Home away from home

Every time we take a walk in our temporary neighborhood, we discover something new. (The photo above is a view of our street.) Today, on our way home from a 5:30 p.m. ice cream run to Persicco (today's flavors: melon and tiramisu...the first a delicious accident that happened because J didn't pronounce "mango" correctly, the second because it is heaven in a bowl) after a long, hot day of shopping at the Palermo Viejo weekend market, we found a large supermarket, a mouthwatering meat and cheese shop, and an equally droolworthy bakery. 

Truly, the neighborhood we are staying in is delightful. We would gladly transport it back to Seattle. When I say you can't spit without hitting a cafe, restaurant, small grocery store (supermercado), pharmacy or laundromat, I'm not being gross...I'm being serious. 

Being able to walk a block to pick up essentials has really made us turn up our noses at the notion of "bigger is better." We went to the Jumbo supermarket yesterday, and it has really lost it's luster. There's a supermercado about a block away that's perfect for picking up cold beer, bottled water, and other non-perishibles, and we just need to walk a few more blocks to find a bigger market with a better produce selection.

Our apartment is delightful, too. On the third floor of a building on the dead end of a street (butting up to the city's polo fields...sadly horseless, since it's not polo season), it has a street-facing balcony that looks straight into a leafy tree canopy. This evening, we enjoyed watching two yellow labs frolic in the cobblestoned park and two twenty-something guys get a gym-free workout (situps, pushups, sparring). People watching is so fun!