Yes, we are still in Cartagena, partly because we both came down with colds on our return from the UK and then when we were healthy enough to leave, the weather didn’t cooperate.  It is still quite unsettled here and now a chilly, wet Easter weekend with strong gusty winds about.  We feel we made the right decision to remain here when we saw about 5 beautiful maxi yachts pull into the marina for the weekend, presumably because they too didn’t fancy being caught out in 50 knot gusts.

The upside is that we have been able to enjoy some of the extensive festivities leading up to Easter over the past week or so in town.

Procession on the third Friday in Lent, the start of Holy week. Offers of flowers delivered to the church of La Caridad in recognition that it was also the feast day for the patron saint of Cartagena.

Processions were held everyday during Holy week, some starting as early as 3am!  Needless to say, we were tucked up in bed and sound asleep during those events, both on Fridays.  We did, however, see the evening procession on Wednesday where most participants were dressed up in robes, the color of which depicted which brotherhood they belonged to.  I think the participants were paying pennance, which may explain the conical hats and masked faces.  It certainly was quite a spectacle.

We also sampled some traditional Easter fare …..

Traditional Easter cookies with whole quail eggs, shell included.
Larger (Mona?) cookies with a whole chicken egg

However, the weather changed for the worse on Thursday night, as you can see from the foreboding dark clouds that rolled in shortly before sunset (sun in the west shining on the masts).