Playtime

We took Indigo to Parque Juarez today so she could play in the playground and we could buy some more plants. The playground is filled with mostly old and falling apart equipment -- wooden bridges with slats missing, slides with holes in them, dangerous climbing structures -- stuff that would make a U.S. lawyer salivate in litigious anticipation. Needless to say, it's a lot more fun than any playground in the U.S. The plant sale, which according to the newspaper ended weeks ago, is still there, although smaller than it was when it was official. I noticed that some of the plant sellers seem to be living in the park, in tents. I hope they have a lot of blankets, since it gets pretty cold here at night this time of year. We ate lunch in a restaurant in the middle of the park which consisted of a tent with a few tables, the usual rat's nest of wires illegally connecting a refrigerator with a streetlight, and a stove fueled by a couple of propane tanks. The food was cheap and delicious -- about 8 bucks for 2 Cokes (I don't usually drink that stuff, but Mexican Coke is made with sugar, rather than corn syrup, and it's much better), scrambled eggs with cheese for the little one, rice and beans and tortillas and pork with spicy sauce for the grownups. Their salsa was smoky and full of cilantro and other more mysterious flavors.

Adriana, who lives in the apartment next door, gave Indigo a lotteria set. It's a sort of Mexican bingo/picture matching game, and Indigo and I played it tonight, putting pieces of popcorn on our cards every time we matched a picture.

Adriana is also the gardener responsible for the beautiful patio in the building where we live. Here's a picture:



Aside from having lots of beautiful plants, the patio has all sort of interesting things, like birdcages full of plants:



and cool stuff on the walls: