A Colourful Pilgrimage Out Of The Blue

There we were, my pal Maria and I, sitting out on a terrace enjoying our coffees (spiked with a good ol’ slosh of rum) on this beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon, when this whole shebang suddenly came trundling past us out of nowhere.

Maria told me that it’s part of the El Rocio Pilgrimage, which started out as an Andalusian custom. Hence the Flamenco-style dresses, which, although considered to be the epitome of ‘Spanish’ by the average tourist, are only really traditional in Andalusia, and, in particular, the town of Seville. In other words, this whole commotion seemed completely out of place in Toledo.

In Spain, where there’s a pilgrimage, there’s also a virgin. And here she is, propped up on her cart, the Virgin Del Rocio (virgin of the dew). As far as I’m aware, Rocio is the name of the town where this custom started

Random shot into the crowd. Initially I was going to delete this, but then I noticed that there’s a whole range of human emotions reflected on these people’s faces…