The weekend was very relaxing, once again including walks and some clothes washing. We have one favorite restaurant that we visited two days in a row, but ended up being early each time. The waitress (who did not speak English) would smile, shake her head and point to her watch. We would quietly wait for the appropriate time to order our food and it WAS worth waiting for!!!
Each day we took a long walk, enjoying the fact that the weather was starting to get warmer and somewhat dryer.
On Saturday, we enjoyed watching a couple of classes where young people were being taught to sail. They would start out in the enclosed harbor…..
….and then move out into the open ocean…..
We counted 28 sailboats on the water with 7 or 8 “teacher” boats as well. They did a great job of helping the sailors and watching over their safety!!
Michael and I had a sailboat for many years (in our younger days) and we were jealous of this sight!!
We walked further today than we had before, ending up at the end of a long point 
As we entered the walkway to the point, we passed this magnificent series of tile murals…..
The pictures were very detailed and It was quite spectacular to see them all together in one place…..
On Sunday, we repeated virtually the same walk, this time going out onto the harbor breakwater wall.
The weather was a bit clearer and warmer, but we still weren’t ready to do any sunbathing, especially if we had to do it this way…..
As usual, there were a lot of fishermen out and about…..
….however, I have to say that I have YET to see someone actually CATCH a fish!!!
As we returned to our apartment, we passed this church that is shaped like a boat……
After we passed, we saw that a group of women had blocked off the street in front of the church and were doing something in the middle of the street. I looked at Michael and said…..”Something is going down….let’s find out what!!”.
We walked down to where they were working and found large trays filled with flowers and chopped up foliage…. 
The women were using wooden forms to build these ingredients into a floral design down the middle of the street…..
As we walked back toward our apartment, we saw another larger floral display with a red carpet leading up to it….
Many women were hanging gold and red sheets off of their 2nd floor balconies. One showed this saying…..
….which basically says “Welcome to the Body of God”.
We returned to the apartment, but I vowed to come back out around 4:00pm and see what was going on.
As I walked back out, I could see a large crowd at the intersection nearest the church and I hurried to join the throng. What I beheld was a procession led by a group of older kids dressed in uniforms, followed by church officials…..
Then came a long procession of boys and girls dressed in their finery and carrying long stem flowers…..
More dignitaries followed……
The final procession participants were all adults who I assume were the parents and guardians of the children marching. The most haunting moment of the entire event was listening to the parents signing as they walked…..
They all marched into the church and I expected the spectators to leave, but instead they all stood on the corners (out of the rain that was now pelting down) and waited for everyone to come out again…
Naturally, I didn’t want to miss anything so I stood there too…..freezing by this time!!!
After about 30 minutes, they started emerging from the church and I enjoyed looking at the clothing that was worn, especially by the Mother’s, Sister’s, Aunt’s and other women attending…..
I particularly loved this little girl in her long, fancy dress and her tennis shoes…..
Now the most bizarre part of the whole event happened. As the families are flowing out of the church, hugging their kids and talking to their friends, the Street Cleaner’s start working their way down the street…..
I originally thought that this was just a bad coincidence, but then realized that they were there to clean the flowers off of the road One guy had a leaf blower and was blowing all of the flowers and foliage onto the side so that the machine could clean it all up….
By the time that I walked home, there were absolutely NO signs on the street that anything had happened!!!
I am still not entirely sure what this was, but I am assuming that it was the celebration of “First Communion”. The very cool thing is that so many people from the community were there to support the young people and their families!!
And I was right…..something was going down!!!!
One thought on “Somethings going down!!!”
You have a lot of stunning views for your walks. And so many great points of interest. It is great to see local celebrations and how they take place. I am amused by how quickly it was cleaned up and cleared away!