Palmero: Saturday, October 16

After sleeping in most of the morning, I finished unpacking and settling into my room of the next 2 weeks, had a late breakfast and then headed out. I walked to the subway station and took the subway to the Plaza Italia, which is at the Southern end of a long line of parks and open areas in Palmero that stretches several miles, nearly to the river. This provided a nice, relaxed opportunity to enjoy nature, which I missed more than I would have imagined in Sao Paulo. My walk took me past several monuments, which are abundant in this city. I walked past the zoo, and relaxed for a while in the grass next to a pond where a number of men were fly cast fishing. After watching the for a while I concluded they must just be practicing their casting skills, as I never saw anyone pull a fish out of the water (were you there, Mitch??). From there the park took me down to the City Planetarium, where there was a large gathering of people on the lawn. Needing to find a Bano, I walked that way in hopes of finding a Porta-Potty. Sure enough, they did have facilities, and the gathering was for Meditation Day, where they had a main speaker/facilitator who appeared to be from India, spoke in English and then was translated into Spanish. There was a very peaceful mood there, so I hung around for a while, until it concluded. That all made for a pretty full afternoon, so I made my way back to the hotel for an early evening.

The Plaza Italia, right next to the subway entrance.

Pink Flamingos at the zoo.

Monument de Los Espanoles

Looking towards the park

Pond in the park

Trees and grass!!!!!

Another monument in the distance

Wild parrots. Both they and the grass they are green, so they are a bit hard to see.

Another pond-side view

The Meditation gathering

The Planetarium is on the right

The speaker for the Meditation. The area directly in front was VIP seating, which seems a bit counter to the underlying philosophy of it all, but it was an interesting experience.