A small rock in the Atlantic

Monday, 22 June 2009

Archways for the Sacred Heart

Ahem. When I said "...more photos tomorrow", I actually meant "mañana".

The salt carpets aren't the only thing. They also make wonderful archways, similar to those in Mazo. Well, as you can see, these days some of them aren't arches. In this case the carpet is leaves from tree-heathers, laid down with a garden seive. Like the ones in Mazo, they're decorated with seeds and flowers.

Unlike the ones in Mazo, a lot of the fine detail is done with crushed and dyed eggshells.

This archway features the twelve apostles.

Centuries ago, the Virgin Mary appeared in a pine tree in the mountains above the village. (More on that another day.)

And this one celebrates the local silk industry. (More on that another day, too.)

Labels: El Paso, fiestas, flower arches, Sacred Heart, Sagrado corazon, salt carpets

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Sunday, 21 June 2009

The Sacred Heart

It's El Paso's main fiesta, The Sacred Heart (El Corazon Sagrado). Like Mazo and San José, they make archways and carpets, but they're slightly different.

In San José, they dye the salt, and then put the colours together to make the picture. In El Paso, they start by putting down white salt --kilos and kilos of it from the salt pans in the southern tip of the island.

Spraying the colours onto the salt carpet