Carnaval de Chipiona

After Aleksis and company dropped me off at the Jerez bus station, they took off for Madrid to return the car. I can't say I was envious of the idea of a six and a half hour drive into the center of Spain, but they had to do it. I bought a ticket for the next bus to Chipiona and met Rocio at the bus station there.

It was a beautifully sunny day in Chipiona so we went to the beach for a bit, but then the clouds rolled in after a while and it was a bit chilly. We decided to leave the beach and go grab a coffee in town before going back to Rocio's house to relax.

That night we went for dinner with Rocio's friends in Jerez de la Frontera at a sushi place near the train station. It was pretty good, but a bit overpriced to this California boy. A few of the Spaniards wouldn't eat what they ordered because they didn't like it, but then again Spaniards are generally super picky about the food they eat.

After the dinner we headed back into Chipiona to watch the comparsas and chirigotas in one of the town squares. Comparsas are singing groups that wear costumes. They're judged on their singing ability, so they sing beautifully. Chirigotas are similar, but they're judged on how entertaining they are, so most of the songs are comedic. They poke fun at everything going on in Spain in the last year, and nobody is safe. Every year Chipiona has a few groups that didn't qualify for the finals come up from Cadiz to compete in Chipiona. These groups are generally more experienced and better than the groups from Chipiona, but Chipiona has a couple good groups too. The festivities for the night ended around 1 or 2 a.m. so we went straight to bed after.


Chirigota in Chipiona



Comparsa in Chipiona

Rocio left the next day, but I stayed in Chipiona for the weekend. The next night there were more chirigotas and comparsas. It wasn't until Thursday though that the party really started. Everyone headed out with their beverage of choice to the same plaza with costumes on for a long night of partying in the streets. With drums. In Chipiona lots of people bring drums and bang them all night long so that there is music (sort of). The racket was kind of embarrassing, and I felt bad for the people living nearby. I imagine they just go on vacation that weekend, since they won't sleep at home.

I went out again the next night with Rocio's friends and there were more people who didn't let a little rain stop them. They just jammed themselves under the big tent and continued on partying.

Looking back, I think Carnival in Chipiona was more fun than in Cadiz, but Cadiz was something that I needed to see at least once.