Festival Season!

Hello again! It was festival season recently, and here are a few of the highlights! Above you can see the street decorations in Gracia during that neighborhood's festival. There were stages in every plaza and the residents competed with each other for the title of Best-Decorated Street. They used recycled materials that had been collected all year in preparation for the event. On the left you can see the alien-themed street that won, and on the right...well, everyone likes sunflowers.

The main festival for the city is La Merce, which took place at the end of September. There were fire-breathing dragons that went parading through the streets, and free outdoor concerts throughout the city. We enjoyed fireworks shows on our beach all weekend! By far the most amazing spectacle was the "castellers", which are human "castles" that were enacted in one of the main squares. People train all year for this event, with neighborhoods forming teams of men, women, and children in order to compete. Larger men form the base and first tier of the castles, with slighter men and then women forming the middle levels. Teenagers and children work together to form the top, with tiny, helmeted little girls crowning the structures. It is breathtaking to watch the final levels put into place, as the participants shimmy up other human beings as if climbing the trunk of a tree. Here is the first tower that we saw:

This was pretty amazing to watch, but we had no idea what was going to come next! The next team built a slightly larger tower that went up fairly quickly. However, the increased height and difficulty were apparent as we watched the participants' legs shaking under the weight of the structure. The two little girls made it to the top as the silenced crowd watched, in awe, below. The tower was executed perfectly, but as the girls began their descent on either side, the precarious balance was lost and the upper tiers began to sway. With each back and forth motion the situation became worse and finally, to our horror, first one, then the other girl fell into the crowd below. As they went down, instinct caused them to grasp at the clothes of those they brushed as they fell. This created more movement in the tower than could be sustained and the next two tiers fell apart, sending more people into the crowds below. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The other teams are packed tightly below while the performing group builds its tower and they stand ready to catch or otherwise support their fellow group. Everyone who fell had his or her fall at least partially broken by their peers below. Needless to say, as an amateur photographer I stood transfixed as this occurred and missed the chance to bring you, gentle reader, photos of five-year old girls tumbling through the air while thousands of onlookers let out a collective gasp. There goes my chance at the The National Enquirer. Here is the team in all its glory, just as the girls began to descend, and only seconds before the collapse:

So, there are the latest going-ons here. Thanks to those of you who posted comments! Unfortunately, this site is still losing your comments before we can post them, mais ficamos muito feliz ter noticias de voces. Jodi, esperamos que todo vaya bien contigo y con Josh y Zeke. Vamos a mandarte un correo con la informacion que nos pediste! Washington, wow!

For all of our family and friends, un abrazo--James and Maggie