Its festival time in Costa Rica.  Starting December 25th and ending January 4th, each year the biggest festival of them all, Zapote, draws thousands.  The main attraction……the bulls of the redondel (or, bullring).  These crazy ticos that we call “toreros improvisados” that consist of both men and women, get into the ring and taunt the bulls into chasing them.  The object?  Well, I am not real sure, but the effect is usually that someone gets hurt and sometimes badly.  It is all in good fun I guess and the spectators in the stands, fueled by the never ending supply of Imperial, just can’t get enough of it.  Why do they do it?  Well one fearless torero by the name of David Rodriguez, age 21, told La Nación reporters that it is to “feel the fear of being face to face with the animal.”  Even Olympic athlete, Nery Brenes, got into the ring with the bulls (Brenes nearly made it to the finals in the men’s 400 meter sprint in this years summer Olympics).  Mixed in with the “improvisados” (or novices) are actual professional toreros.  One of these professionals is Paterson Esquivel, age 30, who has been a torero for 7 years.  Esquivel declares that to be a torero is an art form and that he loves to feel the adrenaline rush of being in the ring with the bulls along with provoking smiles on the spectators with his bull-taunting antics.  Even Shirley Gómez, age 32, takes part in the action.  She says that as soon as she was given her cedula she was ready to run with the bulls.  A self-confessed “adrenaline junky” Gómez claims that sometimes the “machista” male toreros give her a hard time, but she doesn’t sweat it….her fearlessness in the redondel speaks for itself.  As for me, I would rather see the bull on my plate in the form of a juicy steak than looking at one eye to eye (actually I don’t eat steak, but you get the message….I am a big chicken!).