Christmas comes early in Cartagena - but shade still just a dream

City awards festive contracts, prepares new bike lane links, while those famous canopies remain missing at summer's end

It’s only September and the children are just returning to school after their long summer break, but the ayuntamiento of Cartagena is already getting well ahead of the festive season. At a meeting on Wednesday, officials awarded the contract for the Three Kings Parade floats to Alicia Castro Simo, and the job of managing the municipal Nativity scene to Inversiones de ocio Navarro. No fierce competition for either gig, as just one company pitched for each and smoothly secured the role after paperwork and financials were checked.

The municipal Nativity, for which Inversiones de ocio Navarro will be responsible, is quite a collection, with more than six hundred pieces to safeguard, restore, and exhibit. The contract is set for one year, at a cost of around €60,000.

The city is clearly keen to avoid any last-minute rush for Christmas. They approved the deal for stuffed animals and chocolate coins for the Three Kings Parade all the way back in May, with local firm Juan Pedro Belando Alcaraz winning the sweet assignment.

Shifting from Christmas to cycling, council members also unsealed two offers for connecting the Algameca Space bike lane with Calle Real - a stretch long-awaited by local cyclists. The project, starting at Pío XII Street near Quitapellejos Bridge and running to Calle Real Bridge, comes with a base price of €135,213.75 and a projected timeline of three months, promising to finally patch up one of the city’s most notorious missing links for bikes.

And yet, while Christmas contracts are being rubber-stamped and urban mobility gets a boost, one summer saga quietly continues to sizzle. Those much-discussed street awnings are still conspicuously absent from Cartagena’s hot, sunny streets - a stubbornly unshaded reminder that, despite the calendar, some things just don’t change.

So as the city gears up for winter, residents might find themselves keeping sunhats at the ready, just in case Cartagena’s elusive canopies are still on siesta.

Image: wikicommons