Wow ! ! !

One of the girls at the office who has a bit of trouble walking (& who hadn't eaten that morning) requested someone get her Carl's Jr., the only place in downtown that was both within walking distance AND open. When I went around to see her she offered to buy my lunch as well, so off I went to 7th & Broadway, which is one of the intersections the protestors passed through. This was at 10:30am and the crowds had already began gathering and marching. The roads were quiet, the sidewalks were empty, but as I got close to Carl's Jr. I could hear the noise of the crowd. Oddly enough the Carl's Jr. was also very quiet, with very few customers inside. Many people were still obeying the directive "No shopping". I purchased our lunch and made my way back to the office.

While having lunch with the girls (I'm the only guy in my unit) we decided to visit 6th & Broadway, which is one block from the office and another intersection through which the protestors would be passing.

At 6th & Broadway we stood in the middle of the sidewalk and watched the crowds pass by chanting "Si su puede" and "Aqui estamos y no nos vamos", which mean Yes, we can, and We're here and not leaving.

The protestors were mostly in the road, walking in front of us, but a few people were up on the sidewalk, and they walked around us as they went, and then there were more people walking around us, and then, had I not been a six-foot tall macho gringo, my girls might have been swept away with the crowd. As it was people would still almost walk into us before realizing that just like them, we were here and not leaving, either!

I stood there, arms crossed, and attempted to look friendly but also a little intimidating (a nod and a smile, and a pair of sunglasses help in those situations), and everyone was forced to move around me and thus around the girls. At one point a gap appeared between us and couple of guys in front of us, also just standing, watching the crowd, so we quickly stepped forward and joined ranks with them, and the crowd continued to flow around us, chanting, singing, cheering, waving their flags, etc.


We were in the middle of everything for I don't know how long, but it seemed like a long time, and it was intense. Finally there was a substantial break in the crowd, not that all of the protestors had passed us by, just they were all stopped down at 7th Street doing crowdy things, chanting, etc.

We decided we'd had enough viva la revolución for one day so back to the office we strolled, only to see down at 7th & Spring the same crowd we'd left at 7th & Broadway, and they were heading up Spring. We stood out the front of our building and watched everyone march past. Being that this was not the planned route, several cars and a bus were forced to turn around and head back up to 6th and make a detour.

Wow ! ! ! It was an amazing experience!