Three days after the  evening on the beach where Sally and I observed the goings on for Iamanja’s birthday, an article appeared in the local paper El Pais describing the event with pics of the particular beach we’d been on.  (well, it was just down and along a bit from the newspaper offices) Although probably the action began just after dark, certainly things were well underway when we arrived just before midnight, and we saw new groups coming and people leaving all the time we were there.  Nevertheless, I would not have described the crowd as ‘thousands’  but perhaps they meant all along the coast that edges the metropolitan area, then it would be so, I guess.  The article referred to the 100.000+ adherents of this faith system currently active in Montevideo itself.  Interesting.  I believe I have found someone who will soon talk with me about the symbolism and basic principles, and will write more on that after I have met her.

After any good party, there is always mess to be cleaned up!  The next day, according to the paper, from 8am that day, over 100 city workers plus machinery were cleaning the beaches of debris, and certainly the beaches on the edge of the city had been all cleaned off wonderfully before midday.  Our local beach , Carrasco, was cleaned as far east as the casino, but not further along, where I walk from the casino to the naval school – it was a terrible mess, captured in the collaged pics above.  A couple of days later there was even more mess, but for the technical reason that I had forgotten my camera ! I can’t show you the heavy line of small bits of styrofoam shapes and other bits of junk that were washed up.  I was astonished to see an almost elderly couple who had parked their chairs on the dry sand, and were standing knee deep in the rather unhealthy shallows – I hope they were deciding not to swim….  I didn’t wait around watching them – there was no one else around, and it would have been a bit obvious I was watching them.   A lot of the gifts were organic in nature and therefore will be biodegrading as I write.  Perhaps it is safe now to swim there.   Yesteray, 10th feb, there was nothing much along the tideline, it seemed to have all been sucked into the water and on its way down to the Atlantic where some of it will end up in one of those vast whorls of plastic rubbish in several parts of the ocean, of just floating around out there being so harmful to marine life.  

I have said before one of the goddess’ likes is anything pretty and blue, and she is very vain.  So perfume (the label on the bottle above says Touch of Love) and blue predominates in the offerings, plus white, the colours of the sea.  Even the glass that might have toasted her was partly blue – and was just left dangerously lying in the sand ….