Dogs, Cats, Pigeons

There is always a plaza in these old historical centers, full of people and things to see and do. People who run the country work inside offices that surround the plaza, eat in restaurants on the corner, attend civic functions in the square, make business and romantic deals on these same benches we tourists use to take a breather. This plaza is jumping today with a sound stage, live music, speeches, booths with information on stopping domestic violence and helping police help the public more effectively. There is a news crew moving about and men with big cameras are getting big pictures for the evening news. The female news anchor is properly curvy and young and we will like watching the news tonight even if we don’t like what is being said. Pigeons in the square look for handouts and aren’t disappointed. They remind me of Sebastian Park in Cuenca and the street pigeons in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. When the kids run at them, the birds take flight, but soon, they drop back to the ground and fight for whatever has been offered to them. The plaza has been here since the 1500’s, when the first Cathedral in the New World was finished and Christianity was brought to pagans who were subdued by swords and better technology. I imagine kids were chasing pigeons, even in the 1500’s, and these benches were still occupied by tourists come to listen to Sunday Mass from the courtyard as Cathedral hymns flowed out the heavy iron doors like melodic waves.