An inquisitive old fart with a camera
You may recall something I posted four months ago.
I don’t walk around the neighborhood often, but hadn’t see him in a while, but there he is, and again happily I spotted him first, and put Mocha on the leash to walk by. The rabbit only moved to lie down where he was sitting, and Mocha had absolutely no inkling that he was there.
…for what? Seems there was a huge free concert last year. True to my predilection for remaining largely clueless about many things, I learned little more.
New culverts on the Playa Mansa now that tourist season is over. I only knew there was a problem from walking the dog on the beach there once in the past year.
Note the raging surf. Quite amazing to have no waves when the closest landfall looking this direction is over 3,000 kilometers away.
I took my bike to get a tuneup, and as I walked by wa amazed by seeing so many things that I would miss, especially driving, but even on a bicycle. Like this homemade two-story ladder.
And this monstrosity in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Would you want that next door?
Or this, ten metes from your front door?
I’ve seen this an another house, near the defunct town zoo. Imagine a contractor putting a plaque with his name on your house!
Or naming your house “Kanguro.” Misspelling of Kangoru?
Can’t imagine how many times I’ve past this abandoned basketball backboard without ever seeing it.
And there, that contractor again….
Interesting dog walk – lovely spring weather. Lots of people fishing on the beach, then run into Pedro cleaning up his yard, Uruguayan who tells me in detail of their recent trip to Oregon: Diamond Lake, Crater Lake, Cape Disappointment, Washington, Cannon Beach, then north into Washington and Yakima, Leavenworth. (Made me miss it a little; we lived almost ten years in Oregon.)
Then the local park, absolutely bustling.
The as I round the corner of our block, one of my son’s friends and girlfriend and more visiting and catching up. He and the guys from Australia making tentative plans to visit our son in the USA in 2023.
So is spring finally here? ¡Ya veremos!
Last weekend there was a flurry of activity in our local park, building these things.
It’s not clear to me what they’re supposed to be, but I’ve seen people sitting on them. Maybe balance beams?
And then there’s this: a concrete block wall. What’s this all about? Well, I guess one could make the argument that I might know if I actually read the Whatsapp neighborhood group messages.
For anyone who doesn’t use Whatsapp, this means there have been 2,928 messages since I last looked. Hmmm….
Toward the end of the dog walk (inland from the coast highway), we saw some black smoke, and we couldn’t figure out where it might be coming from. It was in the direction of the origin of two forest fires where we walk. And it seemed farther away than the beach. So on the way home I stopped at El Águila, one of several eccentric local constructions, and there it was. I asked the car park attendant if it was a boat. He assured me it was. I don’t remember where the island is, I said, He again assured me it was a boat.
But I checked when I got home, traced my line of sight, and lo and behold, it very well could have been the Isla de Flores. Which begs the question: what is there that could burn?
UPDATE next day: it was a boat
I recently saw a concrete pad and what looked like a large electrical box and thought The hell? They’re putting up a cell tower in the middle of a high school?
Turns out it wasn’t.
Areiel Arcos Latorre (1950-1973) – Julio Enrique Pagardoy Saquieres (1952 – 1973)
Students of the Atlantida High School. Militants of MLN Tupamaros.
“…and you should know that I only die if you loosen up because he died fighting and he lives in every comrade”.
Looks like a plaque was meant to be installed to the left, or fell off, or something.
And, holding true to much graphic design in Latin America, the plaque telling the story – made from letters cut through rusty steel – is basically illegible.
Here’s the story:
This Saturday 14th, Day of the Student Martyrs, a Memorial in Homage to Ariel Arcos (24 years old) and Enrique Pagardoy (21 years old) (Detained and Disappeared, students of the locality and members of the MLN) was inaugurated.
The initiative arose from a group of neighbors of the area as a symbol of resistance.
The physical space was called “Espacio de la Memoria Luisa Cuesta” (Luisa Cuesta Memory Space) located at Circunvalación Avenue and 30th Street (on the premises of Gimnasio Liceo N°1 Atlántida Gymnasium).
The memorial – made up of old school benches made of iron and a stone with a commemorative plaque – is intended to commemorate these students who disappeared in Chile in 1973, during the civil-military dictatorship that several countries in the region were going through.
In charge of the ribbon cutting was Mrs. Virginia Pagardoy (Enrique Pagardoy’s sister) who resides in Atlantida.
“There is one thing that is clear: hate is like a virus that gets inside and there is a way to fight it that is very simple – also very hard – and that is with love, which is what one breathes here,” said Mayor Yamandú Orsi, referring to the group of neighbors who had the initiative to install the memorial.
“We want this space to be a place of reflection, of contact with this history of resistance of our people, history that like many were silenced during the terror of the dark years.”
“We cannot build a future without memory”; were some of the most significant phrases of a very emotional afternoon.
You may recall a few weeks ago when I unraveled the mystery of the amphitheater. I was puzzled that I only noticed the obvious drain when looking at it in a satellite photo.
I’m even more puzzled now, after returning to inspect it.
It’s huge! Probably five meters across and three high.
So of course I had to go through it. This is the view from the other end. I didn’t even notice the painting on the walls until I loked at the photo. Obstacles and debris had my full attention.
And here’s that pedestrian bridge and its highest. I couldn’t really determine if there was anything to prevent a person from falling off the side. There might have been some wires.