The biggest festival of the year in Oviedo came to a close yesterday, on September 21st. For eleven days, the city had seen its streets converted into a massive carnival. To be honest, we felt a little relieved it was finally over.

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Check out this final batch of pictures from the fiesta. Crazy times.

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Last night, Oviedo invited the pyrotechnic company to light up the Parque de Invierno with fireworks. The Valencian company also did the closing of the World Cup, and we are already well familiar with their incredible work from our time in Valencia.

It was a great night for fireworks, and the show didn’t disappoint. We found a spot on the side of a steep hill, and watched a display that seemed to go on forever. Something Valencians understand about fireworks, is that noise can be just as important as visuals, and the rhythmic, perfectly timed sounds were almost as impressive as the explosions themselves.

San Mateo is winding down! Today’s a holiday, and then it’s all over…

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One of the biggest days of San Mateo is September 19th, the Día de América, when Oviedo celebrates its relationship with the New World. The immigrants who’ve moved to Spain, Asturians who went abroad, and the mixture of cultures are all represented in a big parade that shuts down the city.

We had the chance to see the 60th annual parade. It was a lively affair, featuring both the traditional music of Asturian bagpipes and flutes, and the more buoyant rhythms of the Caribbean and Latin America. There were about twenty floats, each with a different theme, from life at Catholic missions abroad, to scantily clad Caribbean beauties jiggling their lady parts.

The weather was perfect and the both the spectators and participants clearly had a lot of fun, except for the guy in front of us who got a face-full of foam. Definitely one of the most colorful days of the year in Oviedo.

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