Z-ventures: A CALIMA, THE CARNAVAL & A SARDINE BURIAL!

Saturday, March 17, 2012 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm dedicated to getting all the exciting things that happened LAST weekend in Los Cristianos on here by the end of today or, at least, by the end of this weekend!

Calima

It was the weirdest and wildest experience--I woke up Saturday and thought we were (for the first time) FOGGED IN--the ocean and harbor had low clouds and the sun looked like it was trying to burn off the fog! Later I found out it is the weather phenomenon called "Calima" so I did some research. But first here is a picture I found on the internet showing it blowing over the Canary Islands:

Tenerife is the large island right under the white "stuff" 1/3 of way from Left! Look at the sands coming from the Sahara on the right side of the screen! Some of the more eastern islands got it worse!

I learned the following about a Calima:

"Calimas are caused by dust storms that have been stirred up by high winds in the Sahara desert and are then blown over to the Canary Islands by southeasterly winds. The very fine sand and dust particles cause the air to become difficult to see through for any distance thick and the appearance and visibility is like what you get during a thick fog. The difference being that in fog it is cool and damp but in a calima it is hot and dry. During the time a calima is over the island, every surface will get covered in fine reddish brown dust, which is a great annoyance to car-owners and people who are house-proud. The dust can also seriously affect the health of people with breathing conditions like asthma and bronchitis. Many people find the temperatures unbearable too and whilst the warm weather is an attraction of the Canary Islands, the sort of heat generated by a calima can prove to be very unpleasant, especially if the phenomenon lasts for days."

Some residents have said this was the worst Calima they have ever experienced but I think Geoff and I got off easy--the only Calima sand was on our balcony but it covered everything out there--I ran my hand across the table and here's some of the very fine, powdery sand that I found:

One Calima sandy hand!

Tht's a lot of powdery sand swept up from one small balcony!

I get excited about the damndest things and this Calima excited me--bear with while I share a few more pictures (no more dustbins--I promise!)

Calima over Los Cristianos beach--our building is faintly seen at the far right!

Kind looks like a "ghost ship" through the Calima!

Doesn't it look like fog to you?

So we got to experience this very weird weather condition and luckily without any real ill effects! The Calima was pretty much gone by the time we went out that evening--we could see the moon and stars! And it didn't slow down the Carnaval activities in the least!

Carnaval Parade

We had read in the local weekly paper that the theme was western or "wild west" so I planned for Geoff and I to participate. I found items at the Sunday Market, the Chinese Bazaar Shop and found Geoff's hat at a local shop--so we were ready for the parade to get underway! Geoff got into the spirit by growing his whiskers all week long and I found the perfect fake mustache for him--a little face paint on the native american maiden and voila!

El Vaquero & Americano/a indigena!

Let the parade begin--we have great seats on a lower roof of this building that is 2 stories above the crowd so while not close to the road--we can see the parade well--and we are at the beginning of it, too!

I doubt I've ever seen such bright and beautiful costumes as at these Carnaval parades here on Tenerife--they are truly spectacular!

The crowd pleasers--great costumes and drummers!

Clever floats as well as the colors!

The pagentry...

Not to mention all those feathers!

This one is "pretty in pink".

The music (and mermaids)...

.,,lots of pretty girl dancers....

...with the staccato drumming of Spanish/Mediterrean music...

...and the male dancers hang from the side of the float!

It IS really one fantastic, devil-may-care party that makes even the oldest of the spectators want to boogie a bit to the constant drumming and music...it is injected into your veins & you just want to beebop! You can't stop yourself!

Check out the shoes on this guy!

The parade was fantastic even if it wasn't as big as the one we watched in Santa Cruz last month! We enjoyed every moment of it and the view from the roof was great--even enjoyed looking over the ocean away from the parade route! Here is the sunset view that evening:

Another picture that takes me to Hawaii!

I tried to page through my hundreds of pictures and select just a few--it's hard to pick but hope you got a "taste" of the Carnaval parade from these. Afterwards we stayed in costume (you just feel like you are part of the festivities), walked the prom to a nice restaurant (Fortuna) where the Slovakian owner praised us for getting into the community spirit of Carnaval, had a leisurely and delectable dinner then walked to the City Centre where the music was still happenin' and then on to our local favorite bar and restaurant, Charly Bar where the singer called us "Minnehaha and Cowboy Joe!. It was a great day!

Burial of the Sardine

I just HAD to see what this was all about and I did a bit of research online to try to understand what this "burial" was all about! I found this old painting:

by Francisco de Goya "Burial of the Sardine"

Basically it marks the end of Carnaval (in each city) and a represents the burial of the excesses (drinking, merriment, craziness!) and the beginning of Lent. The locals build a sardine from combustible materials and it is huge! They carry it through the streets with a priest holding a whisky bottle who stops frequently and gives shots to the "wailing widows" (guys dressed in drag) and the whole process takes literally hours to get through the streets down to the beach where a pyre is waiting (along with the crowds)! The huge sardine is then placed in a secure enclosure away from the people and lit up--and literally blows up with fireworks! It was fabulous and much better than the pictures I will share now:

Patiently waiting on the beach for the sardine!

A few of the crowd dressed for the occasion!

S/he showed up on the beach right before the procession (with the sardine) did!

Some of the "officiants" for the procession!

That's one huge gold/blue sardine!

They light the sardine and it blows!

Fireworks explode from the sardine!

...and explode!

...and continue to explode!

The fireworks continued over us for some many minutes and then a loud pop, pop, pop! and it was over--the sardine remains left to burn out and the ashes are cleaned up. So you may be wondering why it is the burial of the sardine--according to what I have read, many years ago they used to bury pork that they have given up for Lent--some of the people had brought sardines for their lunch and they went bad so they buried them, hence, the beginning of the "Burial of the Sardine"! And now they use this custom to close the Carnaval season.

So we walk back towards home and Geoff stops for a bit of ice cream!

Will he share or won't he???

One last picture from the day--taken earlier--another beautiful evening sky over the ocean harbor:

A walk

So just before I close out this blog, I'll mention that the next day, Tuesday, we took a long walk up the prom all the way to Las Americas stopping along the way to enjoy whatever new experience/view there was--first, we saw this fountain (Rob & Thelma told us about it) that you walk in one side--the water is pouring down all the other sides that are windows!