Around Town

I spent the last few days catching up on places I'd wanted to go and hadn't yet, and trying to spend time with friends. That was successful in some ways and not in others, just as you'd expect from life.


During our city tour, we visited the Plaza San Francisco, not just for the church, but also because it's an old, famous square in the city, and for the shops below. These feature works from indigenous communities across the country. I enjoyed seeing the square, because, when Juan Carlos and I had gone to that concert several weeks back, I had no idea where it was, but I recognized the square immediately when we turned the corner!



My last day of class, we were distracted by this desfile, or parade. This was a mix of students, professors, and workers, all protesting for the good of socialism. There were people in traditional dress doing traditional dances in the street, what appeared to be high school bands, and several of these stilt walkers. Rather fascinating. And I didn't even have to leave my seat.


This day too, I had lunch with my friend Veronica! She's from Ecuador originally, but we worked together at the museum. Her husband is still in Ecuador, and she and the baby came for a surprise visit to the family. So they came into the city my last weekday so that we could have lunch together. It was so good! But hard too -- trying to make plans, running out of time, knowing that other people are making plans too and not knowing what they are.....

Unfortunately, plans shifted a fair amount. That night, Juan Carlos and Josien and I tried to go to an indigenous festival, but it wasn't at the Casa de la Cultura as we'd thought, and we could not find a cab driver willing to take us to the Mexican Theater. I have no idea what that neighborhood is like, but apparently it's not good. So we grabbed dinner and had a nice mellow evening. All of us from the office were meeting up the next day to cook and hang out, so I was looking forward to my last day and spending it with friends.


I'd missed this museum but was told often enough by people that I needed to go, so I woke early on Saturday, did what packing I could, and took off for the city center. They were actually having a free festival celebrating traditional music and dance, so it was great fun, even if I didn't actually see the museum itself.


This gentleman was from Spain I believe, but is an expert in harpsichord and early pianos. The museum's harpsichord is a replica, but was so beautiful!



This company did a series of dances around the museum. When I got there they were doing several indigenous stories and dances, and these were turn-of-the-century dances from the colonial period. Really great fun.

I had to leave early in order to buy my things for our dinner party and get to the house. Unfortunately, when I arrived, I learned that the plans had changed, and now we were meeting later for food and drinks. More unfortunately, plans changed again later, with the rain, and the evening was cancelled. Juan Carlos and I had dinner and went to the movies -- and watched the fireworks after the 10K race! They were incredibly beautiful. We saw Rabia, which is a Spanish film, based in Sevilla, and about immigrants from South America. I didn't quite get all the dialog, but much of it, and it was really very good. It was disappointing not to have the whole group together -- and of course, I hadn't taken photos beforehand, planning to do it when we were all out together, and so now I have none. But it was a really good last day, and a wonderful trip overall. So many great people and good times!