Ancient university town

Garden in cloisters of St Augustin
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Another cloudy day and the throat infection was really kicking in. Rather than attempting any walks I decided to spend the day in La Laguna, the university town which is effectively a suburb of Santa Cruz. La  Laguna is a classy place. Like Gaunajuanto in Mexico, it has no neon signs and in fact, no projecting signs so the streets have a spacious uncluttered look which is pleasing to the eye. An impressive place is St Augustin’s, formerly a monastery but now an art college. One large section of the old building is a romantic ruin and in the restored portion there is a lush garden surrounded by cloisters. The current art  exhibition was not so interesting … lots of babies, either emerging or dying .. spooky.

Romantic ruins = St Augustin
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The local market is neat and tempting but not as busy on my previous visit (which might have been on a Saturday). Great place for lunch a beer and tapas is the Bodega Tocuyo, an ancient place with the clutter of ages, graffiti on the walls, one wine rack with bottles which are covered with grim .. lots of atmosphere and a mixed crowd of locals.

Small pleasures .. I took great delight in seeing the smartest dust cart I have seen anywhere .. this stainless steel model could have been designed by Philippe Starck. The rubbish collector came back when I was taking the picture and although I wanted to get a photo of him in his smart uniform he seemed ill at ease so I moved on.