Comida con los muertos

On Friday Tina and I went to the cemetary by the Marcado after class. An odd thing to do i suppose..... but the photographer in me likes to photograph concrete angels and Tina has a fascination with gravestones. The older the better. This was an interesting graveyard as graveyards go. Many of the graves are built above ground much like they are in New Orleans, which makes total sense being this close or perhaps even below sea level. There was little to no organization and it almost seemed as if the plots were planted on top of each other. Upon looking at the state of things i assumed some of the graves to be very (very) old, but Tina pointed out that she wasn't finding anything older than 20 years. Just another display of how fast the sun and salt eats away at things. Tina learned later from her Spanish teacher that the cemetary is indeed recent, and a new concept here, that there really are no regulations and most people had just been planted out by the mango tree rather than in a plot of land. It was perhaps the creepiest cemetary i had been in. So close together, over grown, an actual smell of decay and two places where the buzzing of flies was audible over all else. A clutch of puppies, a blind dog that actually growled at me while looking sideways through milky eyes, and in the far corner there was a makeshift house set up.... tarps, cardboard and old metal sheeting. I found some great angels, and a quiet shaded spot by the entrance that was peaceful and not creepy and sat and had a peanut butter sandwich, sharing it with the mamma dog, who obviously needed protien to feed all her puppies! Tina caught up and joined me on our picnic and then we walked down a side street about 8 blocks to the main road and caught a colectivo home.