Semana Santa - Day 6 - A Walk About Town

Since classes are over Bill & I have plenty of time to walk around town.  Most business are closed since it is Good Friday and the processions don't start around noon.  

We walked towards the cathedral...  that's where all the processions walk to.  The photo below shows City Hall on the right.  The city has set up rows of chairs along the plaza...  the processions pass right down the center giving those seated a birds-eye view of the parade.  I believe Bill read that a person can "rent" a chair... whether for the whole week or just one parade, I don't know.

 There was a clean-up crew working while we were there...  spiffing it up before the next parade came along.

It had started to rain about the time we had walked this far.  The fact that there were no parades passing by and the misting rain is the reason there are no people walking around this beautiful plaza...

 This is a courtyard located just behind the cathedral.  It is a bit out of the way, but is worth the stop by just to take in the beauty of the curved building, the fountain and the pattern of the tile.

This little guy was cheerfully playing his drum...  just like he'd seen the men in the bands...

 But he turned shy when I started to take his picture.  

I had asked his parents if I may before snapping it.

There are many little parks nestled in and among the city streets.  This is one we hadn't walked in before.  It's right beside the huge theater.  It has a couple of fountains as well as a winding path that leads you out to the street again.

I couldn't read the plaque..  but this ancient tree looks as if new growth has sprouted from that gnarled old trunk.

At one end of the park, and adjacent to the theater entrance is this statue of Mozart... 

There is a geocache hidden in this statue...  took us 3 different walks here before we finally found it this time.

Those are raindrops on the camera lens...  the rain was picking up by now..  became much more than a drizzle, so we headed home.

The rain stopped later in the day, so we headed out again, hopefully to see a procession that was scheduled to start at 6pm.

 As we're walking along the sidewalks, we look up at the balconies that overlook the plaza.  Many have these "skirts" around the railing.  A few have these decorations.  They are palms, woven into intricate designs.  This one is about 5' long...  it's not only a symbol of Palm Sunday, it's a work of art.

There were several different processions scheduled, and each brotherhood has its own color of garb.

 I'll have to admit that while I don't find the brightly colored robes eerie, the black, or black and white ones are a bit intimidating.  Probably has to do with associating those to the KKK....

We watched for at least an hour a procession forming at a church just a block over from where we live.  

 The band members were congregating right next to the wall where I was sitting.  Many set their drums and instruments down ...  along with those metal hats, and stand in groups talking.  Quite an interesting group of people (both make and female) and musical instruments after a while.

The Nazarenes started arriving...

Entire families garbed in bright purple.   The little guy looks almost like the altar boys of my youth.

 For over an hour they kept coming...

This was going to be a relatively small procession...  only about 2,000 participants.   

Another little person...

She is carrying her basket of holy cards, or maybe candy, to hand out to the audience.

As it happened, around 5:45 the rain began.

There will be no procession today for this church.

The pasos (floats) are much too valuable to be subjected to the rain.  It is so disappointing to have to cancel an event that happens only once a year.  

This band member and his young son are heading home...  

And Bill & I did too.

That's All For Today!