A Load of Bull

Following our first real bullfight last week, we’ve had more opportunities to see Spain’s favourite animal in action. This week was the annual 8-day fiesta of San Fermin, where they run the bulls down the street to the bull ring. Although each run (encierro) takes only two and a half minutes, the TV coverage lasts two hours and displaces the morning news on the equivalent of BBC1. When finally the news starts, the first headline is today’s San Fermin run, which is then repeated in full. Only then do they move on to lesser subjects, such as the potential disintegration of the Euro and the collapse of the Spanish economy.

But it is not just in Pamplona where everything stops for the bulls. We went to Pedreguer with our friend Pau to see a local encierro in his home town. I was required to wear running shoes for the occasion, while Suzanne was just expected to watch while fanning herself to keep cool. As is standard for these events, viewing galleries had been erected above the pavements, their supports spaced wide enough for a human to escape from the street but narrow enough to stop the bulls following. We prepared for the 1130 run by going to the bar two hours before to have a bite to eat and a couple of beers. Then with Su safely on the gallery, four of us downed large gin and tonics (for energy apparently) before joining the throng for the run. The fireworks went off and the bulls charged towards us. I was some distance away and was never in any danger, but took off at full speed anyway. In the photo below, I’m just behind Antonio (wearing the shades) and you can just about see the bulls further down the street. I wasn’t taking any chances as they say it’s always the tourists who get in trouble at these events.

...and they're off

with the bulls in hot pursuit

During the fiesta Pedreguer, a town of 7,000 people, is completely closed for a whole week (bars and restaurants excepted of course) so the whole population can go on a monumental bender, which does wonders for community spirit. So we hung around eating and drinking for several hours (well I was drinking while Su was driving – bull-runner’s privilege) to discuss our bravery, which of course got exaggerated during the day. 

Pau, Antonio and I looking pleased after the run

The four of us after a suitably long lunch (about 6pm)

Down the road, being larger and more sophisticated than Pedreguer, Denia shuts completely just for one day, but the bull stuff goes on all week, twice a day down at the port where a temporary bull-ring is rigged up. The novelty here is that the fourth side of the ring is missing and instead there is just the water of the harbour. The objective here is to get the bull to charge so that it ends up falling in the water but the result of fifteen minutes of winding up the bull is usually a lot of the locals ending up in the water. 

winding up the animals at Denia port

To the untrained eye, this whole activity looks completely pointless and rather dangerous and of course wouldn’t please animal rights activists. It’s madness, but quite entertaining and seemed mostly harmless. Having said that, just after writing this post, I heard that at the evening bull run in Pedreguer which happened an hour or so after we left, a 53 year-old man was so badly gored by a bull that days later his life hangs in the balance. Someone else was hurt trying to save him and subsequently a 19-year old girl has been gored at the ring in Denia. Unlike the professional bullfight we saw in Sevilla, here it is the unpaid humans that are in danger.