Friday, April 11, 2008

Cuenca's oddities

I have witnessed some STRANGE things while walking to and from school as of late… And it all happens on the same street- go figure. Last week, I walked by the old man from whom I bought my umbrella with his finger stuck all the way up his nose. I’m pretty sure I probably made a nasty face at that sight as I walked by. Mmmmmm- appetizing, I know. I wanted to go home and sanitize my umbrella immediately.

Then there was early this week: There was another old man (I’m beginning to see a trend here…) on the opposite side of the street chasing a pigeon. He then proceeded to CATCH one with his bare hands- no, you didn’t just read wrong- the old man caught a pigeon with his hands. I know. Crazy. But it gets better! He took the pigeon and began cuddling it up to his face and “embracing” the pigeon (if you can, in fact, embrace pigeons at all). Again, my facial expression was probably priceless. Where do these people come up with this stuff?!

The last incident occurred today on the way back to school after lunch. So there are countless street vendors with their carts all along my way to school. Usually the people watching them are women. Well, today I saw a mother and a teenage girl (presumably her daughter) sitting together by their cart. The daughter had a tweezers in hand and was tweezing apparently unwanted hair from the face of her mother- right out there in the open, on the sidewalk of the busy street. Obviously neither had any qualms about doing this for all to see. Maybe they both figured the general public would APPRECIATE seeing the mom get rid of those unsightly hairs. ;)

So- the moral of the story is if you find yourself walking down Benigno Malo (the street) in Cuenca, Ecuador at any point in your life, keep your eyes peeled; you just never quite know what you’re going to see.


p.s. I eat on average 3 apples a day. If “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, then sickness is not even an option for me, right? One can only hope… I’m feeing pretty insightful today, can you tell? ;)

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