We decided to stay another day in beautiful Popayan to help David get over his bug and I took the opportunity to tour the center. This city of sparkling whitewashed Colonial architecture that had been damaged in a 1983 earthquake, was rebuilt and repaired to remain a unique jewel in Colombian cities. In the shopping district were upscale shops selling the latest fashions mixed in with the usual pharmacies, grocery stores, and hardware stores we had been seeing in most towns along the road. There were also many small stalls on the street where fruits and vegetables, watches, sunglasses, and, of course, Chiclets were sold…a very busy place. In the Museum of Natural History, a very cool, if stuffy place, (pun intended), enormous Andean condors tore apart a stuffed unfortunate rodent in my favorite of the bird exhibits. A man with two small children stopped to talk with me about my impressions of Colombia. To my observation, often repeated, of Colombian women being the most beautiful in the world, he, tongue in cheek, explained that is the reason for the unfaithfulness of Colombian men. They can’t help themselves. Later in the afternoon David joined me for a walk in the main square where many people and families wandered and socialized. We had our photo taken by an elderly man, whose father before him took pictures in the park using the same 19th century box camera. As we waited for our picture to appear from the developing process completed inside the box I thought about how this lovingly preserved technology very much belonged in this city where preservation was an art.
