Jejeje... want to share with anyone interested a brief e-mail I sent to friends and family last Monday, 11 July, about the bullrun in Pamplona. Keep in mind I sent this to lots of people who know nothing about Spain or Pamplona or the encierros.
I wasn´t going to do it today. Walked out of my hotel
room at 7 am with my camera to take pictures. By the
time I got to the route of the running of the bulls,
the stands were packed with people. Found a couple of
mediocre spots where I wouldn´t have seen the whole
thing. At one point, I was standing by a doorway and
struck up a conversation with someone, which led to
the inevitable question: “Are you running?” Right then
I decided, “Yes, I´m running.”
By 7:30 the hundred meter stretch of road where the
bulls are let out was packed with hundreds, if not
thousands, of men, and a small handful of women, all
in very high spirits. Everyone dressed in white pants
and shirts and wearing red scarves. A few people very
obviously drunk. (On my street, the noise from the
partying had not stopped since I arrived at around 9
pm, yes, ten hours earlier). It´s impossible to
capture the atmosphere. The air was crisp, the steep
narrow road was lined with beautiful apartment
buildings, with every balcony full of onlookers. There
must have been thousands of people out on the street,
runners and onlookers. The police started reading
safety warnings on loudspeakers. There was too much
noise to understand them, but I did distinguish the
part about “Please do not block the gates so as to
allow medical personnel to pick up the dead and
injured.”
At 7:45 we started hearing music and cheering. Groups
of about 100 men at a time stopped to sing and pray
before a statue of San Fermin at a niche in a wall
along the street. I must have made the sign of the
cross a couple of times myself. I got into a
conversation with a local who had run every year for
about twenty years, and a Chilean first-timer, who
told me he´d dreamed of doing this run for many years.
At 8:00 we hear the sounds of an explosion, which
signalled that the bulls had been released. Within
seconds a stampede of men started running. I start
running too. A few seconds later, I see the bulls.
Big, strong, beautiful, and nasty-looking things. The
runners start to go nuts- everyone bumping into each
other, pushing, moving back and forth and sideways to
avoid the bulls, some people getting truly hysterical.
At some point I tell myself, “F$&k, why did I do
this?” And there were moments when I truly felt like I
was in danger. Then I start to relax, thinking all the
bulls have gone past. Then I hear people behind me cry
out “Here they come!” and sure enough, there come a
couple more, and everyone frantically pushes to the
side.
Finally the bulls go past. The police limit access to
the most dangerous 200 meters of the route, where the
road is no wider than five meters. By 8:03 it´s all
over. Three of the most thrilling minutes of my life!
Hi, everyone, from Pamplona, specifically from the San
Fermin festival, better known to just about everyone
as the “Running of the Bulls” festival. I´ve never
seen anything like it. This very pretty town is
chock-full of people from all over the world partying
like I´ve never seen before. The bars don´t close till
about 8 am, and that´s only because then everyone
heads out to either run with the bulls or watch the
running of the bulls.
Since I decided to run, I don´t have any pictures to
share. This website has some good ones, and is
available in English:
http://www.sanfermin.comSince I´ve only got one more day here in Pamplona,
tomorrow I´m taking pictures instead of running. I´m
deliberately writing this to you AFTER I ran with the
bulls so you know I´m safe.
So who´s up to doing this with me next year?
Sunny
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
