Fiestas de Santa Rita

Sunday morning coffee and content to find myself here- Sunday. The past four days have been put to good use and I am tired and happy.
Thursday and Friday were the Fiestas of Palmar or the Fiestas de Santa Rita and Palmar knows how to throw a party. Lots of music, dancing, soccer, traditional games, parades, castle burning and crazy cows.
That is right–even crazy cows or vaca loca. The infamous vaca loca consists of a very brave man donning a metal cow head strapped with fire works and running into crowds of happily screaming party-goers. He shoots fireballs off and people run. After the vaca loca we burn the castle or quemar el castillo which involves a large structure booby-trapped with spinning wheels that spit flames and fireworks in all directions and various other types of fireworks and fire. It’s a rowdy display of light, color, sound and general festive glory. Meanwhile the traveling carnaval has set up camp and have built a rickety ferris wheel and constructed other childrens rides from scraps of metal and what I will call “pieces of vintage amusement park history”. In the sandy street runs a little train that looks like a worm taking laughing kids from one end of the street to the other. There are candied apples, fried plantains, pink popcorn balls and homemade ice cream as far as one can see and tents selling plastic jewelary, toy guns, hot wheels, teddy bears, tiny blue-eyed dolls and other plastic toys that kids everywhere just love.

It’s a beautiful haphazard world of lights, salsa music and families having a wonderful night with the ocean a few feet away and a sky awake with stars.
At the heart of this festival is the saint herself, Santa Rita de Casia. A friend recently gave me a book about the life of Santa Rita which I am still reading.