adventures-eva: The latest Battle of Ponta Delgada

The first battle of Ponta Delgada was (according to Brittanica AI):

Fought on July 26, 1582, off the Azores in the mid-Atlantic, the Battle of Ponta Delgada was a Spanish victory that ended Portuguese resistance to the takeover of their country by Spain’s king Philip II.

The current battle:

FactsAzores : Known as the Batalha das Limas, this event takes place on the day of Entrudo (Carnival Tuesday).

Held along the waterfront of Ponta Delgada, it brings together hundreds of participants—on foot or atop trucks—all with one simple goal: to soak their opponents.

Originally, the battle was fought using flowers, which were later replaced by limas—small, handcrafted paraffin containers designed to be filled with water. However, in recent years, these traditional projectiles have been largely replaced by plastic bags, as wax has become more expensive and the production of limas is a time-consuming process.

Each year, the battle requires weeks of preparation, with participants working together to ensure their truck is well-stocked for the fight.

"We use every free moment, even after work, to fill plastic bags with water for the battle. It's been like this for the past three weeks," one participant shared.

His team—"Os Sempre Presentes"—alone prepares 110 kilos of water-filled bags, meticulously stocked by the 25 team members in the weeks leading up to the event.

"That’s several thousand liters of water," noted Pedro Viegas, explaining that each member of the truck contributes financially to cover the costs of participating in the battle.

We stumbled upon this tradition about 8 years ago and have, admittedly, timed our February visits to include the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, as this is the day of the battle. Our apartment has a balcony that overlooks the eastern end of the battle zone, so we invited Clive and Nicole to join us for the day, promising them an experience like they had never seen before.

Preparations begin on Monday with the city bringing in temporary fencing to define the battle zone and limit the scattering of the plastic bags.

Businesses along the route hang plastic mesh or put cardboard over the glass walls. The LED signs are covered and taped.

Tuesday morning, the pedestrian participants start to amass their ammunition with trucks bringing in loads of filled plastic bags and dumping them on the sidewalk. People start to arrive to watch, usually standing behind the fences.

At 1:42 the trucks came into view. The riders usually are wearing helmets and some kind of chest protection for safety. As the trucks come into the zone, the pedestrians start to throw bags up and the riders retaliate. When two trucks come together, the throwing goes back and forth as well as up and down. Horns blare, people shout, there is general mayhem. Over and over the trucks and tractors drive off and return to renew the onslaught. It went on for over 3 hours.

The usual protocol is that if you throw bags or put yourself into the zone, you are fair game to be a target. We had some young people across from our balcony who figured we were also wanting to be involved and several projectiles came our way, two actually flying through the balcony door and splattering on the living room floor.

When it wound down about 5 pm, the city workers started at the eastern edge. First the bags were raked off both sidewalks into the street, then the rakers cleared the roadways, raking to the curbs. The little street sweeper came along and cleaned up the piles. Finally, the guys who run the Gluttons (sidewalk cleaners) went over the area to pick up the balloon fragments.