It’s Sunday and everybody is out in the park! The weather is gorgeous, It rained all last night as we slept and this morning it is fresh and green. This morning Rudy and I went off to a different cafe for a cappuccino and a hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant. The hot chocolate here is bitter and good. Not at all like the insipid sweet stuff at home (which I love as well).
After some painting at home I packed up my sketch pad and pencil and headed off to Parques del Rio. Wow, Sunday is the day to be there. It was hopping! I parked myself at a number of locations to do a bunch of drawing, and did actually get some drawings done, but mostly I people watched. It was delightful. Families were out in full force. Kids on push bikes and pedal bikes, scooters, and roller blades and they rode up and down the walkways. At the “beach and bridge area” kids built sand castles and planted “trees” and climbed on the rope bridge. Vendors with carts of limeade and ice cream offered their wares. People were friendly, greeting each other and stopping to chat. On the grassy areas there were people set up to celebrate occasions. A young man with heart balloons and some sort of present waited in the grass. At another place a momma set out blankets in a circle around a table that had a birthday cake and other items for a kid’s birthday celebration. There were sparkly gold and purple balloons set up for a baby shower. And my favourite experience was coming upon a couple of people dancing. It was a tango type dance and it appeared not to be an event but rather something that they just did in the park on a Sunday afternoon. Once the first couple was done, the man turned to another woman and they took off. She was wearing a crop top and a skirt with a slit for dancing and when I took in the scene further I realized that she was a brand new mom. She still had her post birth momma figure and her friend took care of the fresh baby and the toddler while the momma had a great time dancing. I was so thrilled to see this kind of community activity. It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I arrived home late afternoon and Rudy was hungry. We packed up and headed for some delicious pasta and freshly squeezed lemonada cereza (lime juice with sour cherries). After a lovely relaxing time in the open air we headed home to plan our last week and a half of activities.