(This is) what I was talking about ......


Animal rights campaigners have staged a naked protest ahead of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.

NO&DO_Yankaluz writes: Right! 7 jul is the date the Church celebrates San Fermin (1st Bishop of Pamplona?); but like many important Religious Holidays, including los Reyes Magos, Santiago and las Fallas de San Juan (Valencia) the festivities 'kick off' on la vispera del Santo. It's been that way for many years.
I believe the first Encierro is the morning of the 7th.

This morning's "run" was Fast-and-Furious and left at least one person unconscious on the bricks. Another person's back met the hairy part between the bull's eyes at full-speed. Another couple guys got totally trampled by the close-packed herd. Spectacular!

At yesterday's run, the gored Californian mentioned above, got a 15 centimeter bull-horn-hole in the gluteus maximus! YOUCH!! That one we could see clearly on the video.

So am I "sick" for enjoying watching these bull runs? Am I demented for enjoying watching with morbid curiosity the dangers for which these humans are volunteering?

Tomorrow's another day! Saludos, MadridMan

MM;

Dang, dude!!! I work with medical injuries everyday but have a weak stomach when it comes to watching IMPENDING injury,,, I can deal with the gash AFTER but don't like seeing the happening.

As for your question of being sick let's put it this way,,, as long as you don't enjoy or wish the fate of these poor bastard being taken by the bull and it's just a good healthy dose of curiosity,,, I'm alright with that,,, after all it's an spectacle of medieval roots, you don't see men taking on animals like that... just in case remind me not ti piss you off, though,,,

Late entry here:

Two Californians ate it!?!? Oh, man! First we get eaten by Great Whites on SoCal beaches (did you all hear about that a few weeks back?)

I hope that the son of that one guy I talked to the other day is OK.

Ive tried watching a coule on the net , but im offshore and the net here is so slow , i'll watch them all when I get home .
You dont need to goto pamplona to see a good encierro , they are all over spain and San sebastian de los reyes is a big one at the end of august . Just make sure you give yourself enough time on the tube to get out there . encierros

This morning's Running of the Bulls was very clean. Only two persons were hurt and not seriously, apparently by "simple trampling".

The her was running along and made it half way through when they encountered (likely) moist and slippery stone road and the last 2 or 3 bulls slipped and fell down and were left behind the main "peletón". The three then proceeded to run along pretty much together until the end.

Today there was no spectacular video of smashing hits, leaping runners, or anything else. What did catch my eye, however, was when one person ran in from the wall/barrier to simply give a smack to the passing bull. Just after doing this, one of the many "pastores" or bull-herders running behind the herd gave that guy a true hard, SMACK on the back with his long, hard cane. OUCH! That'll leave a mark. I've seen this kind of thing before, the "pastores" try to keep the her together, moving, and the runners are not supposed to touch the bulls - but many times they do or it's unavoidable.

Really, I LOVE watching these Running of the Bulls on TV every morning. Talk about a real wake-up! And not only for me! I imagine the runners themselves are WIDE-EYED and TOTALLY STIMULATED when they hear that rocket shot off and/or when they see that "load of bull" raging towards them. Forget being drunk, hung-over, or sleep-deprived. Those runners are TOTALLY awake in this moment, I'm sure.

For anyone outside of Spain thinking that the Running of the Bulls is something in which only tourists are interested, that's not true at all. Spaniards love it too! I was in the bar yesterday morning getting Porras for breakfast and saw they had the running on there too. Everyone turned away from their coffee to watch with great fascination - and lots of discussion after the bull-run finished.

Until tomorrow, MadridMan

Wow!!! Just saw the encierro in http://www.sanfermin.com/tv/
and could not stop cringing mu teeth,,, those 3 poor bulls what they had to endure although one collided into a fleshy mass of people,,, wonder how they spared after that.

Anyways, it must have been a couple of decades since I saw a televised encierro on tv (computer).

Thanx internet, I'm gonna catch up on my encierros!

thanks MadridMan for the update every day. I really love reading your thoughts about the encierro. I was able to watch the first one live on TV in NY but now i am in Argentina and although i have Spanish tv, i have not been able to watch it live...I am trying to sleep at that time.

Anyway, thanks again. And VIVA SAN FERMIN!

It's the biggest adrenaline rush ever - sure, you get a few drinks down you before, just to get you to do it, but it's the quickest way of sobering up I know of!