Quick and Easy Salsa, or Part 2

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, being watered down by fire hoses.....Fun times.... After the 9th truck of tomatoes drove through the town the fighting slowed down. A whistle indicated the throwing of tomatoes was to stop. That was when some idiots decided it was a fab time to throw sopping wet clothes at everyone. Cindy got a black eye from an errant shirt. As we were on steps against a wall we literally had over 50 shirts at our feet by the end of la Shirtatina.

The walk out of the square was nothing short of Tailhook. People throwing things at each other, you had to hunch over to avoid getting hit. people were missing shoes,putting on the ones they found on the ground. I saw the wedding dress,lonely and stained with tomatoes on the ground. I really hoped the guy waering it had something else on, cause man was he large!!

We proceeded to the local flat that was kindly holding a garden hose out their window to clean us off. There were 'showers' by the train station but being covered in tomato skin,seeds and muck for another minute was unthinkable. We tossed our shirts and walked to where our clean clothes were in our bathing suits. It was a real trick to get chenged in public, but resourceful as flight attendants are, we managed.

Now for the ugly wait for a return train home in the hot sun. I felt like I was waiting for the last flight out of Saigon. One hour after joining the masses, we were let in the station after the workers checked that we were clean and had shirts on. Luckily, oh so luckily,we got seats. The ride home was quiet, we were all EXHAUSTED and sore.

Once we made it to the sweet relief of the hotel showers, further salsa and seeds fell out of places we never expected. Dinner and cold beers ended the wonderful day that was la Tomatina. Would I do it again?? Probably, but in costume this time!! (I am thinking hula skirt and leis!) It is not often you can put aside all the responsibilities of adulthood and just engage in pure FUN and PLAY for a few hours. This is one of those places. But be ready to get dirty. And do not wear flip flops!!