Ciao!

The streets of the Prado

I spend a good portion of my day wandering the Prado, the stretch of boulevard between the Plaza del Estudiante and the Plaza Venezuela (about four blocks). Just so you know, there are (in my opinion) too many plazas in this city. I also wonder down (in mountain geography, "down" and "up" have literal meanings) a few blocks to the Plaza Isabel la Catolica or over a few blocks to the Plaza Abaroa (these two are in Sopocachi neighborhood). Or I wander up a few blocks past the Prado to the Plaza de los Colorados or the Plaza San Francisco (which, literally, face each other). If I go across the Prado from where my apartment's located, I go up a flight of stairs and end up at the Plaza San Pedro. When I go to "work" (that is, to my archives) I turn past the Plaza de los Colorados and head four blocks towards the Plaza Murillo (where the capitol's located).

These are the sights you'd see if you were walking my daily constitutional: Street venders on the sidewalk, hawking watches or scarves or binoculars or other miscellaneous items. Little sidewalk kiosks selling cookies or notebooks or leather handbags or sweaters or other miscellaneous items. Shoeshine boys who always insist that your shoes need a shine, even if they're brand new. Random people in bright neon vests holding cell phones on dog leashes, offering you to make a phonecall for Bs.1. The occasional bright red carts of the snack venders, usually salteñas, but sometimes also Brazil nuts or fresh squeezed orange juice. Police on almost every corner (about a 1/3 of them women), because even though there are street signs at every intersection, no one would ever pay any attention to them w/o a green-uniformed paco to whistle and motion for them to stop. The occasional beggar. Streams of schoolgirls in pleated skirts and their signature mantils (a white coverall blouse) accompanied by similar streams of schoolboys in uniform ties and sweaters (you quickly learn to distinguish the parroquial schools by their colors & insignias). The corner newsstand kiosks, w/ small crowds huddled around, reading the various papers' headlines for free. Smartly dressed businessmen & women going to and fro w/ shiny briefcases and freshly polished shoes. Of course, the occasional blonde tourist, trying very much (and very impossibly) to blend in. Cholitas in their traditional Aymara dress, the pollera (multilayered, multicolored skirts), topped off w/ a smartly pinned bowler hat. Venerable, old men in three piece suits, topped off w/ a beret or fedora, sitting on the park benches that line the Prado. And in the streets, the never-ending rush of cars and minibuses. The later are no longer than a sedan (clearly built by tiny Japanese people) and carry 12-15 passengers, not counting the reckless driver and the young kid who loudly announces the route to anyone on the sidewalk w/in earshot. And at night, elegant girls w/ their handsome boyfriends walking arm in arm along the tiled sidewalk of the Prado. Or somall groups of each, silently chequeando the others.

Posted by Miguel at 01:32 PM

Comments

Posted by: Andres at September 26, 2003 02:01 PM