Wednesday 17 April 2019

No day ever seems completely routine, there always seem to be new things to discover. Belying this, we spent the morning employed with basic chores of cleaning and laundry, before heading off to the supermarket for another large order of food. We are expecting that things will become more expensive when we move away from here, especially in the Balearics, where “island pricing” will become a factor. So, having previously checked that it was possible, we arranged for our supplies to be delivered to the boat. Again, this entailed a major performance, passports to be shown and the exact name of the boat and position in the marina to be recorded. It seems that every larger transaction has to have your Spanish Social Security number recorded against it. Our passports do not conform to the expected numbering layout, so the woman serving us said she would make up a letter to go at the end of the number. The food arrived at the appointed hour and so, other than adding perishable items, we will be able to eat for the next few weeks (hooray).

We had seen that in addition to the daily procession, there was to be an Easter related play performed in the square in the middle of town on the steps of the town hall. Over the last few days we have seen a number of people dressed as Roman soldiers walking around the town, and it may be that these were going to and from rehearsals for this play. Certainly, when we arrived, there were Roman soldiers flanking the stage area.  The play transpired to be a re-enactment of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate, and it was warmly appreciated by the audience.

Even the shop windows have processions

Later in the evening we returned for another of the evening processions. This was much larger than the previous night’s and I thought it might be for brotherhoods from a higher division. It was more formal and there were far few hangers on passing out sweets and religious pictures. (The local dentists must appreciate this time of year, so many sweets have been given out over the last few days). Apparently the format of these processions is unique in Cartagena. Each brotherhood is divided into smaller groups (agrupaciones), each responsible for one of the floats (trono), and the members of the groups all were the same colours. The float is proceeded by a richly embroidered standard (estandarte), carried by 3 members of the group. They are followed by 2 symmetrical lines of members who march in time to the drum beat. When they stop, they remain still and silent. There may also be smaller banners, icons and teams of altar boys with incense. This group is collectively called the “terico” or regiment Behind these comes a band and the drummers, and then comes the float itself, some on wheels but some carried by portapasos (see the video below). There were about 20 of these groups, all consisting of about 100 people plus the float carriers. The order of the floats is strictly governed by the order of the events in the gospels. The whole thing started at 9:00 in the evening, but on this occasion we left at 11:30 before it was over.  We had stood in one place for long enough.

The guy blew this and produced a not terribly musical sound!

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	99	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	99	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)