La Tomatina!!!

That’s it.  The rest of our trip is downhill from here.  La Tomatina was definitely the highlight of our trip (year? life?), and I can’t see how anything else will come close to providing me so much joy.

Ok, what am I talking about?  La Tomatina is the biggest food fight in the world.  Each year, on the last Wednesday of August, 20,000 people pack into the small town of Bunol (population 9,000) and throw tomatoes at each other for an hour.

It’s kind of my idea of heaven.

The day started very early, with us catching the 6:55am train from Valencia.

Dressed in our sparkling white shirts, bathing suits, and goggles, we arrived in Bunol before 8:00, and made our way into the thick of the sangria chugging crowd to watch the Greasy Pole competition.

 

This futile exercise involves people trying to climb a wooden pole covered in Crisco to reach a prosciutto at the top.  It’s like the greasy pole competition in Gloucester, MA, but vertical and without water to cushion the climbers’ falls.

At exactly 11:00, a firework signaled the start of the fight.  Trucks began rumbling down the narrow street spilling tomatoes into the crowd. Workers were strapped in the back, chucking tomatoes at us as well.  For an entire hour, we hurled tomatoes at each other and anyone within an arm’s throw of us, which is to say, about 1000 other people.  We were packed in so tightly that it was literally like a mosh pit.

The tomatoes had to be crushed before we threw them.  Intact tomatoes hurt. Within minutes we were covered head to toe in tomato juice, pulp, skin and seeds.  My goggles were useless after about 30 seconds, and we both got tomato in our eyes.

By the end, we were standing in a pool of tomatoes that reached halfway up our shins.

 

At noon (far too soon), a second firework was fired, signaling the end of the fight.  We headed up the hill, towards the train, stopping to utilize the hoses of the very kind citizens of Bunol.

Back in Valencia, our clothes got tossed out and our bodies scrubbed clean. Apparently, the acidity of the tomatoes is meant to clean the streets and act as an exfoliator for the skin.  I really couldn’t say one way or the other, because all I noticed was a rash all over my body.

I heard other people say “ok, that’s done.  I crossed that off my bucket list.”  Hell no!  Despite the weird rash, I want to know when we can go back!  If I haven’t made it clear already, this was AMAZING.

Watch a short video of La Tomatina, by clicking on the link below.  

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Beer of choice: Turia