Noche de San Juan Bautista - The longest day.

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Here in Tenerife, today is the longest day. It has been 33 degress for the past two days.

We had been informed of many celebrations that were to take part on the local beaches, and had thought we would get a view of the fireworks from our balcony.

What happened though took us totally by surprise.

As the light was fading at about 8.30pm we notices too very large fires, one in the waste land next to the unfinished shopping centre next to our complex. We watched as these were joined by many smaller fires all around the area. There appeared to be a lack of any fire engines to put out these fires.

By 9pm, we could actually see the flames of the fire nearest to us so we decided to take a short walk to investigate. There Police were there when we got there, but still not fire engine came. The fire was quite large and was billowing out thick black smoke.

By 9.30pm the area between us and the coast was covered in smoke from the various fires so we had no chance of seeing any of the fireworks. But we also still had not seen a single fire engine. It appears the locals light fires in venues were they can burn out naturally. All slightly bizarre.

Turns out this is how they celebrate what they call ‘Noche de San Juan Bautista’ the longest day. When we woke up the next morning some of the fires were still smoldering.

Tenerife has a very light hearted attitude to heath and safety after the tightness of it at home in the UK. Most of the time it is quite refreshing to see, but last night was a bit scary for us.

Next year we are going to make sure we go to the beach to see the fireworks rather than being blocked by the fire smoke.

Another Tenerife experience.

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Comments

[Gus]

San Juan
San Juan bonfires are actually a spanish national festivity: http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/sanjuan.asp

[gandt2000]

San Juan bonfires
Thank you for the update. We are learning Spanish customs all the time. It is a great help