Like I mentioned last time, I still need to catch you guys up on 2 weekends ago…when I went to Baena. Now for those of you who don’t know Baena (most, I’m sure), it’s a small town in the Province of Cordoba (about an hour SE of the Cordoba the capital). I have some friends living there and I wanted to go visit them. I particularly chose that weekend because… there was a festival that weekend! San Jose! I have no idea WHAT this holiday celebrates but I do know HOW it’s celebrated- with lots and lots of drumming.
What goes down is on Friday the whole town celebrates by walking around town beating on drums. I should say the *men* do this because the women go off and do other things (I was told that the “tradition” is for the women to have parties with strippers…). The majority of guys start the drumming in the early evening, although we saw people all day long. They are supposed to leave their house drumming and return drumming, so this can go on ALL day. And when I say all day I mean from about noon on Friday until 6, 7 or 8 in the morning the next day… 
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| Would you like to drum? |
My friends and I went out around 9 on Friday night and got back around 4am…the entire time around guys drumming…and drinking. There’s a main street where everyone goes to and that’s really where all the action is. They have street vendors with food… but mostly drinks. I think it’s necessary to be able to withstand that many hours of drumming. These guys drum seriously drum so long that their hands are bleeding by the end of the night. By the end of the night I was exhausted and just had to get out of there “early” (4am) lol. The next morning I was even woken up by people drumming, at 9am! The night was just utterly crazy but really fun…and a little noisy haha
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| what talent! |
I should also mention that the actual holiday is the Saturday. No one could really tell us why they instead celebrate it on Friday instead but I suppose they just decided to use that day for rest, much needed rest. We also had the opportunity to see the "Baena" version of what happened Easter week put on my people in the town.
The rest of the weekend was basically just full of rest and relaxation since I’ve been traveling like a mad woman…and I’m not about to stop. This next weekend I’m headed to a pueblo near Malaga! You guys will here all about it soon. In the mean time have a wonderful April Fool’s Day, which by the way, I’m saved from because they already celebrated it on December 28th with “el Dia de los Santos Inocentes “ (Day of the Innocent Saints).
*Just to let you know- I added another recipe to my Cooking Page
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