Usaquen Sunday market

Today I met up with Javier Mora, a colleague of APICE (a Colombian student loan organization with whom I have worked at Niagara College for the past 16 years), to walk the 4-5 km to the relatively expensive neighbourhood of Usaquen. We walked over the Carrera 7 which is closed off for traffic on the Sunday mornings and at the end we had a well deserved coffee and snack:

The Sunday market of Usaquen, "mercado de pulgas", is organized by an association of micro companies, most of them making artwork but also many small food producers (mostly organic). Below you can see just of few of the hundreds of small stands:

According to Javier some of the fabrics of the stand above are produced in China and sold by indigenous people from the Andes: if true, quite the effect of globalization....

There is also an area with paintings and there are some non-associated sellers in the side streets:

Usaquen was a village 70-80 years ago, but over time it has been absorbed by the city of Bogota. Here a few photos of the old town center with the traditional local church, the beautiful flowers and at the town square some pretty good volleyball players in action:

The season of carnivals will start in February and each town and region has its own specific traditions during their festive period. Here is somebody selling costumes for the colourful carnival in the city of Barranquilla in the north on the Atlantic ocean:

Walking these wonderful streets of the city on a sunny Sunday, life is near perfect. One huge thing is of course missing this year: the presence of Mary, Hilary and Mark. I already miss them dearly and thank goodness for Skype and Face Time. So for those of you who read my blog postings and have not seen my little family for a while, here are a few photos I keep on my computer screen saver: