We checked out one at Malaga in a 150 year old bullring located at the Plaza La Malagueta. The tickets are priced according to the status of the matadors, they are more expensive when the senior matadors perform, and some of them have the status of rock stars in the country. We went for one where relative novices were trying to break into the big time. But the bulls seemed serious enough. We’d intended to see one fight and leave when we discovered this was actually quite thrilling and sat transfixed through the killing of seven or eight bulls.

The sight of the bull thundering into the arena is spine chilling and you think the tiny figure of the matador doesn’t stand a chance.  The faena is effectively a dance with death – one wrong move and the matador could be impaled on the horns of the bull. The final move is most dramatic and quite breathtaking. The matador stands some ten feet from the bull and both animal and man stand still and size up each other for what seems like a long time and then the bull charges, the matador waits till the bull is almost on him, sidesteps the animal at the last moment and plunges the espada between the shoulder blades which if done right severes the spinal cord and the bull collapses in a heap and is dead before the dust settles around its massive body. Sometimes though the knife misses the ‘sweet spot’ and hits the bone in which case the bull is even madder than it already is and the matador has to make short work of it as quickly as possible.