These two brought up the rear of some two dozen soldiers that we passed along the fringes of Candelaria, Bogota’s historical center. I’m not sure what was going on and my taxi driver didn’t seem too concerned. Or concerned in any way whatsoever.

“Just soldiers walking,” he said.

What occurred to me during that brief exchange was how quickly one could get used to living in the midst of armed soldiers patrolling the streets, even when it was so out of the ordinary from your typical day-to-day. I was in the Colombian capital for only about three weeks at that point and had already accepted armed military patrols to be as much a part of the background landscape as the city’s prolific and vibrant street art.

A friend in Washington DC reminded me of this photo and the memory attached to it during a conversation over the Christmas holiday. After the strong initial opposition to Donald Trump’s deployment of various state national guard troops to the US capital, residents there are increasingly resigned to their presence, my friend said, likening them to “an age-old backdrop”.

“Tourists aren’t even taking pictures of them anymore,” he said.

~~

Today’s Pic du Jour, the site’s 12th (!) straight, was snapped in Bogota, Colombia, on 10 June 2015.