I had other pics, but they don't want to upload for some reason. I'm sure you'll see more later.
I was completely overwhelmed at the farmer's market. There were so many sights, smells, and sounds. My senses were on overload. I was able to buy a fair amount of fruit and vegetables, though. So, at least we'll be able to eat. Meat here is SO expensive. Layne and I might be vegetarians by the time we come home. Seriously, I stopped at a market called Auto Mercado. It's a really Americanized store that has a lot of the foods we typically eat in the U.S. I was going to buy spaghetti stuff so I could cook for us. Well, I did buy sauce and noodles, and even some Italian bread, but when I went to the meat...a small package of just plain ground beef was $12.00! Shocked, I made the pasta with just tomato sauce.
But, back to the farmer's market...I have learned that I love mango. And, I've learned that there are several different kinds. There's a hard mango that has the texture of an apple, and then there's a softer, much sweeter one that has the consistency of a peach. It's the softer one that I like so much. I hope I'll be able to find these when I return to the States. Look at this picture of some of the bananas at the farmer's market...you can see how these were cut directly off the tree....
As cool as the bananas were, though, we were kind of disgusted with the smell of raw chicken. And right next to that was the sweet smell of fresh orange juice. So, you can see how our senses were being bombarded. Of course, we were overwhelmed by the language barrier, too. It was cool, though, and we'll go back to the farmer's market again, I'm sure.
My landlady gave us two pieces of very good advice. First, never, EVER, think you have the right of way as a pedestrian. This piece of advice is essential to staying alive. Seriously! The traffic laws here are merely suggestions, and the pedestrians have NO rights, even in the cross walks. We have dodged so many cars and every time we get into a taxi, it's a new adventure. The second piece of advice she gave us is to always look down as we're walking on the sidewalks. In the U.S., we just take it for granted that the sidewalks will be even and easy to walk on. Not here! Not only are the sidewalks broken up and uneven, but they usually have dog poop on them (people here do not pick up after their animals), and they will have these random holes that a person can fall into. I'm not even exaggerating here...you really can break a leg if you don't watch where you're going. Seriously, if you want to look at something, you MUST stop walking to look and then look back down at your feet before resuming your walk. Here's one of the holes I had to dodge today...
This one was only about 24x24 inches, but some have been 4 ft x 4 ft. Very dangerous.
We went up to our school where they play ultimate Frisbee every Saturday at 2 o'clock. I had no intentions of playing, but I wanted Layne to maybe meet some people. He had a really good time, and said it was the first time since we've been here that he's genuinely had fun. I'd noticed that he'd kindof been funky, so I'm glad he had a good time. We plan to go again next weekend (if we don't head off on another adventure). That's Layne in the red jersey, fighting over a frisbee....
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