Fiestas again!

The further exploration of Cangas revealed some surprises. A naturist beach pleased Lynne as she was very fond of not having  a white bottom! As we walked back along the main beach Praia de Rodiera we found a little bar and garden tucked away behind the boardwalk.

A delightful shady spot to have a refreshing beer or wine. Along with the friendly owner, olives in chilli for a tapas, and fresh mint growing for mohitos it was  immediately our favourite bar!

And the beach near Islas Ratas our favourite  beach. The water temperature was quite tolerable as well, as we are very fond of our daily swim ( not so much in Winter in has to be said )

The views across the Ria to Vigo are surprising, as the day draws to a close the buildings take on a rosy glow and the many windows reflect the dying sun, lovely to watch over a sundowner.

We were in the middle of a week long festival the Festa del Christo. Although primarily a religious  occasion ( celebration of Christ ) it also meant NOISE and lots of it with a fairground and music every night. We are fairly easy going and also fond of music so we tried to make the best of it. Armed with our handy program of events and google translate set to galician we were able to cherry pick things to see.

One of the first was an evening of choral groups that were performing in  a small square in town. We arrived on time to find the only spaces left were actually behind the stage!

It was a real pleasure to listen to, we even recognised some of the tunes, and we could recognise the traditional galician songs by the audience reaction.

We finished the evening in a small bar.

The promenade was still buzzing with fairground rides and loud music so we treated ourselves to some churros, which are basically delicious fried cholesterol sprinkled with sugar. Yummy!

Of course the main event as in most Spanish festivals was the parading of the statues along with the accompanying procession.

 This was probably the best attended parade we have seen, literally thousands of people lined the streets as the painfully slow procession advanced.

It was led as usual by the statue of the virgin of Carmen, in this case she also had a model of a fishing boat, which amazingly had real navigation lights that lit up later as night fell.

The statue of Christ being an incredibly tall and heavy thing over 10 metres high needing 32 men to carry was proving awkward 

as it needed to be dipped under street decorations.

 As night fell the statues were also illuminated, light was also provided by hundreds of participants carrying candles. Music was the by now familiar traditional drum and bagpipe band in traditional costume.

A very moving experience although I still feel slightly uncomfortable with the reverence afforded to the statues, they even turn them around later so they can " see" the firework display.

We watched this from Dark Tarns cockpit and it was the best so far, so good I completely forgot to take a photo!