welch

Hello Spain Pros!
We traveled to Spain last year and would have traveled to Portugal and Spain at the end of this month. For many reasons, we've delayed and I'm excited that this might mean we could experience the El Rocío Pilgrimage at the end of May 2024.

For context, we're not religious. I'm the family trip planner for my husband and myself, and this looks like an amazing experience. I love something interesting and different and this seems to have it in spades. We spent time in Jerez last year and very much enjoyed the city and the area.

It would be great to find someone with personal experience with the pilgrimage. Thank you!!

Maribel

No personal experience, as it happens at a time of year when the intense heat keeps me way from the Huelva province.
The pilgrimage can be a hot and dusty affair. And a bumpy ride if you go via tractor, four wheel drive, oxen cart or horse drawn carriage. And you´ll need to camp out or stay at a small local hotel, a casa rural nearby or a hospedería.

The procession of the Virgin, la Blanca Paloma, gets started in the early morning hours, I think, and lasts for about twelve hours.

To feel apart of it, to "fit in", it's helpful to have the proper costume, the traje de flamenca, for the ladies, that one can rent from a few flamenco wear shops in Sevilla, and for the men the traje campero or traje campero topped off with the proper Cordoban hat.
You can also buy this gear from
https://www.flamencoelrocio.com/6-ja...164.1692658361

It's also helpful to know the flamenco songs so as to join in.

Here are some photos of the ways the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims dress-
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ga...io-in-pictures

https://www.thelocal.es/20190607/in-...ge-of-el-rocio

https://elpais.com/espana/2022-06-03...-imagenes.html

If you haven't read it already, here is a fairly recen NY Times article about the Rocío experience. I've gifted it. And you may want to read all the reader comments that follow.
https://tinyurl.com/47bjedbd

Maribel

I meant traje campero or traje corto, the typical equestrian Andalusian outfit. They sell these at Antonio García in Sevilla and Jerez. it´s where my husband buys his sleeveless quilted vests.

This past year the procession of the Virgen Blanca Paloma, began at 3:17 a,m. Be ready for little sleep, huge crowds, lots of music... a non-stop party.

welch

Thank you much for this information, Maribel. It's very much appreciated.
Maybe a visit to the town would suffice? As much as the idea of the pilgrimage is appealing, the reality is likely less so.

I'd forgotten about the article in the NYT's. Thanks so much for including this. Reading the comments provides an additional layer of information (although sometimes they're outright strange- always interesting).

Many years ago I planned a trip to Italy to include Ferragusto in Positano. The dove release was pretty spectacular. That said, it's not something I'd do in the current travel climate. This was pre-Instagram, pre-selfie and certainly pre-post Covid, all of which have changed travel.

Back to the drawing board for our spring trip to Europe.

Maribel

welch,
Yes, those reader comments are always "interesting",
I would (and hope to) visit this whitewashed small town in an off season but not doing the pilgrimage, when it's not mobbed with a million pilgrims. And I would stay at the Hotel La Malvasia.
https://www.hotellamalvasia.com/en/

Now, back to your drawing board...

mikelg

The town is nice, as many other towns in the Huelva province, so little known by foreign visitors. All the streets are covered in sand, as El Rocío (meaning "morning dew") village is located very close to Doñana National Park, a beautiful area full of marshes and wild life. Not much to see in El Rocío, apart from the religious paraphernalia in the church, if going to Huelva I would no doubt visit the Andévalo region, the sierra of Aracena, Almonaster la Real and the smallest mosque in the world (beautiful town), Moguer and its elegant houses, and the white towns along the Guadiana river (Sanlúcar del Guadiana)

welch

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond! I'll make note.

When we visited Jerez last year I was intrigued by the horse races on the beach in Sanlúcar (they were over by the time we visited).
In the end, we focused our time on the more well known white villages.
At the beginning of September, it was still quite warm resulting in a little detour to the beach at Zahara. I found it lovely and expansive (and I live in Hawai'i). There is so much about Spain to discover, particularly off the beaten track.