Adventures of a TwentySomething

Public Buses and Living History

Today we broke up into groups of three and headed out into the city for a day-long scavenger hunt of sorts... we had to take city buses and ask locals for directions, going all over and hitting up as many museums, palaces, gardens, and cathedrals as we could. We also had to do an interview of an informal sector vendor (the people who sell stuff in the markets, on the street corners, ect.). I was with my friends Aly and Theran and after leaving at 8:30am this morning, here´s what our day turned out to be:

7 different buses
1 taxi
25 people on the streets, buses, and musuem guides who helped us whenever we asked
2 museums
1 cathedral
1 palace
1 shopping mall
1 knife pulled out in a taxi!

Don´t worry, the guy in the taxi was someone we were interviewing and he was describing to us what had happened all the times he had been attacked by passengers... it was quite a scare for just a second, but thankfully I could understand his story and understood why he brought it out. My friend in the front seat didn´t understand Spanish though, so he thought he had a near death experience! A good little adventure in the end.

All of the places we went to today were incredible, but I don´t have time to describe it all. By far my favorite part was the National Palace though. We asked a lady who worked there to give us a little tour and she ended up taking us into rooms that were not open to the public and then sharing her story from the war and her thoughts on the upcoming election. We sat in the courtyard of this beautiful colonial palace and talked in hushed voices, hearing firsthand stories and encounters from this amazing woman. She told us she could lose her job if anyone heard what she was telling us. Incredible. Everyone here has a story.

Last little thing... the first place we went to today was El Museo de La Palabra y Imagen, a musuem dedicated to the history of the war and the country. We saw pictures and heard radio broadcasts from the secret underground radio that was in work during the war. We got talking to a lady there and she showed us a picture of the guy who started the entire radio network and then told us he had founded the musuem and was actually working today! So we got to see him and tried to talk to him, but he was busy with meetings. Pretty cool though, to see living history everywhere we look.

Okay, off to hang out with the group and then sleep!

posted by KacieAnne @ 8:39 PM