Carnaval en Cadiz

Sunday, February 22, 2009
If you've been to Mardi Gras or Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, then you know what this is all about. Many Spanish cities have Carnaval, but few would dispute that Cadiz is the biggest and best. Carnaval activities go on for about a month, but it all comes to a head this weekend. So we reserved a slip for 4 days in Puerto America, the yacht harbor in Cadiz. We sailed over, giving the boat a chance to be a boat for a change and not just a floating apartment. Happy to say, everything worked just fine. It isn't much of a sail - about 6 miles across the bay! But the winds were good and here we are.
We went out Friday night with absolutely no idea what we were going to find. Surprising, the streets were not too crowded and we walked around town until we found ourselves in Plaza Mina. We had been before. Some young people were in costumes and we felt a little self-conscious without one. Since we were hungry, we went to a restaurant, el Madrileño that is highly regarded. While eating, we got to talking with the young owner and he found out about our flamenco connection. So we had to sing and dance a bit and then the party kept getting more exciting as they stopped treating us like tourists and started treating us like honored guests. Our song and dance number really does open doors. We spent hours there and only escaped by promising to return the remaining days of carnaval.
On the way home we passed by the Peña Flamenco Enrique el Mellizo, which we had visited years before. Since there were people inside, we stopped in for a last drink. Well, the last drink lasted several hours more since they had a guitar there and about 8 young people who wanted to sing. We got home at 3:30.

Saturday night we went out again, expecting it to be a little bigger than Friday night. Wrong, it was 10-20 times bigger and EVERYONE was in costume - fancy, creative ones in many cases. Some were purchased, but many were originals. Spaniards are different in that whole groups dress up in the same theme, often with exactly the same outfits. It was hard to get up and down the streets with all the crowds. We wandered around and eventually found our way back to Plaza Mina again. We stopped in the restaurant and the owner telephoned a little old man who used to be a singer. He soon showed up and although he didn't have a big voice, he was still a capable singer. We did a few things with him and then left to see what was going on in the square because things were jumping. The restaurant was so busy that it was better to leave them to fend with the crowds.
Once out in the Plaza, we two were the only folks without costumes, but I had the guitar case slung over my shoulder and a bunch of Hari Krishnas shouted out that I should play something. Oh well, why not? So I played some buleria and Andi danced. The crowd went wild and at the end were screaming and then started chanting "Torero, torero" which is done at the end of a good bullfight. So once we got comfortable, we hung out in the plaza for hours with people feeding us drinks to keep us in their little circle. Photos and videos will follow when we get back to the internet.
I have to comment on the drinking part. Everyone was drinking. It seems the young folks don't much care for beer or wine. They like mixed drinks - generally anything strong mixed with Coke. Everyone had a plastic glass with a drink. As the evening progressed, they were all in high spirits - in various stages of drunkenness. But here is the amazing part. All night long, we never heard one "discouraging word", no fights, no police presence whatsoever. There were 250 police on duty that night, but with 300,000 revelers on the streets, you couldn't find any police. The crowds, while very animated, never departed from friendly fun. When they got good and drunk, they wanted to sing. There were little groups all over the plaza singing in chorus at the top of their lungs. I was thinking, wow, try to get Americans to sing in public! And it seems like in the States, public drinking brings out hooliganism which soon erupts into fights. What a refreshing change.
We eventually made it back to the boat at 3:30 after passing through large drunk but happy crowds and stopping to play guitar for several groups. They love to sing and the guitar just gets them going. So we are feeling very included in Carnaval. Now it's time to go out again.
OK, we're back again. We went out to see public performances of the winners of the big singing competition. A feature of carnaval is the competition for best singing group. These are choruses, usually of men but sometimes mixed, who sing the most fabulous harmonies. The songs are specially written for this event and are topical and witty - sometimes wet your pants funny. All the group members wear the same elaborate costume. Here is one group of maybe 40 or so:

This is an example of store-bought costumes - note built in udders! This is the way we got acquainted. Although we had little costume material on board, we went as Guiri Flamencos and were enthusiastically accepted. This was about the nicest costume we saw anywhere.