Monday 14th April

Each day of Semana Santa has a different parade. After Sunday's daytime parade they have now moved to the evenings, starting around 8:30pm and going on until the early morning.



We followed the sound of the drums to find a big crowd waiting for the parade to pass; with so many people we wouldn't have seen much so ducked around the streets to find a better spot further down the route where the crowds were thinner. We got a spot right next to the road as two pointy hatted lines slowly marched their way down the cobbled road towards us, carrying long candles. As they got closer they paused for a while in front of us. Children holding small balls ran out from the spectators to the nazarenos. The nazarenos tilted their candles to pour wax onto the balls, then the kids ran off to the next candle. Those that didn't have balls used cups, bowls and even their hands to collect the wax drips. We realised the nazarenos were all children too and as the wait increased they started fidgeting with their hoods and wandering off when they saw someone they knew in the crowd. Then between the wavering lines would come the 'mother hen' nazarenos, an adult with a long stick which they would tap repeatedly on the ground to bring the younger ones back into order.



Finally they began moving again and we saw the float come around a bend. This was different from yesterday's with a figure of Jesus on it. It was again carried by men, pausing regularly for stops and directed by a man walking alongside as those carrying were hidden by a curtain and couldn't see where they were going. As the float came alongside the crowd went quiet and as it passed they clapped applause. Following on came the band, dressed in immaculate white uniforms and playing the funeral marches that were actually quiet catchy, although I wasn't sure if it was the done thing to jig along with the music!



We moved on to another spot by a large, palm filled square and realised there were 2 more floats coming along behind, each with their own line of nazarenos wearing different coloured pointy hats and more bands.



The second float had Jesus on the cross, the third was a spectacular float with the figure of a lady on it wearing a huge, golden head dress and surrounded by tiers of candles. As the float moved along it swayed precariously from side to side.





Having seen all 3 floats we hung around the square a while longer listening to the bands as they moved on very slowly. We wandered back to the boat, the parades had a few more hours to go before they finished in the early morning.