One of the most bewildering episodes of my childhood took place the day our summer camp sent us on a trip to a pseudo-bullfighting show at a tourist venue (yes, these things were considered normal in 1980s Spain). Over the following two decades, the memory would visit me sporadically in the form of brief flashes in which, among a crowd of adults in shorts roaring with laughter, I could make out the figure of a young bull chasing a visibly drunk guiri. The scene was so surreal that at times I even wondered whether I had actually witnessed it or if it was merely a product of my imaginative childhood mind.
In the summer of 2008, during one of our first outings to explore abandoned places, my friend Alargus told me about a restaurant halfway between Sant Cebrià and Sant Iscle de Vallalta where he had found the remains of a bullring. Needless to say, I immediately knew which place he was talking about.