Ho hum

By sheer luck I stumbled across the street where Garota de Ipanema was shortly after leaving the restaurant, so I had a couple of beers there. I only wanted one, but just as I finished the first and was waiting to pay, they brought me another one. I'd like to say this was a blatant rip-off, but I did read somewhere that this is how some Brazilian bars work. (Not all of them though, by any means.) I made sure to ask to pay before I finished the second one. It wasn't exactly fantastic there but it was OK, and at least I can say I've been there if I should ever feel the desire to do so.

Afterwards, I sat on some sort of concrete cylinder, presumably intended as a seat, at the edge of the Ipanema beach walkway to watch the sunset. There wasn't much of one, it was clouded over rather badly and in fact there were intermittent flashes of lightning, although the downpour I therefore anticipated doesn't seem to have occurred yet. Still, it was quite cool to be sat there watching it get darker, and there was something vaguely hypnotic about the waves crashing onto the beach.

I was tempted to go back to the hotel before going on anywhere else, but I figured if it was going to rain (it didn't, but I figured it would) I'd be better off going straight on. I got a cab after a certain amount of wandering around and asked the driver to take me to some bar vaguely in the centre of the city which I'd seen mentioned in the guide book (Clan Cafe in Rua Cosme Velho, for the record). The first taxi driver I asked didn't know the street, even after I showed it him written down in case my pronunciation sucked (highly likely), but the second one did. When we got there (nearly ten quid later) the place seemed to be shut, in fact I am not even sure it exists any more. I must admit I didn't get out of the cab and check, but I told the driver the number and he looked out of the window and, as cynical as I can be, I can't see how he gained by telling me it was shut when it wasn't. The whole street looked pretty dead. (I did at least see a street sign and we were on the right street, so he definitely wasn't completely lying. :-) )

I asked him (this is simplifying, the linguistic difficulties were enormous of course) to take me to somewhere else he recommended. I think he wanted to take me back to Ipanema, where he'd picked me up, but I was determined not to go there. (I fear my "No!" in English when he said "Ipanema" was a touch harsh, but still.) I had a sort of recommendation for Melt in that area from a friend, but it would probably have been too early and to be quite honest I've decided the 'proper' nightlife here can get stuffed. Also, I knew Rua Cosme Velho was vaguely near my hotel, whereas Ipanema is (as I knew from going out there) nearly ten quid's worth of cab ride away, and the last thing I wanted to do was pay double that for a round trip to go to some pretentious shithole. If I'd wanted to go out for the night in Ipanema, I would have just stayed around there in the first place instead of trying to go somewhere else.

The cab driver took me to "Mamma Rosas" instead, which on arrival turned out to be essentially a restaurant and not a terribly fun or interesting place to sit in drinking on my own. I had a single beer there and got a cab back to the area where the hotel is, where (naturally) I went to my 'local', Bar Getulio. They seemed willing to serve me tonight and I passed a pleasant if not exceptional night there. I popped back into the hotel to pick up my copy of "The Music of Chance" so I could sit there reading a book instead of peering at my phone reading a book on there and looking like a total weirdo.

As I say, I've decided to give up on the nightlife here. I'm not that into clubs - call me an old fart, I think I've always been an old fart - and especially not in a country where I struggle badly with the language. I went to a sort of club in Cuernavaca, Mexico, back in 2007, when I probably spoke better Spanish than I do now, and it wasn't pleasant yelling over the din when trying to sort out settling the bill with the waiter. It may suck in a UK nightclub but at least you pay as you go and you know you can just walk out any time it suits you.

Yeah, there's more to nightlife than clubs. But the city is too large and even ignoring any safety aspects, it doesn't seem easy to find a good area to go to a decent bar in and listen to some music. I tried tonight and failed, and maybe I'll have another go on Monday, but I'm not optimistic. Maybe I won't even try on Monday, I haven't checked - I am being almost stupidly lax about keeping track of these things - but I think I am flying back to Sao Paulo on Tuesday, so the last thing I want is to be out late-ish miles from the hotel the night before. It's bad enough that I'll probably get accidentally drunk near the hotel, as happened last time.

I also badly need to sort out the next bit of the trip. Even if you take the Puerto Williams trip as sorted (and it isn't, due to payment glitches), I still don't have a hotel booked for Santiago when I arrive there on Wednesday, and in an only slightly less pressing sense I don't have anything sorted out except the Puerto Williams trip which isn't until mid-February, so there's a big gaping hole in my plans right there. Torres del Paine national park is vaguely insisting on shoving itself in there somewhere, but as previously waffled about at length, that just makes things more complicated since it's such an out of the way place to get to.

Given that I've already largely ditched any plans to have a great time in the evening here and that tomorrow's Sunday so it's probably fairly dead anyway, I am currently planning to try to get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow, do some tourist stuff during the day (maybe go to Santa Teresa, although it sounds a bit dodgy) and then spend the evening back at the hotel making plans for the next bit. I can imagine that losing out to my feeling that I ought to at least go and have a few beers tomorrow night, even if just round here, but maybe I'll be strong and resist. Most likely I will make a half-baked compromise, have a few beers and come back early-ish but slightly drunk and see what I can do. That's what happened in Sao Paulo, although I must admit things seem a bit more pressing now.

Still, all the Ipanema beach stuff etc today was fairly cool, so although I wish I knew exactly what I was going to do for the next few weeks and I still suspect I'm not having as great a time here as I ought to be, it's not going too badly.

Oh, I was going to stop, but I just have to repeat myself. I am so sick of being the dumb tourist who speaks only a few stock phrases of the language. Even at the 'local' tonight, the second time I ordered a beer, the staff seemed to ask all sorts of odd questions and I had no idea what was going on. In the end after a few gestures and broken phrases they just stopped asking me and served me anyway. I feel like a right moron. I can't wait to be the slightly less dumb tourist who can't speak the language properly but can at least have a go.