Spain from the Costa del Sol – 2010 – Ronda

Another beautiful shot by my wife.

May 1 – Day 6 – Ronda is 63 kilometers from our base in the Costa del Sol. Let me say here that there is so much history here in Spain that one could spend years reading about it.

It is a beautiful city with fine architecture. As a contractor and builder, I find the ancient cities fascinating. The people in the past made such grand buildings with little help from technology.

Yes, they were clever and developed interesting methods and machines to bring bricks and mortar up to the top of huge cathedrals and other buildings, but they had no electricity or other resources that we take for granted today.

If you are interested there was a fine show on PBS on the construction of large Italian Cathedrals and other buildings and about the men who designed them. An American actor was the host. I think he was in the Terminator movies, but I’m not sure.

One of the most interesting things about Ronda for me was the fact that modern bullfighting began here. The ancient civilizations often sacrificed bulls to the gods.

There are many fine examples of wall paintings from Knossos in Crete showing acrobats, both male and female, cavorting around bulls. They are depicted holding the bulls horns and jumping over them.

Eventually men on horse back with long poles would attack the bulls and this became quite common and was enjoyed by the masses.

However in Ronda, in 1726, a man named Francisco Romero introduced the estoque (sword) and the muleta (small worsted cape) to bullfighting. The bull fighting we see today came from Ronda.

The bull fight is made up of three sections.

Ok, bull fighting isn’t for everyone, I get that. Some people consider this activity animal cruelty. They may be right, but there are many things that happen around the world that ARE accepted by OTHER cultures that OUTSIDERS consider cruel.

Just remember, if you live in modern America, and you are most likely separated from farming and ranching. You might find the production of most of our animal food products cruel since you might view those animals as more than just food. So be it, but most of us do not necessarily agree.

Just remember, I don’t care what you eat. If we were all to become vegans tomorrow, there would be no more cattle. Would someone raise them as pets? I don’t think so. They would probably go the way of the dinosaurs.

Have you been up close to what they leave behind them. Think about the logical outcome of your philosophy.

There are many cultures that consider the dog filthy for several reasons. In America we love dogs, and cats. We’ll talk about you cat people at another time, perhaps when we have a psychiatrist near by.

Anyway, it might be considered by many cultures that keeping a solitary dog, they are pack animas after all, locked up in your apartment or back yard all day with no other doggy friends or chances to breed, cruel. They might have a valid argument.

All I’m saying, is that there are usually more than one way to skin a cat. Sorry cat lovers, I miss spoke. There are alternate views on most issues and usually there is some validity on all sides.

Please relax and try to remember that when your heart starts beating as you see a man or woman walk a dog on a leash. Isn’t that cruelty. Where do you draw the line.

Do you really think that your opinion is the only valid one? Wow.

For photos go to Ray-Andrea Matthews on Facebook. My dear friends have put our photos up there. I thank them for their help.

Remember, I am up on Facebook now at R.C. Hand.