MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
In the afternoon I again walked with the huge Sunday crowds on Carrera 7 and took photographs. I met Sanchez the Tarot reader, age 79, who had printed out for me a listing of over the counter drugs that he was taking in order to remain vigorous for the next ten years. They have been recommended by David Sinclair, who teaches at Harvard Medical School, and who preaches the way to a long vigorous life on a website called NOVOS, YOUNGER FOR LONGER.
He is hoping for ten more good years and since I am 8 years older than him I have used up 8 of those years. Three of the supplements of the ten on his list I have already been prescribed. Maybe they are keeping me going.
After talking with Sanchez I walked through the flea market to the next door Museum of Modern Art ($3) where I sat for a while in their very nice cafe eating a sumptuous banana split and drinking a glass of fresh juice. And then I looked through the two main exhibits, both by women, one an abstract painter of bright rectangular paintings and the other a Lithuanian/Colombian artist who was interested in primitive art.
And then I walked through the melee just out side on Carrera 7 and came back to my apartment.
What struck me today is the variety of Bogata, with the common man strolling Carrera 7 and only steps away the very modern museum. Delhi has the wildness of Bogata but not the sleek modern high rises and elegant museums. Europe has marvelous museums but not the wild streets and hubbub of Carrera 7. Montevideo had the museums and high rises but seemed to be a transplanted Europe while Colombia is an indigenous and European mix, proud of its preColombian past, strongly influenced by Europe but in my brief month here seems to be a cultural mix all its own filled with vigor and dancing and celebration. I feel very lucky to have abandoned my prejudices and come her for a month.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 