Aiiie la Sardina!

The day following the big storm we walked through Valle Hermosa, the beautiful valley. The air was thick and heavy with the brassy smell of rainlogged earth sweating in the near noon sun. Out of the village and climbing the wooded track, nobody else but us. Everthing still, but not silent - birds, bees, the rustle of something in the hedge, scampering lizards. Reaching the high point of our ramble, at 900 metres, a breathtaking view across the water to Tenerife's Mount Teide, sugared white by the recent rains. How lush the mountains have become in a few months. We wove down the barranco to the sound of gushing water. The tinkle of a goat bell across the valley. Rounding the ridge, there lay the village again, pretty and white, neat terraces either side red and ridged, freshly planted.
We crammed on the guagua back to San Sebastian, the driver shoving two bottles of wine in the glove compartment before collecting fares. Country folk were off to town to celebrate Carnival, and more precisely this evening the Sardine fiesta. This was a strange affair involving a procession of folk (mostly crossdressed and in costume the theme of which was death - cobwebs, black veils, crying into hankies, skulls, the grim reaper) following a giant sardine through the streets to the beat of a drum and the shrieks of 'aiiiee aiiee, la sardina!' Arriving at the beach the sardine was set alight with a spectacular amount of fireworks leaving the general public to grab the 'safety barriers' and use them to shield themselves from the fast exploding fish. Tonight is the final night of La Gomera's carnival so tomorrow we will need to be scrubbed clean and hence will be going to sea.