San Clemente Festival

I've said before the San Clemente Festival is "mucho loco" and we honestly weren't sure we were going to go, but low tide cooperated on Saturday, so we walked down to check it out. We missed the parade, but thanks to Facebook, I can still share photos. The festivities started with a week long evening mass at the statue of the Virgin.

It got fresh paint, windows cleaned and pretty fabric and floral decorations. Hundreds of plastic chairs were set up every night, and the towns people prayed for the strength of the Fishermen and the cooperation of the Ocean to bring the livelihood of the village. (Total paraphrase)

San Clemente always has a much bigger parade than San Jacinto, and this year was no exception. They had the children's English class taught by many of the expat women in the Norte Barrio

They dressed as pirates, pretty cute. As were this group...

The volunteer fire department, and volunteer lifeguards...

Another well costumed group of young performers...

Not sure who these guys are...they look like trouble. Probably SC's version of our Los Vagos (the lazy) group, the card playing men's club

And of course, the snake man...

Drum corp and the trick ponies

Everyone paraded down towards the main stage, where the prominent people were sitting, the Royal court, Queen and Princesses etc. May have been a tad weird at the end, the parade to a dead end, guess they just turned around and went back the way they came.

After the parade was over, the tables were set up for the Gala. We were in town from late afternoon til after 9, and never saw anybody sitting at these gorgeous tables, but after the band started I'm sure people sat. We did not stay late enough for the band, it wasn't to start til 11pm...

We wandered around, eating fair food and shawarma. 

There was a small merry go round, (my picture is blurry) and table games for the kids. 

I met a young man from Chone, and he said most of the tourists were from there. San Clemente is THE "vacation spot", where, most of the SJ visitors come from PortoViejo. (Don't know how much truth there is to that, but he spoke well and wanted to practice his English)

 

This had raffle tickets for sale, probably collection for next years events. We tried to hang out til Pablo's smoked sandwiches were ready, but honestly we'd had enough shawarma, we were ready to head home. 

As we walked southward we passed so many people heading into SC, so as the night wore on, it just got busier and more crowded. Glad we escaped when we did, we rounded the corner into SJ and sighed a sigh of relief, home...our peeps. We tried a new milkshake place, Casa Jeremy across from Minimart and had Oreo milkshakes for dessert. And ho hum, home by 11.

Sunday there were kids games in the square, and music in the afternoon.

Heard thru Facebook, there may have been a small fire, and someone fell and broke their eyebrow, ouch! Surprised that's all the damage, glad it was minor. Everybody had a great time, and I'm sure the town is quiet today. 

So, there you have it. Another San Clemente festival for the books, Charapoto is next on the festival circuit, Joffre took us last year, maybe we should start planning an outing. Stay tuned...the adventure continues!