Ahem. When I said “…more photos tomorrow”, I actually meant “mañana”. The salt carpets aren’t the only thing. They also make wonderful archways, similar to those in Mazo. Well, as you can see, these days some of them aren’t arches. In this case the carpet is leaves from tree-heathers, laid down with a garden seive. Like the ones in Mazo, they’re decorated with seeds and flowers. Unlike the ones in…
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…
Mother’s Day in most of Spain was last week, the first Sunday in May. But Breña Bajae celebrates it on the third Sunday in May – today. A local poet called Felix Duarte (1895-1990) emigrated to Venezuela, alone, at some horrendously young age (15, I think) and boy did he miss his mum. He became a published poet, and moved to Cuba and later, the United States. He finally came…
Mass for the Virgin of Fatima, La Punta Last night I went to the fiesta for The Virgin of Fatima in La Punta, in the municipality of Tijarafe. Things didn’t go according to plan (see my personal blog, but I had a good time. Procession La Punta is just a hamlet. Like most small villages, the main annual fiesta is the saint’s day of the village’s patron saint. Practically all…
Yesterday was the fiesta of Our Lady of Monserrat in Los Sauces. They held a special mass, followed by a procession with the statue. Religious art isn’t really my thing, but it’s a beautiful statue. The procession follows a fairly long route: the building in the background is the church, and they’re just beginning. I had to miss the rest of the procession and the loa (see yesterday) due to…
Today is a local holiday in Los Sauces, for the fiesta or Our Lady of Monserrat. Other than the day off work, it’s a purely religious festival. Tonight at 6:30 pm they’ll be a special mass in the church (the big church on the main square on the main street – very easy to find.) This will be followed by a procession with the statue of Our Lady, and then…