Ricardo's Blog

Here is a photo story for the holidays, very suitable to show your children.

I was in Cartagena, Colombia earlier this year.  Cartagena is a dream Colonial city with a walled area that was used to protect the city from Pirate attacks.  The city was a very important port for the Spaniards and therefore was subject to constant threats by the pirates (in this case the Real Pirates of the Caribbean).  I decided to go out very early that morning to shoot pictures in the walled city.  I took my camera and started to walk the streets and plazas in the area.

Then I came across a small plaza in front of a lovely church that was completely filled with pigeons.  The plaza was empty and the birds were all over the plaza area.  Suddenly a man that looked like a municipal worker showed up and crossed the plaza right in the middle.  A few birds flew out but most stayed there without noticing the man that was crossing the plaza area.

I was still looking at the walking man leaving the plaza when a second man arrived, this one looking a bit sinister with his dark helmet.  The second man was in a motorcycle and this one caused quite a stir among the birds.  The birds seemed to move out as many were flying, but the reality was that they were leaning closer to the man in the motorcycle, as I was about to find out.

Then the man who looked somehow like a dark night took out his helmet. He seemed to be going out to deliver a package in one of the buildings near by. Maybe an early delivery of a document?

He grabbed into his bag as the pigeons were quite calmed near him.  He kept looking for things at his bag, maybe he was not finding his package?  Maybe he was missing something?  I was fascinated looking at him and shooting pictures of the man surrounded by pigeons in his motorcycle.

An then, all of the sudden,  something magic started to happen.  He finally got someting out of his bag and it was food!  The man was a birdfeeder! He started to feed the birds with a look of love in his face that I have never seen in my life.  He trow food at some of them and he gently fed others in his hand.  The pigeons were very happily accepting the food. The birdfeeder was very busy feeding them all.

And when he was finishing he had this lovely smile on his face.  The smile of somebody who loves what he does.  The smile of somebody who loves the birds.  The man was not a worker, he was simply a person that loved to do this.  The birdfeeder had accomplished his mission.  Another day of feeding and loving the birds.

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