Saturday, August 02, 2008

Festas in Praia da Vitoria

August 2, 2008 Saturday We arrived in Praia just in time for an 11 day series of fiestas. There are some big pavilions near the marina where the leading restaurants here and in Portugal are competing in a competition of "Gastronomy of the Atlantic". We have yet to visit one of them because we eat so very well here on the boat. My feeling about restaurant food so far is that chefs here (and in North Carolina) should be required to spend a month in San Francisco to see the level that average cuisine can reach. There is a lot of average food around here. But it's nice for a change. I mean - who wants to pound an octopus at home?

So we went out to see the big opening day parade. Unfortunately, the camera batteries hadn't been charged and we shot the following video and then discovered that we were out of business. Click on the video and then wait for it to load itself on your computer.


These folks were singing together and dancing while leading the parade through the streets. After them came 5 floats celebrating various aspects of Praia's history and culture. After the parade, we all drifted back to the waterfront where there was a Dixieland Band and rock bands for the young folks. We came back to the boat at 1AM and the locals were just getting started. The whole town was on the streets. We loved the people-watching. It's hard to generalize because the people are very diverse genetically, so there is no standard look.
We'll put up more pictures later. Don't be afraid to write.

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