cultural experience: cock fights

this is part two of my site visit. you can read the first part about getting there and hunting for mangos here.


zac's friend, alvaro came over and mentioned there was a cock fight in the evening the first day i was on the island. yes, cock fight. a cultural tradition here in nicaragua, i was excited to experience this event.  as soon as alvaro left, i said, "so we're going right?"  he said we could, and then we went mango hunting (see last post). 


right about when we were going to leave, the power went out (of course), so we hung around for a while waiting for that to come back.  in the meantime, we chatted with luisa, one of zac's english students.  eventually the power came back, and we set off.  

entering the bar

the bar was located down a dark street that i never would have considered exploring on my own or as a tourist.  the only reassurance i had was that zac and alvaro had been to this place several times.  it definitely was a local spot.  we entered the dark bar and saw the ring illuminated and surrounded by men intently watching the process... and drinking (of course). 

making sure the razor is attached just right

turns out cock fighting is serious business. there is a process of attaching a razor blade to each rooster's left foot so the blows are more intense.  the razors have to be the same length otherwise it wouldn't be fair, so a lot of time is spent on this part.  once they are razored, another guy uses a separate rooster to get them riled up and pissed off. that way once they start to fight they are ready to go instead of looking for bugs on the ground. finally, they are set on each other.  this ring used a kids clock to tell the time, and each fight can last up to 15 minutes.  occasionally a timeout is called and the fighters pull their roosters back and try to fix them up.  they blow air into their mouths to give them more oxygen and then set them back on each other.  eventually one of them cops out and bites the dust.  i was amazed at the amount of money that was dropped on a single fight.  one guy lost C$2,000 apparently.  

getting the roosters riled up

watching the fight. i left out the end. 

overall, the fight was certainly a cultural experience, but not something that i plan on frequenting on a regular basis.  i saw it and have checked it off my list of cultural things to see. on to the next one right?