My bestest best friends came over and spent half a day at my house. We had some sort of "Egg Surprise" care of my aunt for lunch, and then headed out to this local patisserie not far from home for some cake and girl talk. I'm afraid the restaurant wasn't really all that it was cut out to be. Perhaps I was just a bit stressed (or mentally stretched) from the sugar high (always bad for me, and I've a small but growing fear that I'm turning diabetic), but the ambience turned out all wrong. Not to mention the cakes were too sweet, the tea was overpriced and the service kinda stunk. (Hmph...) But all in all, twas still a good day, because I spent it with my dearest friends.

The Penitent's Walk begins at the heart of the town, in front of the parish church. Following the long procession of 'mobile' statues that depict the Stations of the Cross, with the 'Passion of Christ'--a wooden representation of his corpse, shrouded and prostrate upon a slab, at the tail-end of the line, people walk the length of the city center's main thoroughfare (according to the old Spanish colonial layout, that is), which is about 1 km, more or less, going around and back to the church. Some people opt to go barefoot, as part of their penitence. I walked about twice as much as most people, partly because I stubbornly insisted on taking pictures with my digital camera, like some silly tourist. But I saw an "artsy" opportunity. And besides, not many (to my knowledge) document this event for their personal blog. Yes I'm eccentric, thank you very much.

Despite the rather forbidding name, the morning was really fine and bright. It was quite the perfect day for getting into your swimwear and having a splashing time in the pool. We spent all day in this public pool that was a very short drive from our house, and rented a cottage that was quite breezy. My nose got sunburned, but otherwise I was quite fine. My sibs, on the other hand, fried their arses and turned black as burnt toast. Haha!