Last night was the turn of the Moros (as they say in Spanish), to show off their stuff... and what a turnout. Spectators were already vying for front row positions along the route by 7pm - an hour before the official start time. I must say I laughed to myself when I saw people bring their own chairs - one man was pushing a set of 4 plastic garden chairs in a pram. But by 11pm Im sure it was them laughing, as my feet were throbbing and back was aching! They have obviously done it before and know the consequences.

Surprisingly for Spanish time keeping, they were fairly punctual and the parade began a little after 8pm.  Some of the costumes were incredible - fabulous colours and embellishments but many also looked extremely heavy. And the make up was stunning... it was certainly face painting like Ive never seen before! They had quite a hike from the beginning of the route which was down by the seafront until the end, all the way to the other end of Altea. It was a real family event as many children also participated - they certainly start them off young here.

They even had livestock.... many horses - with a poor chap following behind picking up any droppings, some donkeys and owls.
There were also many floats - the lucky ones were transformed tractors but the unfortunate ones had to be manually pulled along!

Once the parade had finished, all the participants headed off to one of the many local bars or restaurants for a meal. Every table of every establishment I passed walking back to my car had reserved signs on, so if you hadn´t already booked you stood no chance of getting one! And they say that there´s a recession here in Spain!

I shouldn´t think that any of the residents would have got much sleep last night... the penyas will have been partying all night. Most of them are located on the ground level of the blocks of apartments... and we all know that noise carries, especially being constructed of concrete and no carpets for soundproofing. The streets will be very quiet and subdued till the afternoon, when they start to rise and carry on partying!

Monday is the Christians parade, again starting at 8pm. For those that missed the Altea Moors and Christians the date of the Benidorm one is from 3rd to 7th October.