It’s El Paso’s main fiesta, The Sacred Heart (El Corazon Sagrado). Like Mazo and San José, they make archways and carpets, but they’re slightly different. In San José, they dye the salt, and then put the colours together to make the picture. In El Paso, they start by putting down white salt –kilos and kilos of it from the salt pans in the southern tip of the island. They carefully…
Last night was the concert for Ruido issue 10. I had a siesta, and woke up a bit late, so I was late leaving for El Paso. That meant I went up the twisty road as fast as I felt was safe. And a dark Berlingo passed me doing about 20 km/h more than me. “Idiot!” I thought. Almost immediately after that, the two cars in front of me braked…
This is the main altarpiece in The church of Our Lady of Candelaria (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria) in Tijarafe. According to the books, it’s the best baroque altarpiece in the Canary Islands. It’s certainly gorgeous, and huge. It was made by Antonio de Orbarán, and he worked on it from 1626 to 1628. It cleverly combines niches with statues and painted panels. The church itself was built around…
Ouf! Three fiestas in four days. Corpus Christi in Mazo (on Thursday) and San Jose (today) and the big livestock fair and fiesta in San Antonio del Monte yesterday. I managed to take my camera to all of them, and to fit in translation, housework and taking a sick cat to the vet, too. Yesterday, I even came home via Tijarafe and got a photo of the baroque altarpiece there….
San Jose main street at Corpus Christi Corpus Christi in San Jose isn’t nearly as spectacular as it is in Mazo, but it’s still very nice. Since the whole thing takes out on a flat, tarmaced street, the tradition is to make carpets of coloured salt, with the altars being much more modest. This year, many of the carpets are made from seeds and petals, like in Mazo.This carpet is…
Yesterday was the biggest livestock fair on the island. San Antonio del Monte used to be a village, but the villagers moved away. About the only thing that’s left is the church of St. Anthony and the feast day, with it’s massive fair. Apart from the animals, there’s a craft fair, and of course lots of stalls selling cheap toys, food and drink. It’s a pretty enough little church,…