Friday 15 May 2015

Fiesta de Sant Isidro

This morning seems to have disappeared behind a batch of work emails, and it was half past one before I ventured out to check on the progress of the romeral procession. I was just in time to see the statue of San Isidro (with his labourers hoe in hand) on a decorated cart pulled by oxen crossing the N340a roundabout at the bottom of the hill. 
It was escorted by about a hundred riders on horseback, mostly very smartly dressed. 
After the statue, came more ox-carts, a variety of horses and carriages, full of people in party clothes, then tractor driven trailers decorated like carival floats. Some had musicians and singers, others had a deejay, a few had bars on board. All were accompaned by groups of people dancing, singing along, drinking, talking excitedly.
 hile the police tried to cope with redirecting traffic that had foolisly ignored the warning signs, plus coaches coming from afar bringing more people to this festive outing, the procession made its way in fits and starts in the direction of Maro and las Cuevas de Nerja. The park surrounding the cave visitor centre is the fiesta goers destination for one of the year's grand picnic booze-ups.

I hadn't been there for more than half an hour, when my camera announced that its memory card was full. Moreover the battery was almost exhausted. Astonishing carelessness on my part. With some careful deleting of occasional missed poor photos, I made some space and came back for a late lunch with 39 pictures, from just hanging around where I did four years ago to take photos. 
Climbing the hill on my return, looking back down the main road towards the town centre, there was no end to the procession in sight, and it stretched at least a couple of kilometres towards Maro by this time. There's good reason why all shops and supermarkets close for the day. Everyone's involved, or else wants to take photos of those involved, like me.

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