I don't know what is is about this latitude, but it induces you to take a siesta after lunch. I eat a big meal at 1pm and take a nap from 2-3. I have never taken naps but everyone here does and now I do to. Strange.
Today I was eating lunch and a young (8) boy came to my table and wanted money. He was carrying shoe shine equipment but I don't have shoes that need shining. I said 'no' and he turned on the sad eyes and desperation. I gave him $1.50 and within 2 minutes his friends came to me. "No, no me molestes". They went away.  A 7 year-old girl came later and wanted to sell me Certs which looked like they had been rolled down a hill and re-packaged. " No, Gracias". They know how to beg, they are professional. The indigenous ladies are very professional. They sell candy and cigs and are respected. They are allowed, as are the children, to sell (beg) anywhere. I was eating lunch and a lady whom looked like she just came off the street in West Palm walked up to me selling candy and the restaurant chased her off.
The 'Indians" here are respected but looked down on. They wear long pants with a skirt, usually colorful, and a bolo hat. 5' tall at most.  The men don't beg, they make the women do it. The social structure here is extremely striated. Spaniard heritage is on top. Mestizos are next and are found mostly in the Sierra. The indigenous are looked down on but respected, somewhat. Mulatto's are few. Blacks  are on the bottom. Asians are here in small numbers, usually to sell their knowledge in engineering. An Indian-Asian- lady was with me on my tour of Mitad Del Mundo today and every time the guide would mention a plant or cooking she would intercede with "we don't do it like that in India". I said in Spanish, which she didn't understand, 'when is the next flight back to India?'. The guide laughed. He gave me an extended tour after she left.
I am lucky that I end up staying in locations which are very central to everything that is happening. Plaza Fuch is a 5 minute walk and filled with Bohemians, very much like Little 5 Points in Atlanta. They all have a small backpack on and the blond German girls look like they have never worn make-up and just walked out of a Hans Holbein painting.
 I can't shop for clothes here as no one is my size.I walk in a store and it looks like the little boys section at Sears. I truly weight twice as much as the average man on the street.
When you walk in any establishment someone is there to greet you. If it is a store like a drug store or clothing, someone follows your every move. There are always security guards. The clerk at a outfitters clothing shop followed me closely and I know he wanted to laugh because they didn't have a damn thing that fit me, pants or shirts. In a restaurant someone greets you and takes you to a table. No one sits at a bar here. Then they are gone for 10 minutes. They take your order and if you order just a drink it takes another 8 minutes. Food takes 20. Pay the tab, another 10 minutes. Prices are never what they say or what is printed. Usually a dollar more or less. Change is rarely exact.
But I don't mind at all. I have learned to relax. Everywhere you look something is blooming. The aromas change minute by minute. You smell flowers, woods, rain, something wonderful cooking.
Everything grows here because the temperatures hardly change all year. Fuschia, palms, strange trees. It is tropical and montane all at once. Today reminded me of and Indian Summer day in late October. Very blue sky and white cotton clouds. Cool breeze down from the mountains.
I should have learned this stuff 30 years ago.
 Buenas noches, amigos.