2003-08-06 - 6:48 p.m.
The school got me a room with a family who lived a half a block from my favorite plaza. Plaza Baratillo.
I'm not sure why this is my favorite plaza. I like the internet cafe and the cafe cafe there but that hardly explains the warm fuzzy feelings I get whenever I go past it.
Plaza de San Fernando is wide and shady with open air book markets and the best side walk cafes. La Paz is grand, the heart of the city. The basilica is magnificent and you can see the green hills all around and the storm clouds that roll in over them every afternoon. Jardin de la Union is the place to hear music, see clowns, watch college kids stand around looking cool and flirting.
Baratillo, my favorite, is small and there is no shade. The fountain is huge. From inside the cafe, it always sounds like rain.
In the mornings, there are 12 different makeshift taco and gordita stands out there. Ladies with plastic containers full of taco stuff, a portable coal stove about one foot square at their sides.
Later the flower stands come out. Buckets of mums and roses and gerber daisies. And then the old men who snag the open benches. The street cleaner's uniform exactly matches the kelly green of the street light pole.
Little kids and dogs everywhere, always.
