Stroll out with only one thing in mind, the path will tell you where to go. Act on impulses at all times. Give yourself plenty of time since no set itinerary is at hand. This will take to unexpected places. Be prepared to encounter the unimaginable and act accordingly. Take notes in your notebook. Find an object as a souvenir. Sit down for a while in a café along the way. Say hello to at least one person and ask her a personal question. When you have had enough go back home, if available, and have a cup of soup, wine or coffee, water is good occasionally.
Caracas Tiger
Coming out of Savana Grande, I take the elevator to the first floor, I greet the guard and get coffee in the café right down. I cross La Solana enter the Boulevard Savana Grande, I am tempted to look for something other than a shoe store: a Tiger for instance. I keep walking and stop to gaze at the books at Suma, a forty-year-old bookstore. I come in, I ask if they have a book on Funes, the lady does not understand, nor has it, nor knows it, looks at her computer it does not ring a bell she says. I get out and quickly head to the Metro, to Plaza Venezuela going to El Silencio. I get off right at the offices of the Department of Culture. I walk down the smelly hall full of Piñatas and Muñecos, I don’t know if it smells of cat or human pee, I fill in the visitors log going to floor 16 Towers of Silence. The Director has quit, come back next week.
Café Quito
Every now and then take the Belisario Quevedo bus with all the rights and wrongs pertaining hitherto. Go down Mañosca Street gustily inhaling the smog that emerges from all engines sparing bits of luminous air from time to time. Bravely defy self-defeating tendencies. Snooze all the way to Universidad Central where you will encounter a student riot. Be mindful of stones passing by your bus side to side. You will hit Basilica del Voto Nacional gothic cathedral. Climb all the way up, some stairs might still be under construction after one hundred and fifty years, watch your step. After you have reached the last flight of stairs, catch your breath, come down nonchalantly.
Perros Gatos y Garabatos (Cats, Dogs and Doodles)
