Visitor
Tips:
| The
festival starts on July 6
and ends at midnight on
July 14. |
| Make
hotel and other bookings
several months in
advance. January is not
too early. |
| The
best views are from
balconies that overlook
the street. My Recommended
Spain Travel Agent can
help you book a balcony
for viewing the El
Encierro. |
| If
you plan to watch from
the street, arrive early,
before 6 A.M. You
should see two parallel
barriers running down the
street; you will want to
position yourself on the
exterior barrier. People
who place themselves on
the interior barrier will
be removed prior to the
bulls' running. |
| If you decide
to participate in the
run, familiarize yourself
with the course before
the event. |
| More
Unique
Visits:
|
|
Every
man wore a red handkerchief
around his neck.
The white of shirts and pants was
hopelessly stained with purple
circles of wine. Spectators
in the rows of balconies along
the street looked down upon us.The
journalists took pictures. We
are heroes, I thought. No,
we are stupid young men.
When the first rocket exploded (they
use rockets -- rockets! -- to
signify the release of the bulls)
the crowd separated along the 800
meters of narrow cobblestone
street. I chose to run from
a spot high on “La
Estafeta”, the third and
final leg of the run that ends in
the bullring. La Estafeta is a
narrow alley with no routes of
escape but for a three meter gap
of wooden fence post.In
the first section of the run, the
most courageous and stupid of the
men run the bulls in
what is called The Passage of
Santo Domingo.The men of Santo
Domingo run uphill with the bulls
while the legs and lungs of the
bulls are fresh and vigorous. It
is considered very brave and
stupid to run through Santo
Domingo.
The middle section of
the run, called the "Ayuntamiento,"
is short, wide, and relatively
safe. It begins at the
end of Santo Domingo, and ends
at the first corner of La
Estafeta. Once past this corner,
the herd enters a narrow
cobblestone passage that
continues uninterrupted for
nearly three hundred yards.
I can compare the hoof-beating
approach of the bulls charging
down La Estafeta to nothing but
the towering winter swells of the
open Atlantic. It is a spectacle
that is dark, powerful, and
imminent. The Spanish bull seems
a creature only comparable to the
blue whale, the elephant, and
perhaps the lion. But it is the
colour of a rippling and moving
black, amongst a fleeing and
drunken mob of white and red men,
which is the most stunning and
incomprehensible.
Continue
to page three...
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