Feel a little bleary eyed but what the hell. I may have an earlyish lunch though (perhaps because I ate twice yesterday) I am not that hungry.
11:35. Just tried to get into Museo de Indigena. It nominally opens at 11:15 but it ain't open now.
11:45. Case del Virrey. It's the ruins of a house. You don't go in, you peer through some barred doorways from the street...
Just come to Museo Municipal. (There are about 9 small museums here.) Shut. This one at least has a sign on the door says all museums are shut today as it's 'Dia de los municipios de América'. That seems a bit of a joke to me - it's some sort of holiday so LET'S SHUT THE STUFF PEOPLE GO TO ON HOLIDAYS, but there you go. I don't know what a municipio is but I don't think I like them any more. :-)
It is a municipality or a town council. So I never liked them anyway.
This is so dumb. I mean, at the very least, why not have the holiday on say a Monday. It's fricking Saturday. Even locals and semi-locals may want to visit on a Saturday...
Definitely time for any earlyish lunch then...
12:00. Was goong to go to La Luna as recommended in my *Shoestring* guide. But they charge UYU150 or over five quid for a portion of chips. So, err, no... Their location even sucks at this time of day as the restaurant building blocks the sun from all the outside tables.
20:25. Slightly wasted the day to be honest.
I went for lunch at Colonia Rock (I think) - my phone battery died while I was waiting for the food so I had to amuse myself by looking up rude words in my pocket electronic dictionary. I thought I couldn't check back in til 2pm, though it was actually 1pm. So I had a coffee after the meal and then wandered round such sights of the historic part of town were not affected by the museum closure.
I didn't go up the lighthouse as I figured I'd want to take loads of photos and I only had space for about 30 on my memory card, I needed to delete the ones I'd had burnt from some other cards and I couldn't do that without a hostel room and my laptop. I hope to do it tomorrow, assuming they are open on Sundays. I could and perhaps should have done it this afternoon but I didn't.
So I got back to the hostel a bit after two and checked in. I kind of had to stay a while while I recharged my phone and ended up staying til about 6. Which was maybe a bit of a waste but there you go.
At 6ish I went for a walk up the coast to the non-historic parts of the town. Fairly nice views although it was starting to get dark. I then cut back 'inland' and walked back. There were no obvious bar/restaurant places I could see. The rest of the town is fairly attractive, a bit tatty in parts but not bad.
I just had something to eat at a restaurant in the centre (La Pasiva) and am having a beer. I sort of feel I 'ought' to go to 3/4 tonight, but I don't think I am going to. I've been there and done that and it wasn't that great. I'll just have a few beers in the least depressing bar/restaurants I can find and try not to have too late a night.
Oh, I had a look at the activity board in the hostel. The only 'bar'-related events I could see were karaoke at Colonia Rock on a Thursday and 3/4, where I was last night, on a Saturday. So that kind of suggests there isn't much else. I sat at a table outside Colonia Rock today when I ate there so I have no idea what it is like inside, I suppose I might try it (not particularly for karaoke of course, even assuming they do that tonight) later on just in case it is a bit lively.
Gut feeling is that I will stay here for the full four nights. It is perhaps too long, but maybe I can take it easy and I also don't see much benefit in having Monday night in Buenos Aires instead of here.
21:45. Have come to Colonia Rock, inside this time. It is a bit restauranty but it is probably one of the better bar-ish places I have seen here. There is even a group of women SAT AT THE BAR (gasp).
It is a bit warmer tonight than yesterday, I suspect in part due to the blanket cloud cover today versus the practically cloudless sky last night. There seems to be less of a breeze as well.
I am reading C Reginald Enock's "Mexico..." (the full title is about twenty words long), which I happened to spot on the Project Gutenberg website the other day while downloading something else. It is pretty readable and I figure it may give me ideas for my six weeks in Mexico. I don't think I could sit and read the modern guide book cover to cover, it would be some combination of boring and irritating. It helps that Enock's book is not a guide book, of course, it is almost "Mexico for someone who can't go there". Some of the description verges slightly on the lengthy, but it really is pretty readable. We are not talking Tolkeinesque wafflings about landscapes here.
I have a dead tree edition of Rebecca West's "Survivors in Mexico" with me, which is fascinating but I have read it umpteen times already and viewed as a source of ideas on where to go, I believe it mainly mentions various museums and parks in Mexico City, with Cuernavaca (where I've already been, though may well revisit) getting a brief mention. I will have another read anyway at some point and it will probably turn out some other places get a mention, though its focus is not really 'geographical'.
I just happened to catch sight of a menu and squid rings are UYU190, or about six quid here. Seems pricey - my meal here earlier was UYU330 with a coffee after - even compared to London. This is not a cheap town, though generally it's a bit cheaper than London even with today's presumably crap exchange rates - but maybe squid is hard to come by here. I know nothing about the geographical habitats in which edible squid are found.
I did see some property ads the other day and I think you could get two or three bedroom houses (not sure where or in what condition) for USD80,000. The squid is disproportionately pricey. :-)
But even UYU190 beats El Torrero (sp) at UYU300...
Oh, it was a bloke in the dormitory last night. I have some dim recollection of waking probably around 8 or 9 (maybe he disturbed me, not that it was an unreasonable hour) and exchanging a brief 'hola', but he had left by the time I went through my frenzied dressing at 11amish.
This place does seem to be a fairly decent bar. The music is more what you'd expect and it's busy and I don't even think most people are eating at this stage.
The guide book's introductory blurb to Colonia says something like 'enough this, that, nightlife, the other' for anyone. Considering it then fails AFAIK to list this place or 3/4 even under eating and omits (I checked today) the 'drinking' and 'entertainment' sections, that seems a bit of an off statement in terms of internal consistency. I will try to get round to putting both on wikitravel at some point. I have a vague idea of re-reading all my blog posts and seeing what I can do to update wikitravel accordingly at some point when I am back in the UK. I have made a few edits while over here, but not for a while. (For example, I want to put some advice on the Puerto Iguazu-Ciudad del Este border crossing on, but I haven't got round to it yet.)
To give the flavour of the music here, it's all English language so far. After a few songs I sort of recognised but didn't know the names of, we have had Laura Brannigan's "Self Control" and now that Madonna song which mentions "San Pedro" (it may be "Isla Bonita" but I am far from sure). Not fantastic - though I must admit to a soft spot for Laura Brannigan's quintessentially 80s hits - but it is 'music' unlike the background tinkling in more restauranty places like Bar Beltran (sp? - the place I was at last night before going to the club). This isn't musical snobbery, it's just that the music (though pleasantly not-too-loud) is really to be listened to be here, as opposed to that 'just complete unobnoxious background noise' restaurant quality. I know what I mean anyway. (And bear in mind I don't mind classical or jazz music, so it's not about the genre, it's about how the music is used.)
23:25. Some guy is now on the stage and made an announcement I didn't understand. I half suspect there is karaoke. I have no plan to sing at all - I am fairly chuffed with having sung several times in Chile and in Paraguay, and the atmosphere is not quite matey enough or I am not drunk enough for me to want to sing. But it may prove diverting anyway. A bit of a shame, though not really, as I am at a cool bit of the book about early Mexican civilisations and continually being diverted by my own thoughts inspired by it away from reading on, and this will doubtless be an additional distraction.
Yeah, I think it is karaoke. The announcement guy just sang and as there are no musicians I doubt it is a proper performance. (In theory I guess it would be semi-respectable for a talented (semi-)professional singer to perform to recorded music, but in practice I don't think I've ever seen it.) There is also a chunky CRT-based screen on the stage angled at the singer, which pretty much clinches it.
I would in an ideal world like to take singing lessons so as to be able to do karaoke without having to adopt that "what the hell, it's a laugh even though I'm shit" attitude. I don't say I'd be great but I suspect nearly everyone has competence within their powers given training and effort, in almost any area of life. But there's never time in life for all we'd like to do... I have a lot of beer to drink,a lot of Spanish to learn, I'd ideally like to pick up my study of mathematics and it would be cool to study a bit of anthropology. And to be honest I guess I regard karaoke as a laugh and an opportunity to practice making a fool of myself and enjoying it. It would be cool to be able to sing half decently, but it would be cool to be able to play the piano competently, to know some martial art, to have knowledge of art. You can't go haring off after every random 'it would be cool' thing, at least until someone invents an immortality pill... There is always the 80-20 rule lurking at t
he back of my mind in these speculations to kind of imply you could have your Mr Kipling cake and eat it..
It is karaoke BTW. First singer is some woman who, and I find this odd, is not screeching or blatantly out of tune, but is a bit quiet. Maybe it's people like her the 80-20 rule applies to in the singing context. I suspect I am well down in the left hand tail of the distribution and not so amenable to easy improvement.
I hope we get some song I know so I can at least croon along from my table. :-)
23:50. Some woman is singing "A Mi Manera", i.e. "My Way". The audience don't get the lyrics here. Fuck singing lessons, just for my Spanish, I need to learn the lyrics to the Spanish translation of this song.
It is sucky the audience don't get the lyrics. It's always nice if the crowd sings along, plus it helps me as a learner to follow the song and (if I hear something I like) to note the lyrics down to find out what the song is.
I note they have a projection screen and unit that would be perfect for showing the words to the audience. I don't know if they are just technically incompetent or don't realise it would be a good idea.
On a random note, if I didn't drunkenly blog it at the time, down at the karaoke bar in Asuncion there was a Spanish-language version of "Piano Man". And while wandering around the historic centre earlier pre re-checking in, I heard a strangely alluring midi-ish instrumental version of the same song. Was somehow odd to be hearing that here.
Quite a lot of people standing near the bar. I suspect I will lose my table the next time I have to get up. I will leave a beer on the table and hope. And maybe being forced into the standing crowd will lead to chat, so it may be no bad thing.
00:45. "La Bamba" playing (karaoke is on a break). Somehow is odd to hear that in an actual Spanish speaking country.
00:50. Lasted longer than I expected but despite leaving my beer bottle on the table I lost it. Seems slightly cocky yet also understandable. What the hell, I have squeezed in at the bar.
Maybe I shouldn't be, but I am perpetually astonished at my lack of recognition of songs at karaoke bars. After a fair few visits I might expect to recognise some songs but so far tonight except for 'A mi manera' every song is totally unknown to me. I'm not in Chile any more, Toto...
Some guy just probably accidentally took my glass and drank from it. Well, there wasn't much beer in it. I hope he catches some obscure disease I am immune to and I just got another glass, so sod it. I am practically certain it was just one of those drunk accidents.
01:30. Just had a slightly facile conversation with a local (literally, I asked) couple at the bar. They started it though I am not quite sure how. All very amicable and they seem nice enough people though we are now discretely ignoring each other. I was heartened when on saying to the woman "with respect, it seems a bit dull here" she said "yes, it's an old people sort of place". I loosely translate from memory of course.
01:45. I suddenly feel pissed. There is life here but it isn't great and I think I'm going to bed. I shouldn't have bought the fourth litre but there you go. Not a bad night all the same but right now I just want to go to bed. I am struggling a bit to type this out. No big deal, it's all good, and it's not like I think I'm walking out on a big party. Ideally I would have turned up later but since I had no idea this was even an option I won't beat myself up. Towards bed...
People coming in as I leave. But no, I am too drunk and not in the mood for more and I really don't think I'm missing much.
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