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Published: July 13th 2006
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No Cameras Allowed Keep in mind when you are reading this and looking for breath taking pics of the running of the bulls, they are NOT here because if the police see you with a camera 10 minutes before the bull run they kick you out. If people on the run see you with a camera they smash it because it is so dangerous and could get people killed if I'm not paying attention. You will just have to take my word for it - it was
terrifying and exhilirating and a huge accomplishment not to either fall down and get trampled, slow down and get gored, or crushed into the side of a building by a very angry steer or bull.
The evening before running, we stayed up and partied all night, no sleep, hit every plaza and many bars and ended up going out with a local, Gary, from the Harp (where we are staying on the 4th floor) who knows the area and he showed us the Basque end, the Australian end of town, the American end, etc...we hit them all and were generally ignored in all of them...hahaha...but, it was fun being in the middle of
the biggest party i´ve ever seen - think mardi gras on steroids and without all the nudity. there is no nudity here at all. none. this heavily catholic area is very conservative and i´ve seen only one, and i´m not kidding, passionate embrace and i think they were from new zealand! hahaha...an interesting note without being sexist about it...marcus went up to a girl on the street and said, hey, you´re from america aren´t you...she was astounded and said how did you know? she was the only girl on the street, hell, probably in the city, not wearing a bra!!hahaha...very conservative here indeed...
So, we stayed up until the break of dawn and made it to the start of the bull run...we were both standing in the middle of santa domingo at 6.45am which is the first street the bulls come out of, we´ve been drinking all night, no sleep, and we have no idea what to expect other then what our guide told us about running and staying alive. we were very nervous but the anticipation, knowing we are not prepared and could be seriously hurt was for me the best part...we basically just went with the flow,
chatted a bit with anybody who spoke english, and waited for our fate. i want to mention that on of the most famous runners, George Viagno, befriended us and although he can not speak, he explained in terrifying detail where to run, and how to stay away from the stray bulls who like to rocket down the side of the buildings while grinding their horns into anything that looks like it's moving (which of course we all are!)...he is a great guy and we are told he has been running for over 20 years and he pointed out posters with him in them, as well as dozens of photographs where he is having his notorious good, but unbelievably dangerous runs in and out of the bulls as they rocket down the streets and into dead man's turn.....we thanked him sincerely and felt good about the whole event until the first rocket exploded above us!
The first rocket means the bulls are released and a few seconds later there is a second rocket which lets us know that all the bulls are out and the steers that they use to push the bulls are all out in the streets! there
Me & Frosty
Frosty has been running with the bulls every year for 30 years. I was in the presence of great karma and took full advantage of her generous and kind spirit. What a great lady! are 6 steers who herd the bulls and then there are 7 bulls in the lead and they are mad as hell and weigh about 2,000 pounds each and according to the guide have only been doing three things since they were born - eating grass, making love to cows, and looking for something to kill. we knew enough to wait for the second rocket before trotting and we were shouting at each other, over here, over here, warming up until the wave of people was upon us! we did not run until we saw the bulls bearing down on us like a tsunami of beef and it took a lot of patience watching dozens of people leap immediately into the doorways and climb drain pipes and anything they could get their hands on to get away from the oncoming devastation...it was absolute choas and the sound was amazing...people screaming, running, people falling everywhere only inches in front of the stampede of angry bulls thankfully running full speed in what seems like a fairly straight line...in a second the bulls were on us...huge does not describe these massive animals running at full speed up the street stopping for nothing and
no one.
People are flying to the side of the street, jumping up walls, grabbing at anything they can find, climbing the sides of doorways, rain gutters, anything to get out of the way and then there are the rest of us who actually are running and trying our best not to trip and fall....we run, fast, looking in front to make sure we don´t fall and looking to the right of us as the bulls catch us and catch up with us and suck us into the wall of sound and hoofs and sweat and terror - it sounds like a hurricane!...i could smell the animals and for a few seconds time stood still again...i could see their fur, hear them blasting by me as arms and heads and legs were flying and falling everywhere...they buzzed by me in seconds and i barely got a good look but was never in any real danger...hahaha...the whole dangerous part was over in less than 30 seconds because i didn´t know how to make it last longer...we ran beside the bulls, yelling, for about 30 seconds and then were thankful that we didn´t get hurt and walked on further up Mercado
into the bull ring where another adventure awaited - we got inside the arena, they let anybody who wants to take a chance get in the ring, and then they let out a smaller bull, meaning this one weighs only about 800 pounds, he runs around trying to kill as many people as possible...hahaha...it was fantastic and i have pictures and video you won´t believe - what idiocy!!! but, one of the best times of my life!! i have picture from the paper where the bulls actually jumps over the wall he is so pissed, and then runs around the inside of the stadium tossing people into the arena as they try to get away from him...!!! great fun!! this is also where the american was thrown by the bull, and took a bad fall and is not paralyzed from the waist down...we met the guy who was beside him when it happened, picked him up and whisked him out of the way of the bull who continued to trample and gore him repeatedly...there is now a fund in his name which I will talk about in the next blog entry...
Coming up next - the arena after the
running of the bulls and inside the arena with the bulls and a day in the city and then a real bullfight in the evening (i was yelling for the bull to win the whole time!!!) hahaha...
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