No Museums on Tuesdays

We had intermittent rain in the forecast today, which normally means that it’s time to go into a museum. But, it turns out, most museums here are closed on Tuesdays (and Mondays). So no museums for us. Yesterday, we walked to a neighborhood market which was a perfectly pleasant market hall, but nothing too exciting. On our walk home, we got rained on a lot, and headed straight for a shower when we arrived home. Despite that experience and today’s forecast, we ventured out to walk through the city. 

We were lucky. We did not get rained on. I think that may be because we found a place to buy umbrellas. Now we have small travel umbrellas to pack. 

We headed back to the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore that used to be a theatre, because we didn’t get to spend any time there last time we were there. Before enjoying the bookstore, we stopped for some lunch. The bookstore is still fun, and it is pretty large. There are more bookstores here than in the US, it seems. In addition to bookstores, there’s a newsprint stand on almost every block of a major street. The theatre turned bookstore is really popular, and it seems that people are actually buying books. That said, it is also quite the tourist attraction, and there’s tourist congestion around the spots that are best for taking pictures. We did, of course, join that fray. 

Our next major stop was the Teatro Colon. It is the opera house here. We’re going to see Aida there in March, when friends from Seattle visit. Interestingly, Aida was also the performance when the opera house was opened in 1908. From the outside, it is a vast and impressive building. From what I read, the acoustics are excellent, which would have been necessary to make sure that everyone of the 2,500 seated spectators and 1,000 standing room spectators got to hear what’s going on.