FIESTA DEL CHARCO

This ancestral "mare" festival, or Fiesta del Charco, takes place in San Nicolás de Tolentino, Gran Canaria. It has been declared a festival of cultural and tourist interest. In 1776, Delgado y Venegas, bishop of the Canary Islands, came to this village and saw that local men and women were bathing naked in a kind of "marciega" pond. Scandalized by this spectacle, he excommunicated all the villagers. Today's inhabitants still remember this anecdote and continue to bathe in the pond, albeit clothed, and take advantage of the occasion to celebrate a fishing competition based on old-fashioned techniques that have evolved over the years.