Fiesta de la Cruz

Last night was a local fiesta, so I lifted my nose from the grindstone long enough to go and take some pretty pictures.

The plan was to go to Cruz de la Pavona at the top of the hill and work our way down past the crosses, with my husband driving. That way, as we joined the traffic jam above each cross, I could leap out with my camera and create a masterpiece for the blog.

How do you make God laugh?

You tell him your plans.

The police stopped us and breathalysed my husband. No problem – he’s an adult and acts like one.

The area around Cruz de la Pavona, at the top end of Breña Alta was packed with people. My husband was so busy not driving over pedestrians that he went past the turn off to go down the hill past the usual run of crosses. After that, it had all been converted to one way down the hill. That wasn’t too bad, because there are crosses that way, too. But as we went down the single track, we met two cars coming up. Just to be clear, this is a track that the police are sending people DOWN, just like every year.

But normally you give way to traffic going uphill, so we backed. Until the car behind us wouldn’t back any more.

And then the driver got out of the car coming uphill to insult us. Never mind that he’s going the wrong way, we have to reverse over the car behind us. I wonder when he bought the road?

In the end he reversed, and he didn’t have to go very far at all. It was only after we’d driven on that the penny dropped. The guy going uphill was on the back road to avoid the police. I really, really hope they found him and breathalysed him.

And then we realised that I’d forgotten to go for petrol. We sat in the queues past the crosses watching the gauge drop, wondering if we’d be walking home.

But as it turned out, we made it home, and I got my photos after all. More of them at http://lapalmaisland.sheilacrosby.com/

Posted by sheila

Sheila came to La Palma with a six month contract and has stayed 24 years so far. She used to work as a software engineer at the observatory, but now she's a writer and Starlight guide.