Our Final Feria of the Season!

Feria season has been in full swing here in Andalucia and it's time for our final Feria this season! You may remember we started our Feria season with Rota's fair and then continued with the Jerez bullfight and feria. Knowing that the Puerto de Santa Maria Feria was our last one for the year, we decided to go out with a large group to end the Feria season with a bang!

Saturday, June 8: Puerto de Santa Maria Feria

We invited RJ, Aidan and Meghan to join us for the Puerto Feria since we had such a good time at all the other Feria's together! We also added Miloni and Bhavin Trivedi to our group this time around.

Bhavin is the oral surgeon at the hospital and has become one of Bryan's closest work friends. He's invited Bryan to work several cases and assist him in surgeries; I have loved seeing Bryan come home giddy to talk about the procedures he's getting to do with Bhavin. Miloni, Bhavin's wife, is also a sweetheart who has invited us over for game nights, so it was finally our turn to extend the invite to our friends!

We met at the Trivedi's home, where we enjoyed a few drinks while they got their kids in bed and settled with the babysitter. Then we we were off for another night of Feria fun!

Our night began with photos in front of Puerto's famous bull! We lucked out with taking pics right as it lit up for the evening.

By now we were getting hungry so we opted for kebabs. Bryan and I were going to split a kebab until we decided to try the loaded baked potato that Feria is famous for. The kebab was delicious- so much so that Bryan offered me one bite before devouring the entire thing. I was stuck with the baked potato topped with imitation crab meat, carrots and a tiny bit of the kebab meat... let's just say that baked potato was a devastating disappointment.

Our night continued around the Feria grounds, as we explored the kid zones and the many casetas. Compared to the Rota Feria, the Puerto kids zone was huge! There were tons of different rides and each all had long lines. At €4 a ride, I can see where Feria could get pricy with children.

Instead, we opted for €4 mojitos and €9 pitchers of Rebujito as we hopped from caseta to caseta drinking and dancing. We ran into more people from the hospital and enjoyed soaking in the Spanish custom of partying all night!

We left Puerto's Feria around 1 am and headed home. Our group agreed this was our least favorite of the feria festivities. Puerto's was less traditional, a little more rowdy and overall felt dirtier. The food and drinks weren't nearly as good as the Rota Feria and the casetas seemed to entice a rougher crowd. We never felt unsafe, but by midnight we were ready to make our way home!

Now it's time to hang up the flamenco dresses and wash our shoes until next year! While this Feria season has been memorable, we're already looking forward to next year's festivities back in Rota!

--Katie