Colours of Lastres
After having spent a week in France for a friend’s wedding and a short stay with my family in Tours, we decided to go to Spain for the last week of our holiday. It was basically a “close your eyes and put your finger on the map” kind of situation. We ended up going to Lastres, a quaint old fishing village in the province of Asturias, where the mountains meet the sea. It’s not the easiest place to get to when you don’t have a car, but transport by bus is pretty reliable, and it was well worth it, allowing us to sit back and enjoy the scenery. We were lucky enough to arrive during the last days of the San Roque Festival.
Celebrations start mid-August and are held in many regions of Spain, from Andalucía in the south to Asturias in the north, in honour of San Roque, a Patron Saint who was mostly invoked against the plague. They include religious processions, musical performances (I got woken up by a Spanish bagpipes one morning and it felt a bit like home), various activities for kids such as fairs, rides, games, street food stands and so on.
In the first few days, we were taken aback, then annoyed and finally curious about the seemingly random explosions that occurred several times a day for a good ten minutes and could be heard from all over the town. We then got to know that those daily explosions and resulting clouds of smoke are all part of the tradition and set the tone for the big fireworks that mark the end of the festival.
The wildlife wasn’t too happy about the noise, and flocks of seagulls and other birds would immediately fly off for hours on end as soon they heard the first explosion. As much as I still question the need for the deafening smoke bombs, I felt lucky to experience this place at such a lively and festive time.
Here are some impressions of Lastres in its late summer colours.
