San Jose, Ibiza: The Big Bottle

If it's March in San Jose, it must be Flower Power! As always, the village was decked out in flower power related decs, the church was illuminated by a Pink Floyd style light-show, there were bars, food and drink stalls everywhere, a live band on in Raco Verd and thousands of people thronged the streets.

So you'd think, would you not, that local teenagers would relish the opportunity to do a bit of cavorting to music in this explosion of life in a normally quiet village. Well, they didn't. Where were they all? At the top of our dark (not enough power for the street lamps) and freezing cold lane having a 'botellon' away from all the action. I know this because of all the bottles, plastic cups, ice bags and vomit I saw this morning left all over our neighbour, Mr. Maffin's front.

A botellon (augmentative suffix) means a big bottle, and is used for the growing problematical situation in Spain of kids hanging around in vast groups, boozing out of supermarket bags, turning into alcohol fuelled vandals, and not tidying up after themselves. There's now a new word in Spanish to describe the place where they all meet, un botellodromo, (a bottledrome) which I've seen used in the Alicante press for the area at the side of the Melia Hotel and Volvo port when hundreds arrive on Friday and Saturday nights to make noise.

Don't you just love kids?