Last Friday the 20th June, Ashley, Sophie and I, went to our local San Juan Fiesta, in Montecorto. Fire and Water are the theme of the whole Fiesta. This afternoon the children of Montecorto had a water fight, at midnight there is a huge bonfire.  It is believed the fire and water cleanse the body and soul.  It´s a very magical night, with the whole village entering into a party spirit, drinking and dancing into the early hours.  San Juan celebrates the start of summer, traditionally  this fiesta starts around midnight.

Traditionally, a few days before San Juan, the children of each village, spend their  afternoons preparing the dolls, that it is customary to burn just before midnight. Outside the Montecorto church, the Muñecos (dolls) this year were the Spanish trio that entered into Eurovision with that catchy Chiki Chiki song and two lorry drivers protesting about the price of diesel, the muñecos await their fate.  The weather is a balmy 29 degrees, everybody in the village has turned out, and are chatting over drinks and tapas. At last the time has come, 11pm, the moment the village and especially the children have been waiting for, they set light to the muñecos to cheers and dancing.

It is usual custom, to jump over the fire three times, which is said to cleanse and purify your soul and burn all your problems away.  After watching the mesmerising flames and the poor muñecos burn, we depart to visit some of the other San Juan attractions.

Ashley decides to have yet another go at shooting pegs for a cuddly toy, but the stall holder takes pity on him, she can not let me go away empty handed after all those attempts, I receive a small cute cudley donkey, which I can put in my car.

We walked around chatting to our fellow Montecorteños, over a few more beers and tapas, we watch the children play on the bouncy slide and test their strength against the Crazy Toros (bulls) before winding our way up to the Plaza Mayor, where we danced the night away to the Spanish Rock Trio called Yellow, well not exactly all night, as we are not as practised at this as our Spanish friends.