After class today, I met my friend Rafa to see the first Maskleta. This is a daily occurrence at 2:00 in front of City Hall starting today and continuing until March 19. Each day gets longer and bigger.

Today’s event began with a moment of silence to remember the ten people killed in the apartment fire last week.

Notice the size of the crowd, and all the people on balconies and in windows.

At exactly 2:00 the Fallera Mayor (an elected beauty queen wearing traditional Spanish dress) announces to the firefighters, “Let the Maskleta begin.” And then this happens:

Did you notice that the palm trees are wrapped up so that the fronds don’t burn in the flames that will be coming seeing them? And there’s more…

And then a big finale:

The whole thing (today) lasted five minutes.

To feel the vibrations and rumbling of the explosions through your body, in that immense crowd, is a thrill very different from any I’ve experienced before. And I’m told that each day, the event gets bigger, culminating in the 19th.

There will be more fireworks tonight at midnight. I MAY try to be there for that. And of course each neighborhood and all the kids have their own use of fireworks that can go at any hour of the day or night. I bought a box of ear plugs. I think I may need them.

As we were leaving the plaza, we ran into our mutual friend Ivan.

The three of us stopped for lunch. I may meet Ivan for the fireworks tonight.

Oh! And one other fun thing this week: my friend Barry from Denver is in town. We had lunch yesterday!

Barry spends several months in Spain each year, currently living in a small town west of Madrid.

It was fun to catch up.