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September 21, 2007

Los fuegos artificiales y los que no son tan artificiales

Luis needed down time so I struck out on the town myself tonight. I need to start meeting people in order to get myself entrenched a little bit more in the culture so I can make the most of my time here in Spain. It may only be my perception but I have noticed a distinct gap in the age of the people that are out at night. There seems to be plenty of people out in the 20 and under set, the 40 and older set seems to be very well represented as well but where are all the 20 and 30 somethings? It seems as though whenever I do see them they are pushing a stroller and holding hands with two rascally toddlers.

I took the car up to the center of town and circled a bit for a parking spot. It being the last Friday of the Festival of San Mateo there was a high demand for parking and some very creative parking jobs going on. Something that one definitely notices when the come to Logroño is the number of cars with dented bumpers and scraped up sides. Tonight there were cars on the sidewalks, cars in the crosswalks, and cars in the city parks. I was surprised not to look up and see cars dangling from the balconies.

I gave up hunting after about fifteen minutes of the competing in this creativity contest and decided to try my wallet at the public parking. There are many garages along the main commercial street through town (called La Gran Via), paradoxically most of them were free. I rolled into one near the center of the action and found it spacious, clean, quiet and well organized. I figured it was going to cost me an arm and a leg to go and park there. I made a mental note to save about half my wallet for the end of the evening.

I walked up the street to the old part of town and stopped in a square were a food tasting was going on. Rather quickly I walked up to the busiest stall and asked the woman what I should order. Several people picked up on my difficulty with the language and offered suggestions. Tonight I ate a soup made from pig ears and beans. It was actually quite good! "Good for the blood!" one man told me.

While I was chowing down on a chicken skewer I noticed a sort of grand exodus happening. I decided to wrap up and follow the crowds. After awhile I figured we were heading for the big park on the north side of town to go and watch the fireworks, los fuegos artificiales.

Without embellishing, these fireworks were the finest display I have ever seen firsthand. I have seen big city displays for events like the Forth of July in Los Angeles and in Chicago. I have seen fireworks for big festivals in Japan. However the fireworks tonight really topped everything!

Japan was my old #1. The Japanese approach to fireworks it to amaze you with numbers. They will pull up rows of barges in a harbor and set off synchronized displays of one type of firework after another for what seems like hours. The sky will glow and bang one color after another until you go blind.

The fireworks tonight here were not only numerous, but artful. There was a build up, different moods, a constant consciousness for foreground and background, color and intensity, texture, sound, and even rhythm. A can-can of red to gold color cycling pillars of fire would erupt from the ground while the sky would blossom into bouquets of crimson; then all at once a hundred shells would go up and the red display would end and the sky would fill completely with a new sensation: a million swirling and crackling rockets would expand outward beyond your peripheral vision. They kept up change after change for nearly a solid hour.

Between the oohs, aahs and applause of the crowd I started to notice some people pointing off into the distance. Through the smoke I could make out some dancing orange lights far off in the ravine beyond. The valley was on fire!

It was about halfway through the performance that a real, honest to goodness fire broke out less than a kilometer (map) from where they were shooting off the shells. The show went on as the fire grew and the flames, many times the height of the trees, lapped the walls of the valley. Through the smoke you could make out the lights from firetrucks starting to approach from the city.

It wasn't clear if the fire was started by a stray shell or by human hands. I have a feeling it was arson because the wind was blowing away from the valley and not towards it. I will be interested to scan the local papers tomorrow.

After the grand finale, a synchronized blast of explosives so loud I am surprised that it didn't break windows, I walked back toward my car. Back in the garage I put my ticket into the auto-teller machine and prepared myself for the worst. After all, why would people put up with all that trouble to find a spot unless the municipal ramps weren't terribly over priced? I mean, the ramp was less than a quarter full! People had to be avoided them. How bad was it going to be?

It was all of 2 € for three hours.

Posted by jordanh at September 21, 2007 5:15 PM

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