“Why, walk around the Plaza. On the nights when the band plays, the people of the better classes gather here and either promenade around the broad walk outside the square or sit on the benches to talk and listen to the music.”
“That sounds as if it’d be lots of fun,” approved Peggy.
At this moment the car came to a sudden stop. In attempting to turn off the broad drive around the Plaza into one of the old narrow streets of the business section, they were held up by the congested traffic. The enforced rest did not bother Felipe in the least. Calmly resting his elbows on the steering wheel, he waited for the way to become cleared.
“Why doesn’t he blow his horn?” asked Jo Ann. “Maybe that’d make them move.” She noticed, however, that of all the persons in the near-by cars held up in the traffic jam, not one seemed the least bit impatient.
“These people must have the patience of Job,” said Peggy. “If this were at home, you’d hear the horns blowing all down the line.”
“It takes more than a little thing like this to ruffle the slow, easy-going Mexican,” explained Florence. “He’s never in a hurry.”
In a short time they were on their way again, moving slowly through the narrow, busy streets. All classes of people and many nationalities were here, their different modes of dress interesting Peggy and Jo Ann, as did the stores with their queer signs and window displays. Although this was the busiest time of the day, they noticed that there was none of the bustling rush characteristic of American cities.
On through the less crowded streets Felipe steered the car into the residential section, passing several beautiful cathedrals and small parks, artistically laid out around the statue of some noted general or other war hero.
Near the outskirts of the city Jo Ann noticed with the keenest interest that there were all types of architecture, from plain stone structures built centuries ago and looking dull and drab, on to modern bungalows, gay with bright-tinted stucco and tiled roofs. Now and then she could catch glimpses of richly furnished rooms behind the iron bars of a window, and a flower-adorned courtyard or patio through an open door.
“I love the courtyards,” she remarked. “The great arches, the fountain in the center, and the tropical plants make them beautiful and restful-looking.”