This festival is new to me, looks like a great close-to-the-ground travel experience opportunity
Quote:
It has grown into one of world’s largest, most unique Catholic pilgrimages. For days before Pentecost weekend, about a million people do the “romería del Rocío” in swirling clouds of dust that’s as pervasive and natural as the faithful’s devotion.
see also the photo essay here:
El Rocío appears difficult to reach unless you have a rental car. One of the contributors from Barcelona (I believe) likened the town to something out of the old west. It’s on my “to visit” list the next time I’m in that area.
El Rocío is a small hamlet in the province of Huelva, southwest of Spain. It´s not "San Rocío", as there´s no saint involved here, but a huge pilgrimage to the small church where the Virgen del Rocío is kept (practically every Spanish town has its own "Virgin", normally named after where she "appeared", and many women take their name from the name of the local Virgin). It´s of course much better to visit it off season, this small town is on sandy terrain and the beaches nearby are really outstanding, as well as many towns in the area. Spaniards are not much Catholic or religious any longer (mass attendance is around 14% and civil weddings around 90%), but we do love our traditions, many of them linked to religion.
There is also a good, fairly new hotel in the town now, owned by the Kaizen group, who own Don Ramon in Sevilla and Palacio Maria Luisa in Jerez--both of which are wonderful hotels.
Whenever I see the name Huelva it reminds me of a particular scent or perfume that was in an exhibit in an old museum in Sevilla many years ago.
I was staying in a boutique hotel and somehow thought I smelled a similar scent in the bedding and I complimented the woman at the desk for going to such lengths as to use regionally correct fresheners in the blankets.
Not realizing that my Spanish comprehension was a little bit better than she assumed, she whispered with the other woman at the desk, wondering what I was talking about, and they decided that the previous guest had probably worn a lot of perfume which had spread on to the covers.
https://www.legadoandalusi.es/project/aromas-of-al-andalus/?lang=en
Mikel I will be back in the province of Cadiz in March. Do you think that El Rocio would be a good overnight stop outside of beach season if I am not really a bird watcher? I would have a rental car. I might stay at the Kaizen hotel, La Malvasia. Are restaurants open before Semana Santa, do you think? I've never been anywhere in Huelva province.
Huelva is probably my favorite province for my summer holidays, still much touched by foreign visitors. El Rocío does not have much to see, you can cover the whole place in one hour. Beautiful beaches nearby, and wonderful towns, like Ayamonte (I´ve spent three summer holidays there, it´s mainly local tourism), Bollullos Par del Condado (great wineries for the massively unknown D.O. Vinos del Condado de Huelva, having an orange wine and its white from Zalema grape as two landmarks), Niebla, Moguer, Palos de la Frontera (the three ships that arrived in the Americas in 1492 sailed from there), all the white (and really unspoilt) white towns of the Andévalo area, the towns along the Guadiana river separating Spain from Portugal (Sanlúcar del Guadiana, for example), Jabugo for the best ibérico ham in the world, amazing Almonaster La Real in a beautiful sierra and where the smallest mosque in the world is located...
Also, Aracena, its caves, and the incredible visit to the Riotinto mines and the river, full of minerals that change the color of the river...I love Huelva, not sure how long it´ll be off the radar!
