Most everything we could need in town is located within four blocks of the of the central park, two blocks of green lawn and plantings, with shade-covered benches and walkways. On the northern of the two blocks is the Palacio Municipal (city hall), and the southern block centers around a large kiosk-like building which has a bandstand on the top floor and restaurant below. This building is currently being expanded and renovated.
Had lunch at a lovely little arcade that had a bunch of food court stalls. Our lunch was a veggie soup of light broth with chayote, carrot, green bean, potato. Then the entree was hot tortillas, fried thin beef with lightly fried sweet onions, really ripe sliced tomato and black refried beans. were lots of cucumber on the plate too, but we did not eat those. Actually we had a bunch of fresh limes and Dan put some on the cucumber and said it had not burped up on him yet. The seating for the stalls was under the arcade, in the open air, all around an open courtyard. There were fresh juice stalls and fresh flower sales here too. Throughout town there are fresh flower and plants sold almost everywhere. On the away home, Dan bought some metric-ruled graph paper (we had tried to find this in the US, with no luck), and a triangular architects ruler for scaling drawings.The clouds never considerately covered the boiling sun for us til we were nearly home this eve. After a short nap, we walked up to Frank's lot where we chatted for awhile. About half of the footings were poured today. Walked probably about 6 miles today so now pretty tired. Saw two cats!! One was orange and white long haired. it was stretched out on a shady patio. Lifted its head and gave me a leg stretch when I called gata gata. The other cat was a gray on top of a hot tin roof. Dan took a picture of a lovely house today. Had small tiles along roof line.
In our walking about there are of course dogs, usually fenced in. They may bark bark, being protective of their yards -- the small ones are usually the bravest. Yesterday a small one squirted under the fence (there are uasually tightly fenced in) to our surprise and nearly grabbed Dan's pantleg, and as Dan bent down as if to pick up a stone, it ducked back under the fence. So today a large brownish dog was meandering along the street. It had long hanging jowels. We tried to give it lots of space, but suddenly we could hear it breathing behind us. I pulled my arms up in case it thought I had food for it. Then we started to cross the street figuring we were on his side if street. Dog immediately followed. We turned back to first street side and the dog simply continued crossing street and laid down. Much ado about nothing -- the dog was just looking for some shady spot.
Now we are ready for the donut we bought on way home. Wonder if they will be good or not? Would you believe it, we have yet to purchase a paleta (frozen fresh fruit on a stick) -- must be Dan's serious about losing weight. Maybe he can dissuade Carmen from the NEXT donut! As you can see, both Carmen & Dan are writing this, as we usually do. Carmen says there's not a chance in the world that she won't want more donuts.
At one point on our earlier walk today, we crossed the double railroad tracks twice. A main line (Mexico City to Veracruz on the coast) goes thru town about three blocks north of the Parque Central, and trains pass thru several times in 24 hours. The whistle is barely noticeable where we are staying. Nothing planned for tomorrow. Surely something marvelous will come along. [Carmen now says the donut was delicious.]
