Bit pricey but OK and as I was under a bit of time pressure and wasn't sure if I could find the buses in the current post-earthquake state and if the metro would be running it seemed the best bet.
Lots of tents at the airport as expected, we were kept on the plane about 10 minutes after landing then let off to walk over to where our checked-in baggage was laid out on the tarman to pick up. I found the official taxi guy round there and except for walking through one big tent didn't go inside at all on my way out of the airport. (This was an internal flight, so no customs or immigration issues.)
Checked in OK, have apartment 2106 and it's practically indistinguishable from the one I had last time, although if memory serves that was 1806. It's not quite identical as the ethernet lead supplied is yellow and I think I had a grey one before. :-) It was badly frayed too and this one isn't.
Decided not to go to that Peruvian place, I have come down to Pio Nono where all the bars are and will just see how it goes. Not particularly going to try to meet anyone and if I go home at 1am then so be it. At least I know I can go back at any time I like here.
Just ordered a litre bottle of Escudo, gave the waiter a CLP5000 note and haven't received any change. It's been a while and I don't think anything's coming. Cunt. In future I shall have to ask how much it is on the offchance it guilts people into GIVING ME MY CHANGE. I am sure it's not CLP5000 for a litre, 2000-3000 is more the mark if memory serves.
The night does not look overly promising right now but a little bit of the sweet brown liquor and a touch of serendipity and who knows.
Oh, the bar is 'Calamar'. Think I came here during the day on my last day here before, but I could be wrong.
9pm. OK, we're off to a good start. Drunk or mentally ill or both middle-agedish woman just staggered up to my outdoor table, swapped her half empty (small plastic) beer cup with mine and had a swig, then poured it all into one cup. Then tipped a bit on the table.
I tried to be firm, "dejame en paz", you've had a bit of my beer but that's find now please leave me alone. She kept asking me to listen. I kept saying I didn't speak Spanish (in Spanish). After maybe 30 seconds or a minute I picked up my bottle and walked into the bar. Staff slightly apologetic, it's not their fault of course (though I STILL DON'T HAVE MY CHANGE). No big deal and it's perhaps best to be inside (in general, not just here) anyway.
More amused than annoyed by the incident, but I hope it doesn't set the tone for the night.
9:15pm. Feel a bit sorry for the woman, she did look quite upset but then it really isn't my problem and for all I know she's just drunk. If there's one thing I've learned from living in London, the chances of a hard-luck story told to you by someone on the street (even had I listened to hers and understood) being true are vanishingly small. I'm still enough of a sap to feel a bit bad about snubbing her quite so blatantly (standing up and just walking off), but not enough to go further.
9:50pm. Finished up there, did a sort of circuit of Pio Nono and settled on a bar (Kiko Schop) opposite where I was before. CLP2000 for a probable half litre draught, assuming I get my change. OK, the guy just brought the drink (and then my change), it looks like about a litre of draught lager IN AN ENORMOUS PLASTIC GLASS which, as plastic beer glasses tend to, can be accurately described as 'amost totally not rigid'. Not ideal but it's an experience.
It's far from dead here (in the street, though I guess the same goes for this bar), but it doesn't compare to the 'every table outside heaving' quality it had that Friday night when I first came here. (I think the time is the same, roughly speaking.) No idea if that's coincidence, Fri vs Sat, some subtle time of year thing (it's still warm out, but I am thinking university year kind ofthing) or even a side-effect of the quake. (Oh, apart from the tents at the airport, I am either unobservant or there are very few signs of it having happened. One lift of the three in my apartment building is limited to 4 people at a time, but that may well be completely unrelated.) Crazy Bar (the bar I did karaoke at and met those guys at that Friday) is just opposite, pumping out 'The Logical Song' very loudly. I deliberately avoided it untl now to try other bars but I think I may go there after, nowhere else here seems obviously more lively. I saw a poster for a half-decent looking club night tonigh
t but since it seemed to omit THE ADDRESS I doubt I will even be tempted to go. It may not start til 1:30am anyway, though it's far from clear. I think I will take my time over this litre, see what Crazy Bar is like for one more and then maybe make a call about chancing my arms somewhere else away from this street. How that somewhere else would be determined I do not know, I suppose I could always get a cab over to that Peruvian restaurant/bar/club on the offchance.
Maybe I've lead a sheltered life, but it had never even occurred to me anyone would manufacture a 1 litre non-rigid disposable plastic glass.
I note that Calamar's sign across the road says "En Calamar, Meluzco Solo". I wonder what "meluzco" means, my dictionary can't help, maybe it's Chilean.
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