The Old Year
We returned by minivan to Gracias on the 31st December hopeful that there would be some public celebration for New Year's Eve.
We were not to be disappointed. The first thing we saw was a massive sound system being unloaded from the back of a lorry and into the courtyard of the town hall. The rig would easily grace a small festival.
2007 gets burnt
We then heard that there would be the burning of the old year further out from the town centre. We wandered along the streets, passing groups of kids throwing firecrackers at each other and passing strangers though were lucky not to be targeted. In a square by a tree we found a 'guy' - the old year - waiting to be burnt. Another sound system was in full swing and locals were waiting around expectantly. A few 'lads' were wandering around with rockets and fireworks searching for places to set them off while another two laid out a barrier around the guy. Then, at Midnight, the guy and the fireworks all went up.
Firecrackers explode from the fire
The old year was aflame within seconds to the crescendo of bangers and under a hail of flowering rockets. It was 15 minutes of loud, bright spectacle. Some of the rockets didn't go straight up, heading just above the heads of the crowd. Kids threw bangers at anyone they could while others held roman candles aloft. The barrier caught fire in an explosion of whizzing fireworks, randomly flying up, sideways, downwards and sending the crowd springing backwards. How everyone laughed when the fireworks had sped past!
No Health & Safety programmes here
Another rocket just misses a family!
On our way home we bumped into a man with a bottle of wine and a plate of food who invited us to the bar he was going to. His name was Walter and he took us to the Kandli cafe, the cool sign of which I had photographed a few days earlier. It is a bar that would grace the streets of Barcelona and we talked and drank with Walter, the bar owner and friends until 2.45am.
Hello 2008!
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