Being touristy

Claudia had to work today, so I thought I´d venture downtown on the metro and do a bit of the tourist circuit.

I wandered around a bit on Alhumada and Huérfanos, two pedestrian streets that are sort of like a chaotic open air shopping mall. Buskers and street performers abound; there was a elevator-music version of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall blasting from loud speakers all the way down the street as well.


I eventually got to the Plaza de Armas, a wide-open square flanked by various historical buildings and a huge church. In the square itself are more buskers, people selling arts and crafts, people hanging out, benches, trees, statues, and bums and dogs. Amongst the usual offerings of handicrafts and jewellery in the craft stands were several booths selling somekind of cream derived from snails that was supposed to cure skin problems: psoriasis, acne, infections, etc. I'm not quite sure what part of the snail is used in the making of this cream - I didn't get close enough to ask.

It was sort of cloudy and ovecast so I went to the Pre-Colombian Art Museum (tres cool) and ate lunch on a terrasse on Huérfanos before going for a walk on the Cerro Santa Lucia. It's this little oasis of gardens, paths and green space right smack dab in the middle of downtown.

It's interesting wandering around the streets here this time of year. As opposed to my summertime visit in 2004, right now everyone, including me, is semi-bundled up in long pants, sweaters and jackets. I feel like it hides my gringo-ness a bit more and I thus blend in and can walk around town without drawing the kind of negative "I'm foreign, rob me!" attention I'm usually nervous of attracting. So as comfortable as I was last time wandering around this city, I'm even more so this time around.

(By the way, I didn't take these pictures. They're randomly taken of the web - God bless Google Image Search. Mad props to the original photographers, whoever you are. )