May 22nd ~ El Rocio Romeria : Day 2

We were up bright and early to another hot sunny day, awakened at 5.30 am by a noisy family making camp next to us, too close for comfort. Once we got up and greeted them, they blanked us and were very unfriendly. Our nice neighbours were also horrified at the rudeness of these people, who were obviously intent on taking the shade from “our” pine tree. Our neighbours were still having breakfast when we planned to head into town, and Filipe insisted Chris had some of his special hooch, a 55% anise spirit from Cordoba, to go with the sugary doughnuts Francois pressed on us. We asked if Roguilo and Filipe could have a word with the new arrivals, and tell them we would move 5 metres away if that would be helpful. Fortified, we headed to the other side of town, where some of the big Hermanadads (Triana and Sanlucar) were arriving from the National Park in their cattle drawn wagons. They were crossing a river about 1 km out of town, which made a good vantage point. We also saw a teenager being “christened” in the river, indicating he was attending El Rocio for the first time.

On the way back for lunch, Chris bought a replica medallion of the Virgen that each “Romerio” wears. Each Hermanadad has a different coloured rope to wear it round their neck., so Chris bought the Fuengirola one (blue & white stripes), as this is the nearest town to Alhaurin represented at El Rocio.