Welcome to the fourth installment of my Central American Photoblog! This update will bring you into the dark and seedy world of cockfighting.
The videos in this post are pretty tame compared to some that I have seen on the web, but the blood is prevalent. Now don’t get flustered, but I’m going to ruin it for you: one bird dies in the end, the boat sinks, and Bruce Willis is dead the whole time.
There were five fights when we were there, and we were all set after three. You might ask, “Why weren’t you all set after one?” Well, that’s a tough question to answer. The first one, we weren’t so excited about, the second one lasted about thirty seconds (one bird just ripped a hole in the other’s chest), and the third had the bird that we were excited about seeing. Maybe if I was a bit more desensitized to the cockfighting culture, I would be able to see it more competitively. (edit: from the trainer’s point of view. I saw this pit bull being run by a kid on a BMX in Belize – the dog was the most muscular life form I have ever witnessed in person. If you were a professional dogfighter, and you had to bet against that dog or me, you would bet on the dog.)
It was free to go to, but they encouraged you to bet. I watched and had some lunch.
They only serve fish here.
And if you haven’t been reminded enough already, the pictures clicky-pop open in the same window, so you don’t have to waste precious time and energy moving over to another window to see the beautiful cocks. The least you could do is mouseover the pictures as you’re reading the captions beside them. They’re so funny I forgot to laugh.
Here we see the gentlemen weighing the birds to be fought. This seemed to be the sole measuring stick for pairing the gamecocks. The crew walked around the premises and were making eyes a particularly fit bird (pictured later) that looked as if every precaution had been taken to make sure it was ring ready. That rooster fought the biggest bird in the yard and whipped him squarely with a size disadvantage. It just goes to show you, it’s not the size of your cock that counts, it’s how you use it. Read more . . . |
