. Don´t let it see that your scared. No fast movements". And I did just that: turned my back on the bull (something I did NOT want to do!) and began to walk away at a leaisurly pace (fighting my every instinct to run and slide stright down the bank!), back down the incline, trying not to slip in the mud. I could feel the bulls heavy footsteps shaking the ground as he approached behind me, and even its heavy breathing. At about 5 meters distance, it stopped and watched my progress as I (terrified!) continued to walk down the bank. I continued to walk away, praying all the while that God would protect me!

Once safely on the other side of the stream, I took a pic of the bull which, having determined that I did not pose a threat, was now peacefully grazing. My heart was racing! So I staggered back the way I had come, and returned to the little unpaved streets of Linda Vista-- where the family that had seen me embark on my adventure an hour earlier began laughing as they saw me come back, having not found my way, sweaty and covered in mud! But better social embarassment than becoming human-souvalki skewerwd on the horns of a bull in the middle of an isolated field in Nicaragua! One more story for the books.

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Photos

bull
this pic u can see a bit better: note the HORNS. and let me tell you, bulls are a lot BIGGER up close than i had realised, or than it appears in this pic. Or maybe that´s just my desire-to-survive-and-not-get-killed talking.

the bull
Here is my not-entirely-friendly companion, Mr.Bull. I took this pic when sfaely on the OTHER side of the stream....

The pic of corn crops that I almost lost my life for!
Here is the field, on the other side of the stream. In the right hand corner you can kind of see the cows, which had begun to approach as I took the shot.

the little stream: dividing line btw me and the bull!
Not exactly what one pictures when one things of an area in the middle of a "city": but, as I have said, what is considered a "city" is quite deifferent here.... So here it was that a slipped in the mud and climed the bank to take a pic of the corn crops u can see here. I did not realise that just to the right of this a field opens up, with cows (and the infamous bull) grazing in it!

Nueav Guinea´s Main street and Market
How strange that on one block you have paved roads and concrete houses, and literally 3 blocks away, after passing un-paved streets of little houses made of loosely-fitted wodden boards, is pure country: complete with fields of corn...and bulls!