It's been Carnival time again! This year the theme for La Oliva (including Corralejo) was The Jungle (La Selva) - rather easier to work with than last year!
The council has made some changes too - some of which seemed a bit mean. Decoration in the High Street consisted of some very pathetic cardboard cut-outs of wild animals stuck up some lampposts. Such was the quality that discussions took place as to whether we were talking monkeys or lizards! Two days before the start there were still no posters with the programme, and the website would not deliver it as promised. The tourist office handed out A4 versions with the words in 8-point green! Then just in time there a flurry of this "King of the Jungle" poster and all was revealed!
Most of the static activity took place as last year on the ground in front of the Sports Centre. A long line of portaloos graced our route to and from town, and with the works on the boat lift there was room for only two fairground rides on the road behind.
Quite a few of the shows (including of course the ever-popular Drag Queen spectacular) had an entrance fee, and we wondered how this could be enforced. The answer was that they put up a perimeter fence and covered it with light but opaque green stuff. Very many people did pay, but plenty of others peeled back the green stuff and peered through holes! No-one seemed to mind. Nor was there much enforcement of this ban on the botellon, which is taking in supermarket booze to share!
The party on the first Friday night went on until 6.15 am.
Meanwhile - down at the Blue Rock- Claire and her helpers put the council to shame with their decoration of the bar (inside and out) as a jungle hut (complete with hanging mosquitoes and a "waterfall" to be negotiated en route to the toilets!)The three monkeys on the windows formed a triptych showing stages of inebriation.
Our neighbour Sandy showed that some primary teaching skills are never forgotten by mass-producing the leaves and fronds!
