Had a rather interesting adventure today...but I'll start at the beginning. We got out of class early and went as a group to the Catedral in the Plaza Grande, to see the Arrastra de Caudas. That's a ceremony performed once a year during Semana Santa (Easter week), and it literally means sweeping of the capes. I unfortunately lack the Catholic terminology required to describe it properly, but I can post a picture...and that wasn't the interesting part of the day anyway.
Plaza Grande:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1668.jpg
Presidential Palace:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1669.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1670.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1671.jpg
Catedral:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1673.jpg
Arrastra de Caudas:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1675.jpg
The place was so crowded, and people were getting so rude with the pushing and shoving, that Marie and I actually left well before the ceremony was over because we wanted to be able to breathe. We walked a few blocks and then caught a bus for the U. Católica - or at least that's what the big sign propped in the windshield said. Being completely unfamiliar with the area around the Plaza, it was far too late by the time we figured out that we weren't going where we wanted to go. The next thing we knew, the bus emptied out, the driver stopped and told us to get out...and we were stranded in the middle of the shoddiest, dirtiest, sketchiest ghetto, hellaway out the south end of the city and halfway up a mountain.
Get off the bus! Yes, right here:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1683.jpg
Damn bus said U. Católica, see for yourself:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1686.jpg
Yup, we were in the slums all right:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1688.jpg
Having no other option, we got off the bus. We looked at each other, agreed that we had won the Retard Award for the day, and laughed hysterically because there was nothing else we could do. Then we started walking, our only clue in direction being "downhill." The place was filthy and smelly and falling apart, to the point where Marie commented on one of the houses with, "People actually LIVE here?" Not a minute down the road we came across a particularly smelly trash heap. Seeing that it looked unusual, I took a closer look, and found that it contained a recently-dead and rather putrid dog.
Oh Rover, we shall miss you before you stank:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1687.jpg
We were way up in the hills!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1689.jpg
We walked maybe ten minutes, every now and then looking around and going, "How did we get here? What are we doing? We are so lost!" Eventually we found a bus that was actually going downhill, and labeled Naciones Unidas. We hopped on, and I pulled out my map and tried to find where we were. As it turned out, I wasn't able to, because we were so far out of our way that we were actually off the map to the south. Now let me point out that I've been warned not even to go as far south as La Marín...and it took us a good twenty or so minutes on the bus to get north into that neighborhood. Somehow our adventure got named "Our trip to bumfuck-dead-dog-landia." But we got some interesting pictures.
Welcome to the middle of nowhere:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1691.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1693.jpg
The fanciest thing in town:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1692.jpg
Look closely at the bottom of the sign where it should say "Hewlett Packard":
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/keskipper/100_1695.jpg
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment