I visited 50 countries in one day.
I smelled sizzling barbecue in Uruguay, was hypnotized by a belly dancer in Egypt, and watched a 5 piece band pull off an effortless number in between minute swigs of Pilsner in Germany. All in one day.
La Feria de los Pueblos is a festival held in Fuenigorla, Malaga every year. It lasts for about a week and draws the local crowd just as much as the visitors, so you get a mix of high heel fast talking and faster drinking Spaniards right along with the camera toting choco wearing tourists. Makes for an interesting crowd.
It seems like every weekend, since spring arrived, there is a feria somewhere in Andalucia. The Spanish truly love getting out in the sun, enjoying a good drink, and socializing. There was the festival of the porches in Cordoba, where each home competes for the best decorated terrace. And there’s the huge feria in Sevilla every April where families put up tents and share food and watch flamenco and listen to Spanish guitar. I just visited my friend Sarah in Adra, Almeria where they had a feria of the goats and hundreds of goats were rushed through the town. Later, drinking commenced. And in Priego we just had our own Medieval festival with food, birds on display, and arts and crafts to purchase.
La Feria de los Pueblos outmatched all the others for me, though, because it represents life outside of Spain. The festival is home to 50 other countries, all who have their own caseta- like a small house almost- with pictures and artifacts, food, dancing, and music. The sun had no mercy, so I took it upon myself to try a homemade Mojito. That cooled things down a bit. I watched beautifully dressed young girls, no more than 8 years old, in Mexican traditional dresses posing like little models. Entire pigs strung up between wooden pulls over a fire pit in Argentina. Gold cups, mint tea and little cakes in Morocco. Pharoahs and even a chance to win a trip in Egypt. (I didn’t win). Witnessed the average American donning an I love Guiness hat and making a fool of himself in Ireland.
Amidst all these countries, here we were, half a million people halfway across the world, sharing in good food, music, dance and celebration. Nothing like a good mojito to take down the blinders and make you realize, hey. We’re not so different after all.
