gs arrive from Lanzarote on the ferry that this was on their camels - possibly emerging from the car deck! What a daft idea - think of the smell! We have now been disabused! This year we went down to the port on the morning of January 5th to see the arrival. The kings and their pages walked down the gangway like everyone else (except of course for the hazardous flinging of sweets- see last year's posting) They were then beseiged by children and parents and hung around doing the photo and kissing thing before getting into their transport for the day. (The camels are collected later from the sand dunes in the National Park!)
The event is accompanied by a small group of marching drummers. There are several of these around - this is the one that practises on the promenade at the end of our block - disturbing many a siesta and Sunday, and consisting of several of the local bad lads. Very loud - including whistles - we think the tradition is more Latin American than Spanish. Ruth saw a lot of it in Uruguay.
Waiting for the kings at the port was a wally-trolley. We assumed it wa
s the Corralejo one that does extortionate, pointless and boring trips round town for tourists - but it wasn't. Bob saw them both out and about. Later we deduced it had come up from Caleta de Fuste south of the airport. One of the "parcels" decorating it was seen lying beside the main road down there!Having seen the evening procession last year we decided not to stand for nearly two hours in the main street waiting. We ate at the Ame
rican Burger place (excellent value!) with tables facing the street and so only saw what was visible above heads - two large floats - and just the crowns on the kings. as they passed on said camels. Their subsequent reception of letters in the square seemed more low-key than last year, too! Global recession!On Kings Day itself we were listening to Mad Mik on Hot FM when he announced his competition - disguised lyrics from a single, and then two hours' worth of songs with "something in common". We were way ahead of all the other listeners. It was "Kings of the Wild Frontier" - Adam & the Ants - and all the songs had "king" in the title or as artist - e.g. "Don't go breaking my heart" Very clever! We didn't win though!