Sunday Morning

The first picture shows the door that leads into our court yard. The house that has our apartment is about 100 feet off the road. The pull down garage door rolls up at night and behind it is a Pizza Parlour. All the businesses have the roll down doors for security. When we walk the streets during the day many of these are closed and look like they are out of business. When they all open, it changes the whole atmosphere of the street. Our apartment is on the section of Calle Larga that is "party central"....there are 7 or 8 restaraunt/bars on our block alone. We go from ghost town to party town starting about 6. Fortunaetly our place is so far back that we don't often hear the party

The second picture shows two businesses that are on one of the streets close to us. When all the doors are rolled up, an amazing variety of stores and businesses are revealed. Every thing from boutique shoe and clothing stores, to jewlery stores, pet stores, kitchen stores, internet cafes , furniture stores....and anything you could imagine. I think you could get anything you needed or wanted within 20 blocks. including doctors and lawyers, banks, and beautiful city parks. And, don't forget the churches.............and the local fresh produce and meat markets. As you can tell, I am enthralled with this city.

The food is another topic that deserves mentioning.
There are so many restaraunts and cafes within walking distance that we have not eaten in the same one twice.
It would take a month or more just to eat in all the cafes...let alone the restaraunts.
All the little places offer a "tipico comida"  menu. Each day there is a breakfast and lunch plate offered. They cost between 2 and 3 dollars, including the tax and tip. For the lunch you always get juice, meat, salad, two starches and dessert. I usually stick with the chicken or fish. I have not had a meal yet that was bad......even the time that our small amount of spanish could not figure out what we ordered, and it turned out to be beef tounge. I don't think I could knowingly eat it, but not knowing what it was, I have to say it was quite tasty.
We haven't been out for breakfast, We pick up fresh fruit each evening and have fruit, toast, and the most amazing yogurt for breakfast. It seems that every block has one if not two bakeries. It is a good thing we are walking so much, because the baked goods are irresistable. A huge whipped cream filled puff pastry is only 25 cents.
One wonders why a person would ever cook or eat at home, but we bought a huge avocado for 50 cents, a puond of fresh prawns for 2.50 at the local market and had a fantastic prawn & avacado salad for dinner.....which reminds me, the mayonaise here is extremely tasty....I could eat it by the spoon full.

It is almost 9 a.m. on Sunday and we have had a lazy morning. We are meeting a Canadian couple, from Vancouver, for lunch. They moved here in 2008 with there little dog and I am anxious to know how the process of getting the dog here works...................I sure miss my little Pete.........................

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