Imagine, every Austrian and American tourist in the continent, every Spaniard from miles around, and everyone in the town (the streets on the outskirts were like a ghost town) descending on a poor, small Basque town to celebrate this day. Everyone wears white and has red sashes around their waste and/or bandanas around their neck. The small Spanish streets are packed from one side to the other all up and down near the main square with people all wanting to see, hear and experience the blasts inaugurating this celebration. The people around you are drinking heavily, or getting there, and throwing their wine glasses and squirting their bota bags on their friends and on bystanders as they sing and chant like as if a soccer game was taking place. The people in the balconies above fill tubs, basins, anything really, and drench the crowds below who holler and cheer, shouting "aqua! aqua!"
The Chupinazo
For as insane as this sounds it was really a lot of fun! My white shirt and khaki shorts by the end of the day were tie-dyed a cool purple color from all the sangria splashed on me. One guy even spilled cold beer down the back of me and I was completely soaked from the water poured from the balconies, but the crowd was energizing and everyone seemed polite within reason. I didn't see any excessive shoving, fights, etc. The tough part was making sure the students I was with got to experience the crowds but didn't get lost in the mix.
In the late afternoon we found a park and sat under some trees in the shade and shared stories of the crazy things we had seen. All had fun, was uninjured and had decorative clothing on. Tonight we are in Logroño, just south of Basque Country on the Elbro river in La Rioja, Spain's best wine making region. It is really just a place to stay for the night before we embark on our 6-8 hour drive to Barcelona.
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