Sights and sounds of our new neighborhood

Our neighborhood is relatively quiet and calm. We've done a little exploring by foot and within a 15 minute walk (if Olivia is not with us…with Olivia, easily that can turn into 30 minutes!) we can reach a large grocery store, an empanada restaurant, a pharmacy, a churrasqueria, the US Embassy, and Olivia’s preschool. Within the residential area, I've seen a travel agency, a bodega, and an art gallery.

Part of the reason why walking with Olivia takes a while- sometimes she just doesn't feel like walking anymore!

Most of the homes around our neighborhood are gated, some with razor wire (like our house) or electric fencing on top, and a few have homemade glass bottle protection. Some have solid gates or walls, while others are like ours with bars so you can still see the street/home. There are a few homes that don’t have gates at all. The homes range from super huge and fancy ones to seemingly modest homes. 

Broken glass cemented to the tops of the wall

This is the razor we have lining our house

Our particular street is paved, but many of the smaller streets coming off of it are cobblestone. It is not uncommon here for streets to be unpaved, so we have been learning which streets are to hopefully save on wear and tear on our car when we start driving! The sidewalks are also uneven on our street (sometimes a step of 6 inches or more) and there are lots of random deep holes. I’ve only taken Olivia in a stroller once and I've decided it is too much of a pain.

The streets are lined with tons of trees, including fruit trees and very pretty flowering trees. 

On a typical day, we usually see the following in our neighborhood:

• The man in his car with a loudspeaker selling chipa (a type of bread made from yucca flour, eggs, lard, cheese, and anise seed…and from what I understand blasting in the loudspeaker, he also sells crunchy ones and the ones stuffed with meat called chipa so’o). I have never been able to catch him in time, so I have no idea how his chipa are, but we hear him almost every day. When Olivia hears him, she likes to mimic him by saying “Chipa chipa chiiiiiipa, mumble mumble, chiiiipa!” And I can never get a good video- this is the closest I've gotten. He's quick!

• Men/boys riding around on a motorcycle pulling a cart collecting bottles, cans, and cardboard that we separate out and put on the street. I always try my best to set it out so they can see what is there and they don’t have to dig through the trash. 

• Stray dogs running about. Sometimes they appear to have been former pets, with ragged sweaters or collars with no tags (poor things- if they had sweaters, they were probably spoiled at one time). When they start to run toward me, I usually walk to the other side of the street (no need to test out our rabies vaccines). Olivia likes to tell me they are saying hello to her when they start barking.

• Lots and lots of construction. I don’t know if it is common in every neighborhood, but on the .5 mile walk to Olivia’s preschool, we pass by 4 active construction sites, as well as a few seemingly abandoned projects.

• Random strangers asking me if I have money, clothes, milk, or other things to give to them. Usually they ring our doorbell- they range from small children, teenagers, to older women. I always feel bad telling them I don't have anything to give, but I was advised not to. 

• We also have the trash truck that seems to come around our neighborhood every Thursday and Saturday night around 9 or 10pm in a huge dump truck, and sometimes on Tuesdays. I haven’t been able to quite figure out the schedule. Generally people put their trash out on the sidewalk in raised metal bins in front of their home, but for homes that don't have one, they just stick it out on the sidewalk and you just hope the stray dogs and cats haven't torn into them. 

The raised trash bins that are in front of homes (no wheeling bins like in the US)

Garbage on the street if the house doesn't have a raised bin

Overall, we live in a lovely neighborhood where it's actually very nice to take a stroll through on a breezy and cool day (as long as you watch where you are walking).