Rota, Spain; Day 28

We journeyed to the nearby town Jerez de la Frontera today to makes some purchases of convenience and to experience another fair. This Jerez Féria is not a celebration of Spring as the one in Rota is. In Jerez, the fair is titled, “Feria del Caballo” which roughly translates to the Fair of the Horses.

The town of Jerez is about 6 times bigger than Rota so the Féria is also quite a bit bigger though the components are similar booths with social groups eating, drinking and having fun, lots of people in traditional dress, carnival rides and of course food. This fair also had a lots of stalls selling toys/jewelry, clothes etc – street market type items.

We certainly did see a number of horses but they were primarily ferrying well-dressed attendees sipping sparkling wine and waving to their friends on a well-trodden path through the grounds.

We arrived at the fair somewhat famished and parched plus it was sunny and hot which made it more intense. We stopped at one of the booths for food. While there, we confirmed a suspicion from Rota about Spanish ‘fair food’. Most of you know fair food in the US is all about frying. Fried dough, fried pickles, fried Oreos, fried Snickers bars, you name it and it goes in the fryer.

In Spain, the equivalent food for sale everywhere is – baked potatoes. Yep. But not just plain or with sour cream and chives – baked potatoes with lots and lots of toppings – in many cases ones we’ve never ever seen offered on a potato before. The como como one in the picture comes with: Tuna, lettuce, carrots, caramelized onions, york ham, kebab meat and salsa. Many come with green olives in the mix. Seems weird to these Americans but is very very popular here. Tiffany almost ordered one just to try it, but in the end chose the regular chicken kebab.

We could have sought other local foods at this second fair visited in Andalusia but the kids were eager to get on some of the rides. In Spain, there are local fair rides which might look similar to those in the US. For example, there is a ferris wheel and bumper cars here. They also have those swing chairs on long chains that spin riders in wide circles 10 meters off the ground (30 feet). This fair had a few rides that we did not see in Rota and would not have seen at most fairs in the US.

They had a water ride! The kids were a bit dissapointed in the amount of water spash received.

And, of course, there was a roller coaster which took the kids for a quick spin.

The award for the most unusual ride of the day would have to go the ride that CreeperKitty selected for the kids to go on (the adults were not at all interested in this one). It’s called the “Totem” ride and the kids mount a padded log and are jostled until they fall off. It’s kind of a bucking bronco situation but with lots of simultaneous riders it can create a fun tangled mess of bodies. Here’s a 16 second view of it.

Needless to say with all of those flying legs and bouncing heads, someone was going to get nailed. Today, that honor went to CreeperPuppy who took a pink Converse to the face on this ride (twice). Perhaps this is why they don’t have this ride in the litigious US. To his credit, CreeperPuppy was knocked off that ride as many times as anyone else and re-mounted it every time.

After those tumbles, it was time for some heladeria for the kids and frozen beverage for Mom.

Both Suaram and CreeperKitty were eager to see if they could shoot some prizes off the shelves with their cork pop guns. SPOILER ALERT: They did. A cool Harry Potter sticker is now on the back of CreeperKitty’s tablet and Suaram has two new key chains.

One of the highlights of the day had to be when we competed in the camel racing game together. All 5 Adventurers lined up to roll balls up into a triangle with ball slots. There were 16 stalls and they were all filled when the game started. Everytime your ball went into the hole, the camel with your number on it would move forward across the “race track”.

It was an exciting race with a lot of back-and-forth at the head of the pack but in the end, camel #10 won. Our left-handed Adventurer got to take home a prize. This is a stuffed pug dog wearing a tiger costume. CreeperKitty has named him Cookie and he is adorable.

This will probably be the last Féria we go to this year but we had a lot of fun!