El Cotillo Fiesta

At 10.30, what seemed to be wallpaper pasting tables started to be erected on the road leading to the Harbour.   It's time for the kid's games.   It was as if they had all seen Blue Peter.   Egg cartoons, fairy liquid bottles, pots of glue and paint started to appear.   By the end of the morning numerous delights had been created and would no doubt adorn the sideboard in many a fishing cottage.   A homemade Twister board was a group offering and seem to catch their imagination, little tanned bodies, in bikinis, getting into all sorts of positions.

During this time there was a great deal of activity on the harbour side by the adults.   A structure was being assembled.   First guesses offered a show performed by six pole dancers!   Quite obviously that could not be the case this early in the day especially when they covered them with netting to make a large gazebo.   See picture below.

Our fishing trips are now starting to pay off to the extent that we needed help to gut and clean them... 

Reality is the picture above shows part of a delivery of an overnight catch which is then shovelled onto a table where the nimble knives of the local fishermen and their wives prepare them.   N.B. It was the Environmental Health's day off so the guy in the striped shirt decided to have a fag!!

The next stage of the process was to dunk the cleaned fish in an old tin bath full of brine with a MOP!!

Finally the fish were transported, by WHEELBARROW, to the harbour beach where they were opened flat and left in the sun to dry (see the picture below).   All this was in preparation for the free midnight barbecue on Wednesday.

At the completion of the operation pumps were brought in to hose down the quayside.

14.00 saw the commencement of “Foam and Juice”!!   A fireman's hose and a foam making machine appeared as if by magic.   Children and adults alike presented themselves before this equipment for the privilege of being doused.   All those present became so coated that they emerged from the crowd like yetis from a blizzard and threw themselves into the harbour to rinse off.   They then rejoined the group and went through the whole process again, and again, and again, all in a temperature approaching 40 degrees.   Health and safety were also having a break!   Picture below.

The final event of the day was billed as the Old Folk's party at 20.30.   On this occasion the rockets were launched 45 minutes in advance of the beginning, we presumed this was to give the old folks sufficient time to struggle to the venue.   It transpired that the event was actually Old Folk music and not a party for Old Folk.   Unfortunately we have no first hand report on this item as we were knee deep in diners and therefore unable to attend.

Our shift ended at a respectable 01.30 when we crawled home to bed.

This is Your Cotillo Correspondent signing off, exhausted, swollen legged and wondering just how much longer I can go on.