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Come
for the adventure! Run with the
bulls!
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SANTO DOMINGO: The
adventure begins near the coral
at the bottom of Pamplona's
C/Santo Domingo as the first
rocket is fired announcing the
beginning of the day's
encierro. It can be
dangerous to linger too long in
this narrow streatch. You can
almost reach out and touch the
buildings on either side.
If this is your first time, you
glance quickly around at the
faces in the crowd not knowing
what to expect. Suddenly a cheer
goes up as the rocket begins its
climb into the morning sky.
By now the lead runners have
inched their way down Santo
Domingo towards the holding pen.
Suddenly they stop dead in their
tracks and surge back up the
slopping, cobbled stoned street
as the bulls suddenly erupt from
their holding pen full of pent up
energy. Quickly overtaking the
first runners, the lead animals
part the crowd, allowing the
steers to lead the way for six
massive fighting bulls.
Nervous at first, the bulls keep
their heads low, their bodies
touching, forming a dangerous
wedge. You feel the adrenaline
rush, your heart pounds in your
ears, the herd rushes by like the
wind and hopefully you've
survived the ordeal
unscathed.
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AYUNTAMIENTO
& MERCADERES: The
route widens at the top of Santo
Domingo as it enters Plaza
Consistorial and Ayuntamiento,
the town hall square. If you
started your run near the top of
Santo Domingo, and are lucky
enough to have reached the plaza
one step ahead of the bulls,
runnng as fast as your feet will
carry you, you either dive for
cover under the nearest barricade
or continue headlong, racing
across the plaza towards the
entrance to Mercaderes and the
blazing summer sun as it rises
above the streets of Pamplona. On
Mercaderes the route narrows,
angling to the left.
The bulls, having crested Santo
Domingo in a matter of seconds,
will slow their pace slightly if
the streers are in the lead, but
the fighting bulls are younger
and faster and will probably have
already overtaken the lead steers
before reaching the Ayuntamiento,
increasing the danger.
If you should go down in the
open, stay down until the bulls
have passed. A novice runner was
killed in front of the town hall
in Plaza Consistorial in 1995
when, after being knocked down by
the crowd, jumped back up to his
feet just as the lead bull
entered the plaza.
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ESTAFETA:
Once you reach the end of
Mercaderes the route takes a
sharp turn to the right at the
famous, "La Curva", which leads
onto Calle Estafeta, the long,
narrow canyon-like street lined
with shops and tapas bars, where
the doors have been boarded up,
giving you nowhere to hide once
the gate swings close behind
you. This has always been a
dangerous spot for the novice as
well as the experienced runner,
but now, with the use of the
anti-slip surfacing on the smooth
stone pavers at the corner, fewer
animals tend fall going into the
turn, reducing the possibility
that the bulls will become
separated from the herd.
But another result of the
anti-slip surfacing is that the
pace of the encierro has picked
up somewhat, creating a new set
of dangers as you try to keep
pace with the bulls as they race
up Estafeta.
If you are running down
Mercaderes toward Estafeta you
should try to keep to the right
as you enter the turn onto
Estafeta. The bulls usually
drift left, carried by their own
weigh and momentum and there will
already be others waiting to join
in the run. If you make a mistake
and find yourself on the left
side, on the outside of the turn
going into the corner, you may
wish you were somewhere else.
If you make it through the corner
and are up for a short run, you
will find that the safest place
to run with the bulls is to stay
between the white lines. The
lines used to mark the curb and
gutter when the street was paved
with cobblestones. The
crowd of would be runners
standing against the walls along
Estafeta can prove more dangerous
at this point than the bulls.
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TELEFONICA:
If you happen to make it
down the Calle Estafeta just
ahead of, or running with the
bulls, you'll find yourself at
Telefonica, which marks the end
of Estafeta. Both sides of
this short section are lined with
a double row of wooden barricades
that directs the bulls toward the
Callejon and the entrance of the
Plaza de Toros. Telefonica
is fairly wide, but the path
quickly narrows as it breaks to
the left and slopes down to the
Callejon.
The pace of the bulls has slowed
slightly as they ran up Estafeta,
but you want to keep especially
alert here, as the runners bunch
up, increasing the danger,
especially if the bulls have
separated. The last runner
to die from a bull horn, a third
generation veteran from Pamplona,
died pinned against the
barricade, unable to move out of
the way because of the crowd.
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CALLEJON:
This is narrow corridor, more
of a funnel, that fills rapidly
with bodies and razor sharp horns
as runners and bulls try to share
the same space at the entrance to
the bullring. If you find
yourself here you want to keep
moving and never glance
back. It's too late for
second thoughts if a bull is only
a step behind you. The real
danger here is if someone goes
down, either in the Callejon, or
as you pass through the doors of
the bullring. Several
runners, including experienced
ones, have been seriously injured
when trapped by a fighting bull
in the tight confines leading
into the bullring.
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PLAZA
de TOROS: Once you have
passed through the doors and are
inside the bullring, move quickly
to the left or right, keeping
clear of the entry and the center
of the ring, and keep
alert. Give the bulls
plenty of room as they head
towards their pens on the far
side of the Plaza. Remember,
bulls have excellent peripheral
vision, quick reflexes and can be
on you in a flash.
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THE
FIESTA DE SAN FERMIN
& FERIA DEL TORO
5-14 July 2012
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Agents
- Contact us for the
Agent's
Net Pricing Guides
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Miguel
Araiz,
jefe de los pastores del encierro
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