We woke up on a little piece of paradise today, also known
as Santa Cruz. I had breakfast outside
on the deck with a background of tall mountains, cliffside villages, and the
entire city of Santa Cruz. I wanted to
visit the opera house built by Santiago Calatrava, but it was already visible
from the ship. I couldn’t wait to go
exploring.
After lunch (on the ship) we caught a bus to a
black sand beach. It was also not what I
expected, although we probably did not pick the best tourist beach (we were
advised away from that one because of weather).
The “black” sand was more like dirty white sand. It was probably better known for its wind,
and there were dozens of wind surfers off the coast.
The city instantly deviated from my expectations. To begin with, we wandered off the wrong way;
the signs to City Center actually led us to the middle of nowhere. It was Sunday and siesta (nap) time, and the
whole place was dead and eerily quiet.
We righted ourselves and eventually found the main city market. This was a large outdoor space with
everything you could imagine for sale.
There was a two-story building selling exotic flowers and other
tchotchkes and was lined with booths for groceries – pastries, meats, fishes, and
produce. Several blocks surrounding the
building were lined with booths and tables selling anything and everything:
clothes, books, new shoes, old shoes, batteries, toys, power cords.
The most striking thing was something we soon termed
“awkward rain.” The weather was
continuously sunny, but sometimes it would sprinkle for a little while. The interesting thing was that the breeze
would blow the drops over sideways, so it would rain even when there were clear
blue skies above you.
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