La vida de la calle

Last night when I was in town, I saw:
- a couple of boys sitting in the front of a music shop, strumming away on a guitar, letting their sweet, peaceful tune float out into the street.
- kids hanging around on the bandstand, breakdancing to reggaeton.
- a couple of young men sitting on a wrought-iron bench playing cards in the dark with a Spanish deck (coins, cups, swords and clubs).
And couples of all ages, and families, and groups of schoolchildren, strolling and eating and shopping and talking. All the shopfronts open to the street, the pavements lined with stalls, street food for sale everywhere, balloon sellers in the main square, music blaring from shops and stalls and cars.

I love this about Mexico, the life of the street. The way people don’t necessarily scurry home at the first possible opportunity, the way more of life is lived outside, the way people are happy sometimes to just hang out together.