We we are still celebrating the feast of Candalaria or Candlemas Day.  There is a big component of buying and planting flowers, trees and bushes.  The open air market is a temporary home to at least one hundred stalls.  People come in covered trucks from far away and they sleep in the trucks or in pup tents set up in the park.  The park has a basketball court where chairs are set up and various bands and dance troupes perform.  As you can see from the picture there is a big element of revering nature that goes with this feast.  The slogans on the cross as the entry-way encourage us to respect insects, water and plants.  People sell pots and garden decorations too.  These things can get pretty heavy so the solution is to have a fleet of wheelbarrows and the bigger orders can be transported to the car or home of the buyer.  I noticed quite a few kids doing this work and felt sorry they were not in school.  I was shy to ask them to pose for a photo and admit to being ashamed to have snapped this one secretly.  I certainly did not have the heart to take a picture of the three year old who begged me to buy sunflower seeds in the square a little later.  She was trailing after her sister who was about ten years old.  This was a school day.  There is not much begging.  People want to sell dolls or hats or shawls but they are easily discouraged with a simple no thanks or shake of the head.

The other fellow pictured was an adult walking eight huge dogs ranging from Dalmatians to mastiffs. I guess this is a pretty good gig.  After all it’s the same walk for all eight but I wondered who wanted such monsters.  Who wanted them but had no time to walk them?  Funny world.  I am including a really nice architectural one of a very fancy hotel.