The carpetas or alfombras are constructed the night before Good Friday by skilled crafstmen.  Similar to the Hopi sand paintings or Tibetan mandalas in their religious significance, these beautiful creations are made of colored sawdust and laid on a damp street surface ready for Friday morning´s procession around the city.  I´ve put just one example of the stations of the cross but there are thirteen of them situated in a large square route around the central community core.  Still, it takes three hours in the heat with a prayer stop at every station to finally finish the circuit again in front of the church.  Afterward I put up the swimming pool I bought the kids to join a second one an absent parent had provided.  This was our version of a holiday at the beach.  Nonetheless the kids loved splashing in the water.