The white egrets of Parque Juárez

If the Jardín is San Miguel’s living room, Parque Juárez is her cozy den, a spacious, shady place where you can spend an afternoon reading a book without being disturbed in her luscious gardens.

This afternoon, needing to get out of the house but desiring some place more peaceful than the Jardín, I found a unoccupied green bench near the children’s playground. Above me, white egrets roosted in the thick branches of the laurel trees. I couldn’t see them but I could hear their vociferous squawks.

The author at the entrance to Parque Juárez. Photo by David Lansing.

Here I was, only three blocks from the center of town yet it felt so quiet and peaceful. Every once in awhile a small group of boys would pass by, on their way to play basketball, or an old woman would stroll by, always smiling at me and offering up “Buenas tardes.”

From my perch I could see the wooden sign of my neighbor, La Mansion del Bosque, and the black lantern over the entrance to my own doorway. From there, the street curves up and to the left, eventually disappearing into the blue sky and, beyond that, the off-skew spires of La Parroquia, looking solitary and beautiful in the golden light of late afternoon. A view achingly beautiful.