16:34
We’re resting again after spending the morning out in the suburb of Los Dominicos, checking out the artisan community and market there. We rose late and showered before breakfast at the hotel buffet, then left to catch a metro train from Santa Luciá station, right in front of the hotel, to Los Dominicos at the eastern end of the line, some 13 stops away. The tickets cost 560 pesos each, just over one Australia dollar. The trains run frequently and quickly, and the one we caught was standing room only. It terminated two stops before Los Dominicos, and everyone got off, but another train appeared a minute later to take us the rest of the way.
18:52
The station exited on to the edge of a large grassy park with trees in autumn foliage colouring it shades of green and yellow. To the east lay the Dominican monastery after which the area was presumably named – a Spanish colonial edifice with two symmetrical square bell towers, topped by small domes. We walked towards it and next to it found the artisan community market that the lady at our hotel reception told us about yesterday. This was an enclosed area containing hacienda-style buildings of adobe with tile rooves, divided into about 150 small workshops and shops, plus a couple of small cafes. There were leatherworkers, woodworkers, copper and silversmiths, sculptors, painters in both oils and watercolours, weavers, knitters, basketworkers, glassblowers, jewellers, and lapidarists, potters and more.
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