Halloween

So it's no lie, but Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I love it.  I also love fall, and autumn in Colorado, with our yellow aspen trees and crisp mountain air is a lovely place to be in October.  However, this year I'm so far down South that for the first time ever I am experiencing spring instead of fall.  Tree buds instead of pumpkins.  Never ending cups of coffee instead of cider. No overpriced haunted houses or terror movies.  No pumpkin pie for me this year.  Halloween is not a big deal here, I've seen a few Cotillon's (mini shops that sell party supplies) advertising rubber masks and candy pails.  My younger students who attend international British or American schools tell me that their classes plan on having parties.  This month I have decided to take it upon myself to teach my students about the Halloween traditions, customs and fun that we experience in the US.  We are watching videos, reading about the Salem Witch Trials and filling out silly Halloween crossword puzzles.  I show the older ones photos of my family and I during the Denver Zombie Crawl.  They stare at me as if I am nuts.  I guess I am, who else dresses up like a zombie nanny, spend hours painting a doll and then walks in the middle of downtown Denver with a chiweenie dressed as a hotdog?  Me.

Wildlife in the City

Today we decided to take a walk to Parque Centenario, a HUGE park about a mile from our apartment.  On Sundays the park turns into a flea market of sorts, and as my husband puts it, people sell “a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing.”  It’s true, there is a lot of junk for sale, but it makes for a nice Sunday activity.  On our way to the park however, I was walking under an apartment building when a few feathers fell from the sky and landed on my foot.  A few more floated down and when my husband and I looked up we saw something we didn’t expect to see.  A large hawk like bird was sitting on a ledge on the apartment building and was tearing away at a pigeon, who unfortunately was still alive and flopping around helplessly.  My husband told me that he had seen this type of bird before and was told that it was called a “Carancho” a bird of prey who has somehow managed to survive in this concrete jungle and apparently spends its days feasting on pigeons.  We watched for a few minutes in horrified fascination as the pigeon was devoured bit by bit.  Later, when I looked up information about this bird I discovered the word “Carancho” is also used to describe an “ambulance chaser.”

Randomness

A shot of me admiring a mural inside the Nicetto Club and Palermo and a shot of my "Tat".

Gente II

Today was a chilly, drizzly Sunday but I had to get out of the apartment.  I have been working Saturdays tutoring a friend of mine, which means my weekends can feel rather short.  Today the prospect of spending the day at home felt less than appealing, so we bundled up and took the train downtown to the weekend market in San Telmo.  Even though I really like the neighborhood we live in, it felt good to get out of Caballito.  It wasn't raining very hard so vendors simply set up makeshift tents and market day went on as usual.  We took the Pentax with us and I managed to capture a few nice shots of people enjoying a rainy Sunday afternoon.

"Bottles"

 

 

 I am going to write a separate blog explaining what these colorful bottles are all about...

"Hiding from the Rain"

"Kermits for Sale"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Character"  

"3D"

 

 

This man was selling "3D" photography.  Photographs that had been mounted inside a wooden box, so the pictures sorta "popped out" at you.

"Baby Steps"

"The Singer"

For a mere five pesos, this man picked up his guitar and serenaded the crowd with a sweet Spanish song.  To the left you can see a photograph of him looking younger but not any less enchanting.