I was not going to make the same mistake as yesterday. And Rudy was here to make sure that didn’t happen. Rudy made some activity suggestions, we flipped a coin, and set off for a walk.
We made our way down Nunez out towards La Fabrica Aurora, taking a different route. It felt great to be out and about and immediately I felt a bit lighter. It seems like all we have to do is move over on the street grid one block and we have a whole new world to discover. Although still close to the historical centre, we came upon a huge hotel complex in Colonia Guadelupe. My guess is that this hotel conglomerate bought up the land on the condition that some of the historical ruins of Colonia Guadalupe would remain intact and maybe even slightly restored. The art sculpture at the entrance to the building was huge and dramatic.
The ruins of the church and the sculpture in the courtyard (next to the hotel), although more subdued, was equally pleasing . (I am afraid I can’t say the same for the high concrete walls encasing the hotel complex. But two out of three ain’t bad.)
We cut through a walkway beside the almost dried out river and entered the grounds of La Fabrica from the opposite direction of our previous visit. This gave us numerous new galleries to explore. I followed my feet and eyes as did Rudy and we wandered in different directions. Finally we found each other and brunched under a patio umbrella in one of the courtyards of La Fabrica. 
I had wandered open-mouthed through the galleries while Rudy had stopped to chat with a working artist. In the course of the conversation Rudy asked him if he had trouble keeping up, or was he selling his art as fast as he could create it. He looked up from the piece he was working on, gave Rudy a wry smile, and said that he was managing to pay the rent by selling small postcards and mugs featuring images of his art. But what with covid and the impact on tourism for the last couple of years, he hadn’t sold a painting in over a year! That was sobering. We had had a feast for our eyes for the duration of our visit and it cost nothing. But on the other side of the coin, the artist was struggling (as most artists do).
