Camino de Santiago Day 4

July 16, 2022

Camino de Santiago Day 4

Day 4: We woke up at 6:00 AM, got dressed into our San Fermin attire, and then walked over to the Bull Arena. After talking with Tatiana there briefly, I went to go find my spot along the bull route while Tatiana entered the stadium (she choose to go to the stadium because she wanted to watch as I ran into the stadium with the bulls). After picking my spot along the route wisely, I stood there for over an hour before the police instructed all of us in that section that we had to exit the route. This was extremely frustrating, as I did not want to miss this opportunity to run with the bulls. Luckily for me, a nice Spanish kid approached me and asked if I was intending to run with the bulls. When I said yes, he said to follow him. He guided me from the end of the route all the way back to the beginning via some side streets. (It appears that in order to limit the amount of runners, all runners must now gather near the town square or before in order to run with the bulls. I had not known this information as that was not the case several years ago). Because of this nice kid, I was able to slip into the town square just as they were closing off the route to any more runners. For the next 40 minutes the entire group of runners were penned up shoulder to shoulder in a confined holding area (like cattle). Ten minutes prior to the bulls being released, the police finally opened up the entire route to the runners so that we could spread out along it. I once again half jogged back down the route, past dead man’s curve, to take my place a couple blocks from the arena. My plan was to run alongside the pulls until they passed me and then sprint behind them until I made it into the arena (only those in close proximity to the bulls get to enter the arena). At 8:00 AM, the keepers released the bulls and the swarm of people running up that street was something out of World War Z. As the bulls neared my position, I jogged with all the other excited, adrenaline-infused runners until the bulls passed me and then I sprinted behind them, hurdling several people, before making it into the arena. After they closed off the arena entrance and all runners were still in the middle of the stadium, they released one bull at a time into the arena. The situation then got crazy as the bulls rushed around the stadium and rammed several people; these people often got injured. I jumped the fence into the arena and watched the debacle from the sideline. After the running, Tatiana and I met outside the stadium and walked to a famous Churreria where we ate several churros before going back to the hostel to take a nap. We woke up around 2 PM and then went on a tapas crawl up and down some of the most famous streets of Pamplona. At 7 PM we went to the back to the arena to watch a bull fight. After the bull fight we went to a few bars before retiring for the night.

Distance hiked: Zero day

Vlog: CAMINO DE SANTIAGO HIKE GUIDE/VLOG: NAVARRE JULY 2022 DAY 1-8 - YouTube