On Sunday evening we drove to Alaro, a village about a half hour drive north from Palma (plus extra time for passing through the police road block checks) as the village is having their annual 10 day festival at present. Sunday night was the March of the Giants, a parade through the village of about 40 huge man-made "people" dressed in period costume and representing all of the trades, crafts, classes, etc from hundreds of years ago. A real person was under each giant structure, carrying it so that their feet could be seen and therefore looked like the feet of the giants. There is a little patch in the costume so the person underneath can see where he is going. Each group of giants was led by a local instrumental group playing flutes or a type of bagpipe. It was a fabulous display of tradition again and a very special treat for us to witness, especially because it was attended by local Mallorcan people rather than tourists. We would not have known anything about it if friends who live in the village hadn't told us to go there.
The parade finished in the main village placa (plaza) where the impressive church dominated the surrounding cafes and restaurants. We dined at Traffic, which seemed from the outside like a small typical village cafe, but the inside opened out at the rear to a huge outdoor eating area with a garden and swimming pool and the food was exceptional. Luke's suckling pig was a fabulous quarter of a pig (remembering the pig is very small) with perfect fine crackle all over. Their technique is to take the skin off first then remove the layer of fat before placing the skin back on for roasting, so it's not a fatty meal at all. My roast lamb was almost an entire leg (small again), roasted with a lot of vegetables so it was more like a braised leg. Bron had a whole grilled octopus which was so tender that cutting it with a knife was like cutting butter.
The best treat of the night was going back out to the placa to find the local families (Of all ages) all around the edge of the placa with a band on a stage at one playing traditional music, which sounds similar to Irish jigs. The locals danced their traditional dances in a circle, holding hands unless their arms were part of the dance movement. I was extremely envious of them and wished we had arranged for someone to teach us the dances beforehand so we could join in. Not long before midnight we left them still having lots of fun and headed home. What a great experience!
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