Off to the local town of Es Mercadel this morning to find out about the horse festival. I knew we could be in luck by the fact that most of the roads into the town were closed which made finding parking somewhat of a challenge.
A visit to another very good local tourist office and we were reassured that tonight many horses would parade through the town, the local square would be filled with sand and we should wear closed shoes?!
In the meantime we braced ourselves for the effects of high altitude by driving up the islands one and only ‘mountain’ - Monte Torro - to the dizzy height of 349 meters (our highest altitude was in the Bolivian Altiplano at 4,900 meters!). The views are impressive and we could see the Fornells peninsula and even the place where our apartment is.
Later in the the day we headed back to Es Mercadel early to get parking and arrived about 6.15pm. The town was already heaving, the central plaza was covered in a layer of thick sand and crowds were starting to gather. I chose my spot so the sun was behind although it was starting to get lower. There were two massive figures which we had also seen at Mao yesterday and at one point they were lifted up and were taken away but we never saw them again! We had glimpses of large black horses and riders crossing streets in the distance. At precisely 7.00pm the band on stage sounded a bugle and a pair of magnificent black horses entered the plaza. There was no H&S - people crowded in around the horses trying to touch them. Some peoples roll seemed to be to goad the horses to rise up and others to support the riders to prevent them falling backwards off the horse. The horses would rear up and then drop down into the crowd and it was only by moving quickly that you avoided being hit. I came very close to being caught and it did shake me up. I have hoof polish on the back of my shoe as evidence.
The riders rear up for around 5 minutes then doff their hats to the main stage before leaving and another pair of horses and riders. This went on for a few hours as the sun went down, each pair getting more and more ambitious. We felt quite exhausted and we were not the riders! This photo was taken towards the beginning and shows how people just fill the square and get up close to the horses. I should say that the horses are all very well looked after and spend their entire lives training for this. What an amazing evening.
