Hard to believe this is day 7 already! Today we walked from Los Arcos to Viana. It was another warm day, but another good walking day for me. The highlight of the day was the evening we spend in Viana. When we arrived, we realized it was a festival day in the town. They were decorated and set up for a party, and were going to run the bulls the next afternoon. All of the locals in town were dressed in white shirts and pants (or dresses) with red bandanas around their necks and red sashes around their waists. I´m not sure yet of all of the symbolism of the colours.
After a walk around town, we had supper. Right after finishing supper, the server moved us and our table to the other side of the street, and said to me, ¨You must wait here. The big man is coming through.¨ After a few minutes, a parade started. There was a band playing Spanish music, and surrounded by hoardes of children. Following the band were two characters dressed as bullfighters and carrying costume whips. They were chasing the shrieking children trying to touch them with their whips. It was like bullfighter tag. The kids were loving the chase! After all of this, there were some large characters dressed like royalty, including a very tall character, presumably the big man. We could hear the band as it wove up and down the streets. After stopping for a brief rainstorm, we looked around at the booths of things for sale, and bought churros (mmm.. deep fried pastry with sugar..) By then, another band was going on the big stage.. There was so much festivity in the air..
At supper, Rob had asked our waitress, is today a festival? She replied, ¨In Spain, every day is a festival.¨
Many blessings from festive Spain!
susan
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