Iberian Traveler - On The Road - Pamplona

The Gastronomy of Navarra & where to dine during the fiesta

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:58:48 -0700

Gastronomy Of Navarra
Pamplona is a city blessed with more than 300 cafés, bars and restaurants to choose from, offering some of the finest cuisine in the north, on a par with the Basque country and Catalunya. More than 80 local cafés, bars and restaurants participate in the annual pintxos competition, which celebrates the best of miniature haute cuisine. While most restaurants continue to offer their standard menu during the fiesta in addition to their special “Sanfermines Menu”, the pintxos bars and cafés located in the Old City (Bar Gaucho, Baserri, Iru, Museo, Fitero, La Mandarra), by necessity, cannot offer their standard offerings of haute cuisine pintxos at the bar during the fiesta. The last night to sample their usual array of award winning pintxos will be the 5th, which is also the last night the famous and historic Café Iruña on the Plaza del Castillo serves pintxos at the bar.

Most restaurants in Pamplona are smaller, family-style, so reservations for lunch and dinner are essential, and without exception on the 6th and 7th and over the weekend of the 10th, 11th and 12th, the start of the Bastille holiday when the French Basques fill the city. It is extremely important not to break a reservation without first contacting the restaurant, otherwise the table will sit empty for the entire night. Most restaurants have only one seating at lunch or dinner and will not offer your table to someone else, as it is not unusual for Navarrans arrive late for lunch or dinner and are never in a hurry to finish a meal.

There are cafés and taverns where you can find a quicker meal, but most will be located outside of the old city in the 1st and 2nd Ensanche; the Iturrama, San Jan Donibane and Ermitagaña neighborhoods.

Some of our favorite award-winning bars in other neighborhoods include Casa Luis (Padre Calatayud, 11), Chelsey (Iturrama, 20), handy to our AC Hotel headquarters, Aralar (Castillo de Maya, 25) , Melbourne (Olite, 36) and Letyana (Travesía Bayona 2). These will continue to offer an ample assortment of their more elaborate pintxos during the fiesta.

Some of our Favorite Restaurants

Gastronomic Dining
El Embrujo, C/ Padre Calatayud, 16
Alhambra, Bergamín, 7
Europa, Espoz y Mina, 11
Rodero, Emilo Arrieta, 3
Enekorri, Tudela, 14
Josetxo, Plaza Príncipe de Viana, 1
La Nuez, Taconera, 4
El Portal de Descalzos, Descalzos, 56

Traditional Navarran Cuisine
Otano, San Nicolás, 5
Casa Manolo, Garcia Castañón, 12
Casa Amparo, C/ Esquiroz, 22
Asador Olaverri, C/ Santa Marta, 4
La Olla, Avenida Roncesvalles, 2
San Fermín, C/ San Nicolás, 44-46

Fashion & Fusion
El Mercao, Tafalla, 7
La Trastienda del Colmado, Iturralde Y Suit 24

Navarra Tapas & Pintxos http://www.navarratapas.com/

Dining in Pamplona during the fiesta

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:57:23 -0700

Most people traveling to Spain for the first time will need to make some minor adjustments to their normal eating habits. This holds true both for the north and south, especially during the summer months when the days are long and don’t cool down until after 9:00 pm. Eating times come later in Spain than foreign guests are used to, especially in summer.
Desayuno – Breakfast is typically the lightest meal of the day, something simple after a late night dinner the night before. You should be able to find some sort of packaged pastry and espresso at any bar or restaurant open in the early morning hours, but during Sanfermín breakfast is not served until around 8:30, after the encierro.

During Sanfermines it’s always “bulls before breakfast”.

Be sure to try churros (fried crullers) and hot chocolate in the morning. This is quite popular in Pamplona as well as Madrid. The most lively spot for this typical Spanish breakfast is the bar in the Hotel Maisonnave in the old city.

There is also the traditional mid-morning break, called the Almuerzo, generally served between 10:30 and noon, when you can have your first tapas (pintxos in the Basque country) of the day, including a tortilla española (a potato omelet) with pan (fresh bread) or a bocadillo (a filled baguette).

Comida – Lunch, which is generally considered the main meal of the day, begins after 1:00, but is usually closer to 2:00 for most people. This holds true during the fiesta and is often starts even later on the weekends. This is also a major social hour in which one visits with family and friends. Note: butter is seldom served after the morning hours unless requested.
Cena - Dinner in the north typically begins at around 9:30 and is usually the lighter meal of the day unless you missed or skipped lunch. Dinner in Pamplona is often still being served well past mid-night during the fiesta. Most Pamplona restaurants will take a reservation for 9:00 pm, but not earlier. Most restaurants serve a special 4-course fiesta menu.

Dressing for the fiesta

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:54:55 -0700

The official mode of dress for all events during the fiesta is the traditional festival costume of white and red: white shirt and pants, red pañuelico (bandana) and red faja (sash). The “official costume”, which is also worn by Pelota players in Navarra and the Basque country, can be purchased in Pamplona at any of the clothing stores around the city, including El Corte Inglés, Spain’s leading department store. Or better still, to insure the proper size and fit, you can bring your own pair of white pants (chinos, jeans) and a short-sleeved white polo style shirt or jersey.
Our Peña provides our own pañuelico for our clients. Pañuelicos and sashes (fajas) can be purchased from street vendors, out in full force. Men, women and children wear the same red and white costume. Ladies wear either all white or a mixture of red and white (red blouse, white skirt or pants-but not shorts, red bag and shoes). Dressing in San Fermín attire will allow you to integrate smoothly and completely into the spirit of the fiesta.

Hotel laundry service is limited on the 6th and 7th, and stores are closed on the 7th, so you’ll need to bring enough clothes to see you through the first two days.
Remember that the traditional pañuelico is donned at noon on the 6th with the firing of the rockets, the chupinazo, during the opening ceremony, not before, and is not taken off and put away until midnight of the 14th, during the Pobre de mí, the closing ceremony.

Please note that clothing stores as well as most other shops in the city will be closed from mid morning until late afternoon on 6 July for the opening ceremony, all day on the 7th, which is also an official banking holiday in Pamplona, and on Sundays. El Corte Inglés opens from 10:00 to 10:00 daily, Monday through Saturday. Retail stores, except those selling festival-related items, close in the afternoon for lunch, with only a few stores reopening after 4:30 pm.

It is important that you bring a very comfortable pair of shoes as you will be doing a great deal of walking around the city day and night. Although the historic quarter of the city isn’t large, the fiesta is spread out over a much wider area, with music venues and special events being held in several different parks and plazas, some up to a half-hour walk or further from the Plaza del Castillo, the heart of the old quarter. Sandals and “flip-flops” are not recommended.

The City of Pamplona always does an amazing job of keeping the streets and plazas clean, but you will inevitably encounter broken glass along your way, especially following the opening ceremony, in the early morning hours of the 7th, or on Saturday and Sunday mornings when the crowds are at their largest.

Balcony Reservations for the encierro, the running of the bulls SF2010

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:52:32 -0700

If you want to watch the “running of the bulls” and be comfortable, having a balcony reservation is very important; otherwise you could find yourself in the middle of the crowd, often 30 deep, that fills the only public viewing areas along the route of the encierro.

There are four major public viewing areas. Calle Santo Domingo, at the beginning of the run, has three separate areas; the small square in front of the Museum of Navarra, above where the runners begin, a short barricaded section half-way up Santo Domingo at Calle Mercado, and another small space on the stairs, where a few people can sit, just before the bulls break into the Town Hall Square and Plaza de Consistorial.

There is a narrow section along Mercaderes, at Chapitela, before the bulls turn onto Calle Estafeta. The last area runs from Telefonica to Callejón.
These areas are lined with a double wooden barricade. You can try to find a spot along the outside barricade, but you should arrive by 6:00 am when the carpenters are setting up the final sections, enclosing the route. These areas will be especially crowded the morning of the 7th and for the weekend encierros.

The space between the wooden barricades is reserved for the medical teams, police, runners leaving the run and those needing medical attention.
http://iberiantraveler.com/encierro.html

While we are no longer accepting reservations for the first encierro on the 7th, we do have some balcony space available from the 8th through the 14th.
Most of our prime viewing balconies can be found along Mercaderes facing La Curva, with one special balcony located above the Banesto Bank. Others are in the Town Hall Square, the Ayuntamiento, and along Calle Estafeta, the long canyon-like section of the run.

If you are not already one of our hotel or balcony clients, you can email us to request balcony reservations, or add an additional morning on one of our premium balconies for the very best views of the encierro.

The Bulls of San Fermín 2010

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:50:18 -0700

MECA has selected the bull ranches, Granderías, for this years Feria del Toro.

Miura (Sevilla), Victoriano (Madrid), Cebada Gago (Cádiz), Jandilla (Badajoz), Dolores Aguirre Ybarra (Sevilla), Peñajara (Badajoz) El Pilar (Salamanca) Fuente Ymbro (Cádiz).

The trophy for the best bull ranch of SF09 was awarded to Dña. Dolores Aguirre Yabarra, whose bulls fought on 11 July (Serafín Marín, David Mora & Joselillo). The best bullfight of SF09 was awarded to the last fight on 10 July when Rubén Pinar faced bull No. 42, “Sabueso”, from the Jandilla ranch.

The Fiesta de San Fermín, Pamplona, Spain 2010

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:41:56 -0700

Feria del Toro, the "running of the bulls"...

There are two basic ways to attend the fiesta in Pamplona.

The first, and by far most popular, is to do what tens of thousands of others have done over the years; make your own arrangements. Papa Hemingway did so when he first visited the city to attend the fiesta, but there is one small problem with this method, which is the same now as it was then, unless you are familiar with the city and surrounding area, it is often difficult to decide where to stay. You don't want to be too far out because of the difficulty of getting into the Old City for the fiesta. Besides a shortage of available rooms, affordable rooms are often difficult to find, even outside of the city center. All of the hotels, hotel-apartments and hostels raise their rates 3 to 5 times the normal rate during the fiesta. Most hotels begin charging this festival rate on the 5th of July, but a few begin charging their festival rate as early as the 4th. Another problem in trying to make your own arrangements is that although a few hotels will accept early bookings, the majority of hotels in the city center do not set their official festival rates until the end of the year and generally will not accept reservations before then unless you are a regular client of the hotel. Response time can also be very slow in some cases.

As you may already be aware, many of the Spanish visitors to the fiesta either stay with friends or family. Younger visitors from around Spain usually end up sleeping on the ground in one of the city's parks, while most of the younger foreign visitors, many of whom arrive with backpacks, either end up sleeping on the ground along with thousands of others, or, if they are lucky, find an opening at one of the many campgrounds in the Navarran countryside, some of which are "far from the madding crowds"

The second, though not quite as popular but undoubtedly the best way for a foreign visitor to experience this unique fiesta, is to book with a professional travel company or tour group providing a full array of services, someone who is actively involved in the fiesta and has a good relationship with the hotels they work with. You can make the arrangements through your local travel agent, one who has the right connections, or directly with a company that specializes in the fiesta and offers the services that we here at Iberian Traveler - Maribel's Guides provide; a special hotel package at a select hotel in the city, reservations on one of our balconies for the encierro, the running of the bulls, additional festival programs that can add to your enjoyment and experience, restaurant recommendations and other personalized services to make your stay as fulfilling and interesting as possible. We feel that it's one thing to attend the fiesta on your own or with family and friends, but actually becoming involved in and being a part of the fiesta is something only a specialist can provide.

Of course there is a third way of attending the fiesta. If you know someone who has been there before they might be able to introduce you to some aspects of the fiesta. If you know someone like this, they are usually very enthusiastic, but may not have experienced those parts of the fiesta that actually make it unique and one of the most popular festivals in Europe. But that's not to say that you still can't have a good time and go home with great memories.

Many of us who now do this for a living started out this way, building on our experiences over the years, forming relationships and close friendships, as the fiesta became part of our lives. In turn, we try to provide the best possible experience for all of our clients, some of whom have become our friends, returning as often as possible to enjoy the fiesta with us and the people of Pamplona, who welcome everyone to their city.

A little more about the city and the fiesta

The city of Pamplona goes all out for the fiesta, one of the largest in Spain, providing everything free of charge except for bullfight tickets. There are music concerts everyday beginning on the 6th of July with a mix of regional and international musicians, who this year included the Gypsy Kings and our friend and noted Basque musician, Kepa Junkera. The fiesta includes traditional Basque sports, a major international fireworks competition with displays nightly, special days set aside for children and seniors and a separate children's festival, the magic of the historic Gigantes and Cabezudos (giants and big heads), the kilikis and zaldikos and the traditional Procession of San Fermin, where the people pay homage to one of city's two patron saints.

The fiesta attracts ten of thousands of visitors from throughout Spain and around the world. The numbers have grown substantially since the early 90â€™s, but until recently all of the hotels, hotel-apartments and hostals in the city were primarily serving the needs of those visiting the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra (Navarre University Hospital), one of Spainâ€™s premier hospital facilities and medical universities.

With only about 1300 hotel rooms located within the city center, i.e. easy walking distance of the Casa Viejo, the Old City and the center of the fiesta, and an equal number of rooms further out, from 4 and 10 km distance from the city center, Pamplona is unable to easily accommodate such a huge daily influx of visitors to the fiesta seeking hotel rooms or restaurant reservations. If you are interested in attending the fiesta, you have to plan as far in advance as possible. Of the total number of hotel rooms in the city center, less than half are ever available during the fiesta because of the returning clientele. Some families have been staying at the same hotel for generations and their rooms are always held aside for them.

Most of the hotels located within the city center are either 3 or 4-star, but there are a few 2-star hotels. There is one 5-star hotel, the GH La Perla of Hemingway fame, and a couple of new premium hotels scheduled to open soon; one boutique-style luxury hotel in the Casa Viejo and an all-suites luxury hotel early next summer, possibly in time for the fiesta. Two additional boutique hotels are due to open sometime in the near future, one associated with the Tour de France legend Miguel Indurain, who lives in Pamplona with his family, but no one seems to know exactly when they will open, but when they finally do, they are only expected to add an additional handful of rooms to the total. It's not much when you consider that the city receives an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 visitors a day during the week and up to 200,000 over the weekend, doubling its population.

If you are planning on staying outside of the city center, you will have to rely on public transportation or taxis to get you to and from the hotel as parking in the city can be a problem anytime of the year, let alone during the fiesta. And this is after the city has added hundreds of underground parking places the last few years. The city has been allowing free parking in the blue zones during the fiesta, but these spaces are limited as the cars parked there seldom move.

Travel between Pamplona and the closest cities or villages is difficult if you have to rely on public transportation. The earliest buses from San Sebastian-Donostia, the closest major city, do not arrive in the Pamplona until after the encierro, meaning that you would have to plan on arriving the night before and spend the night on the street or sleeping in the park if you want to be there in time for the running of the bulls.

If you were to drive, you would have to leave Donostia very early in the morning in order to be in Pamplona in time for that morning's encierro. It's only a one-hour drive but it may take you awhile to find a place to park, and nearly impossible on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or on the 6th or 7th.

There is the possibility of arranging a private transfer or taxing a taxi from San Sebastian-Donostia, Bilbao or Logroño (La Rioja), but you will still need to be up very early in the morning in order to reach Pamplona in time for the encierro, and such a trip is expensive unless you are with a larger group. We do provide private transfers from the nearby villages where many of our country homes are located, but these need to be arranged in advance.

Cartel for the Feria del Toro 2009

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:30:12 -0700

6 July - Corrida de rejones â€“ bullfighting from horseback
â€¢ Bulls from the ranch, la ganaderÃa, of D. FERMÃN BOHÃ“RQUEZ, de Jerez de la Frontera (CÃ¡diz)
â€¢ Los rejoneadores: JOAO SALGUEIRO, PABLO HERMOSO DE MENDOZA y SERGIO GALÃN

7 July - Primera Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro â€“ 1st bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from the ranch of PEÃ‘AJARA, de Fuente de Arco (Badajoz)
â€¢ Matadors: EL FUNDI, LUÃS BOLÃVAR y SALVADOR CORTÃ‰S

8 July - Segunda Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro â€“ 2nd bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from the ranch of HROS. de DON JOSÃ‰ CEBADA GAGO, de Medina Sidonia (CÃ¡diz)
â€¢ Matadors: ANTONIO BARRERA, FRANCISCO MARCO y SERGIO AGUILAR

9 July - Tercera Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro - 3rd bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from â€œEL VENTORRILLOâ€, de Los YÃ©benes (Toledo)
â€¢ Matadors: EL CID, SEBASTIÃN CASTELLA y JOSÃ‰ MARÃA MANZANARES

10 July - Cuarta Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro - 4th bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from the JANDILLA ranch, de MÃ©rida (Badajoz)
â€¢ Matadors: EL FANDI, MATÃAS TEJELA y RUBEN PINAR

11 July - Quinta Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro - 5th bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from DÃ‘A. DOLORES AGUIRRE YBARRA, de Constantina (Sevilla)
â€¢ Matadors: SERAFÃN MARÃN, DAVID MORA y JOSELILLO

12 July - Sexta Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro - 6th bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from the MIURA ranch, de Lora del Rio (Sevilla)
â€¢ Matadors: JUAN JOSÃ‰ PADILLA, RAFAELILLO y JESÃšS MILLÃN

13 July - SÃ©ptima Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro - 7th bullfight
â€¢ Six bulls from the ranch of FUENTE YMBRO, de San JosÃ© del Valle (CÃ¡diz)
â€¢ Matadors: ANTONIO FERRERA, MIGUEL ÃNGEL PERERA y DANIEL LUQUE

14 July - Octava y Ãºltima Corrida de la â€œFeria del Toro - 8th and final bullfight of the fiesta
â€¢ Six bulls from NÃšÃ‘EZ DEL CUVILLO, de Vejer de la Frontera (CÃ¡diz)
â€¢ Matadors: MORANTE DE LA PUEBLA, EL JULI y MIGUEL ÃNGEL PERERA

Announcing the newest member of Peña Seattle de Sanfermín

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:20:15 -0700

The newest member of the peña arrived on Monday 27 April, Olivia Marie Mosier. Congratulations to Richard and Marie, who met in Pamplona during Sanfermín 2003. While we lost a guide we gained a great family in exchange. Olivia Marie and family will be joining us for her first fiesta this July, but it may be a few years before she is ready to run with the bulls...

¡Viva San Fermín! Gora Sanfermín!

PAMPLONA, Spain - By Frank Murray

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:59:52 -0800

Since 1591 the annual Fiesta of San Fermin has been all about running with the bulls but these days bulls and tourists alike need guides to navigate that â€œparty on the run.â€
Even hundreds of wannabe runners find themselves bumped off the route to the bullring before the starting rockets are fired because they fail to learn that police clear the same certain sections at the last minute each morning.

â€œThe Sun Also Risesâ€ elevated San FermÃnâ€™s encierro to an international hot spot but Ernest Hemingway himself advised 81 years ago to seek a spot to watch the run by 5:30 a.m. These days only laggards wait so long to begin getting into place.

â€œItâ€™s bulls before breakfast every day,â€ said Philip Ross, who first ran here himself in 1972, joining Navy buddy Wayne Batchelor who was already a Pamplona veteran. They slept in parks then. Now Ross and his wife Rogene tailor pricey individualized packages for American clients and stay in fine hotels, thank you very much.

Each morning from July 7-14 Ross gets clients close enough to smell the tension if not the bulls, and to join the crowd at 7:57 a.m. in singing the emotional prayer to Saint Fermin for protection. At 8 a.m. a final rocket launches the half-mile dash to Plaza de Toros where the bulls will fight to certain death in the afternoon.

This daily street theater is the centerpiece of the fiesta even though the runs that have become such tourist-magnets last an average of just under four minutes, a bit longer when bulls lose their way and spread havoc.

Whether visitors run or watch, San Fermin is not for those who are faint of heart or faint of wallet. Perhaps a million people in all during fiesta time â€“ all clad in white with red scarves and sashes -- watch daring young men and women dodge the horns and thrashing hooves of 1300-pound fighting bulls, and relive traditions honoring the saint who is said to have been tied to a bull and dragged to a martyrâ€™s death in A.D. 303.

Bulls in Pamplona always have had shepherds -- and a few tame steers -- to help them follow their one-way road to the bullring. Now humans need shepherds as well, and they find them via the Internet. One such pastore is Philip Ross whose Iberian Traveler firm is based in Seattle, WA and Springfield, Mo. (www.iberiantraveler.com). Ross counts about 25 percent of his clients from Florida, including former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack III whom Spanish reporters made a star during the 2006 party. Rossâ€™s 68 package-clients this year were mostly repeat guests including my wife Mary and I and Wayne and Barbara Batchelor. â€œWhen I was young enough to run, they didnâ€™t allow women,â€ said Barbara Batchelor, who met Wayne here 35 years ago at the famed El Txoko [cq] Bar. Romance must be in the air here. In 2000 Phil Ross met Rogene Laserna on the way home from Pamplona; they married in the Basque country this June.

Why are so many so eager to risk all? â€œThe frontal lobe hadnâ€™t quite developed,â€ Barbara Batchelor scoffed. Wayne said, â€œIt was just the thing to do. Itâ€™s sort of exciting to get caught up in the idea of getting killed or gored, which you didnâ€™t, of course.â€

Not often. Bulls killed 14 runners since the city began counting in 1924. Other runners agree that remaining unscathed after bulls storm past is a rush that heightens feelings of being alive. Papa Hemingway first encountered Pamplona in 1923 when it had but 30,000 residents. Although he visited eight more times, he could not have expected the 21st Century scene his legendary tale produces. Now swarms of fiesta-goers willing to sleep in faraway hotels or city parks -- if they sleep at all â€“ swell a modern city that itself is seven times larger than Hemingway knew. â€œTo me itâ€™s the most orderly mass of drunks Iâ€™ve ever encountered,â€ Mrs. Batchelor said.

San Fermin is far more than â€œthe running of the bulls.â€ Religious and cultural traditions date to the 1196 observance marking the return of Ferminâ€™s remains to his native Pamplona some 900 years after martyrdom in France.

The opening day procession of religious and political figures with a large statue of the saint through downtown follows the Chupinazo ceremony in town hall square. There are daily â€œGiganteâ€ parades of dancers wearing huge colorful papier-mÃ¢chÃ© costumed heads, professional concerts staged in Plaza del Castillo, all-night drinking parties, and endless gatherings of street bands or marching peÃ±as that are matador fan clubs on their way to or from the bullring. Amateur bullfights follow the run and cheap daytime shows at the bullring also are open.

As tough as Pamplona is for the bulls, itâ€™s not always a lark for people either and Red Cross ambulances stand by most of the barrierâ€™s 40 gates. Several hundred persons are treated each year at the runs, 3 percent of them grievously injured, city officials say. The cityâ€™s fatality list was begun only with the 1924 death of Esteban Domeno, 22, from nearby Sanguesa, whose death Hemingway chronicled in â€œThe Sun Also Rises.â€ The novel quotes a waiter at Iruna Cafe commenting: â€œMuerto! Dead! With a horn through him. All for morning fun.â€ The last runner to die was a namesake of the saint, Pamplona resident Fermin Etxeberri, 63, killed in 2003. Twelve years have passed since a fatal goring [note: American Matthew P. Tasio, 22] but this year came close when a vengeful bull named Universal wrote himself into San Ferminâ€™s history book on July 12 by goring seven persons. Universal punctuated that feat by spearing two Ohio brothers simultaneously. The reluctant bull met his own end 11 hours later at the hands of matador Alejandro Taravante, but he dominated that fight as well, knocking a picador and his horse flat to the ground, and heaping public scorn on a bullfighter who in April was carried on the crowdâ€™s shoulders from the Seville bullring. â€œIt could have been an important bull,â€ the Spanish newspaper â€œABCâ€ said in an article deriding the moment of truth.

But it is the morning ritual run, not the afternoon bullfight, that remains the hallmark of an event whose current form is little changed since 1591 when Pamplona shifted the saintâ€™s day and bullfight festival from October to July for better weather.

Barriers first defined the encierro route in 1776, and were doubled after runaway bulls panicked the crowd in 1939. In 1856 the encierro route was realigned to where it is today, when about half its length was moved to the narrow and gritty Estafeta Street. In 1867, city officials despaired of banning the increasingly dangerous festival and chose instead to regulate it. They do that with a zeal that leads nearly all Pamplona residents not directly involved to take vacation. City workers constantly clean parks and streets around the clock to keep bottles and other debris from underfoot, or under sleeping bag. Police do much the same for those who revel too long. Squads of police reinforced from all of Spain are largely tolerant, but insure that runners are sober, over 18, and not carrying items that endanger others. This year a local man was fined and lost visitation rights for taking his 10-year-old son to run before the horns. Taunting or touching a bull during the run also is a no-no that will earn a wrongdoer vigorous smacks from a shepherdâ€™s cane. Advance arrangements by brokers well-connected with local tourism companies assure that those who come so far to see will not be shut out of the action. They deliver hotel rooms, transportation, bullring tickets, balcony vantage 10 feet above the drama, plus wine and food excursions through Basque country during or after fiesta.

Mikel Ollo and Nieves Mantero, partners in Rossâ€™s local link at Erreka Tourist Services, say their firm handles some business from other brokers and travel agents. â€œThey come and go. They are not so special. Phil is special. He is very attentive,â€ Ollo told us. The relationship is so close that when Phil and Rogene married June 30 in a medieval church here Ollo was best man and Mantero was maid of honor. Ross truly is â€œattentive,â€ even offering free advice to non-customers who contact his website or catch up to him in Pamplona.

â€œTheyâ€™ll come back to me, as others have, when itâ€™s time to become a client,â€ says Ross who marks his real success from 2002, after partnering with Rogene.

The competition for accommodations is easy to grasp: 200,000 visitors a day for eight days make 2,200 hotel rooms virtually unattainable. Some visitors become day-trippers from Basque-region paradores, or cities like Lagrono, 61 miles by country road, and Biarritz, France, 82 highway miles. Some tour-packagers bus the revelers in and out of the city from hotels in the Pyrenees foothills 50 miles away. Iberian Traveler charged about $4,500 this year for a typical four-night package for two including â€œstandardâ€ hotels within walking distance, encierro balcony, local guides and necessary hand-holding, plus that breakfast with the typical deep-fried churros and hot chocolate after bulls do their thing.

Perhaps Rossâ€™s most memorable service was arranging delightfully casual lunches that require a full afternoon in restaurants where reservations are virtually impossible without local help. Dinner after the bullfight is easier because Spaniards dine towards midnight, often too late for jet-lagged visitors. International travel is arranged independently, generally by flight to Pamplona via Madrid or Barcelona, or by train from Madrid or Paris. Bullfight tickets average $450 per seat per day. The Plaza de Toros, with Hemingwayâ€™s bust out front, seats 19,529 for each of eight corridas. Virtually every seat has been subscribed for years by local residents who pay an average $100 per seat and resell through cartels or syndicates that up the toll four or five times as much â€“ â€œmy ticket Mafia,â€ Ross calls it. Prices are particularly high on the shady side. The 1844-vintage bullring is owned by the â€œCasa de Misericordiaâ€ (House of Mercy) which says it devotes it profits from subscribers to provide housing for the elderly. PETA, the animal rights group, repeatedly calls on the House of Mercy often to â€œextend its mercy to all beingsâ€ and stop bullfights. On July 5 this year some 1,500 scantily-clad PETA demonstrators drew crowds with their â€œRunning of the Nudesâ€ to publicize its opposition.

By October Iberian Traveler already is selling packages for next year. â€œWe always sell out everything for July 7th and 8th, usually by the middle of March, and decided two years ago to set aside balconies on these dates solely for our hotel-package clients,â€ Ross said. This year he filled 40 waiting-list orders for leftover balcony spots and bullfight tickets but, from now on, tickets are available only to those who purchase hotel packages. â€œEveryone else can deal with the scalpers, or their own hotel,â€ he says.

PDF Version
http://www.prlog.org/10186010-pamplona-and-the-fiesta-de-san-fermn-by-frank-murray.pdf

Sanfermín 2009

nospam@example.com (Philip Ross) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:52:58 -0800

Check the exclusive hotel packages we are offering for Sanfermín 2009, including the special VIP family package. This package is perfect for a family traveling with a small child, 12 or younger.

Hotel Packages for Sanfermín 2009