International festival of falconry at Argüeso

After the international festival of canoe at Ribasella, I went to the first international festival of falconry occurred on august 9 at the castle of Argüeso. The castle is located, like you can guess, at Argüeso village. In spite that the weather was very bad the day before, the sun was present but each time I went to the shadow, I could feel a very cold breeze. The event lasted only 3 days from august 7 to 9 on which some shows were scheduled and visitors could see some hawks, owls and vultures. The castle is very small, it is composed of 2 towers and 3

levels. The first floor exhibited more animals, the 2nd floor was to sell products and animals and the 3rd floor, a place to entertain children.

Pictures could be taken to the animals but without flash to avoid frightening them and some hawks were allowed to touch – some of them are very beautiful. I think the minimum time to pass it is around 2h because there are not a lot of things to do.

Visiting the castle took me around 50 minutes, time enough to see everything (inside and outside) including going up to the tower to take some pictures and the show lasted more or less 20 minutes in the courtyard.

If I didn’t plan my day according to the event, I may pass more time since probably I would wait to watch the spectacle. The animals responded quite well to the orders of the trainer (one of them came from Arab Emirates) but I was a little disappointed because the show consisted of hawks flying from there to here and the way searching for foods under stones.

The best of this festival is that you can buy animals if you want and all the necessary stuffs to train, to feed and to raise them. The prices start from around 200 euros for an owl to around 2500 euros for a hawk.

After the show, time to go and a long road was waiting me before to be at my sweet home.

August 14, 2009