Our first Spanish party

Whilst we have been in Spain we have been fortunate to make friends with some spanish families and Amelia and Jose Luis invited us to their party last night to celebrate Amelia's birthday, and the invitation had said we were to dress up as either cowboys, indians or can-can girls (or boys!)

Now, it's so hot that it's hard enough getting ready to go out in the evening, but to be getting dressed in denims and cowboy hats really does take some doing, but I knew that most people (and there were about 70 going) would be making the effort so it seemed only fair that we did as well.

Our local hypermarket must have been warned that this themed party was happening as they had definitely stocked up on cowboy hats and toy guns and sherrif's badges, and judging by the number of similar 'props and hats' last night, they had done a roaring trade in the last few days.

As we walked down to the party we joined dozens of others all dressed up, some more than others, and we got lots of stares from passing cars.

The party was fantastic, there were 2 massive paella's and enough food to feed 170. As is the tradition, most people had brought some food and drink with them and no-one needed to go hungry.

At approx 10pm, a group of ladies who had been practising put on a display of line dancing

which was followed by a group of the men who had been rehearsing 'a 4-legged friend' and others.

We then all had a sing-a-long led by one man and his guitar.

The party went on into the early hours and it was a really enjoyable night. There was a real mix of nationalities there but language never seemed a problem and the more you have to drink the less of a problem it becomes.

All that was left for us to do was to stagger back up the hill and home to bed.