Pamplona - June 21st (Part 2) - San Fermin

In the evening, Brian's group had arranged to have a tour/commentary about the running of the bulls.  This takes place in Pamplona every July 7th - 14th.  As I walked around the city earlier in the day, I could see all kinds of preparations.As we set out to walk the route that evening, it started raining, so we headed back to the hotel where our guide told us everything we wanted to know about the festival of San Fermin (when the running of the bulls takes place).

Basically, the running of the bulls is a way to get the bulls from the corrals outside of the city to the arena for the bull fighting later the same day.  Each morning at 8am, several bulls are released into the streets.  The edges of the streets are barricaded so the bulls have a clear path to follow to the arena.  They follow a steer wearing a bell.  It is noisy and crowded, which makes it frightening for the bulls, which is why they run.  The route is about a 1/2 mile long and takes just 3 minutes.

Our guide was an older man who had been involved with encierro (yet another name for running of the bulls) since he was a young boy.  He explained that he first ran when he was 15 or 16 (I can't remember for sure).  It was almost a rite of passage for young men.  He talked about the excitement of running just in front of the bulls.  He ran every year for several years and has also been involved in organizing the event every year.

The rain didn't last long, so we set out to see the route.  The corrals are just outside the city.  If you were to continue down the street below - that's where the corrals are:

This is the same street as above, just a closer shot.  The building up the hill is the museum where I spent the morning.

Again, the same street, but looking down from above (next to the museum).

Along the streets that the bulls would run, barricades were being put up.  The ones we saw were along the sides of streets.  The remaining sections that crossed the streets would be put up later.  Here are some photos.  They are pretty sturdy barricades!

Here is a San Fermin countdown!

















Finally we got to the arena.  It was all closed up, but here is the path the bulls run - straight to the red doors!

It was a pretty informative evening.  I enjoyed hearing more about the history and the events of the Festival of San Fermin.  I just wish I remembered more of it...

Once again, Ian was great.  Everyone in the group was excited to see him and kept commenting on how good he was.

It was a good day.