I am having a (microscopic, seriously, I don't think it's even 350ml) draught beer outside (it is moderately warm) some not quite empty bar/restaurant nearby. I will have a bit of a wander later after I have confused a mouthful or two of beer and see and maybe I will just go back to the hotel.
The guide book says the population is 250-350k (can't remember exactly, but it's not a tiny place by any means) but it's only saved from being dead as it's a university town. Maybe this is still the summer holidays, although naively 'adding six months' makes it mid-October, which suggests not.
The beer had well over half an inch of head on it, that has now disappeared as I haven't touched it while writing this crap and the glass now looks emptier than ever. The only consolation is that an advert in the window showing a photo of a beer (the scale is impossible to judge, it could be 'the world's largest glass photoshopped to have been in' or a picture of the tiddler I have in front of me) with the text 'Compromiso Triferto Recoleta Liso $2,50' which, despite my dictionary translating 'liso' as 'smooth/flat/straight/plain/unadorned', I hope suggests this costs ARS2.50. (The bar is called Triferto and I believe this area is called Recoleta.) On the other hand, that is about 50p (even at the shit exchange rate I am getting with my Visa card cash withdrawals), which seems far too cheap when it was ARS14 for a pint in the fairly cheap Kilkenny in BA. On the third hand, even if that is good value I would rather not have to order every mouthful of beer separately.
Ooh, they have stuck my bill on a spiky thing on the table and it is indeed a 'Liso' for ARS2.50.
Oddly, some but not all of the junctions here have 'wheelchair' ramps off exactly one of the n kerbs which constitute the junction. Seriously. I have no idea why, unless the idea is to kill off suitcase-trundling tourists as they frantically try to lug their cases up the sheer kerb on the far side.
First impressions of the town/city/whatever are that it seems fairly pleasant, if more tranquil than I would expect for somewhere of the size my memory says it is.
While flicking through the guide book I saw that Parana is in fact just over the river from here. Oddly, Parana is (I could swear) on the Buenos Aires-side of the river, so why the bus terminates there and not in Santa Fe baffles me. Does it loop back slightly? Maybe I got confused.
I vaguely thought I might go to Corrientes next but the shoestring guide, while describing the place for a couple of pages, actually says "fuck Corrienties" on the grounds accommodation is very expensive and it's not that nice. On the one hand that vaguely tempts me to go there out of sheer perversity, on the other hand since I will feel compelled/inclined to spend two nights wherever I stop off next I should maybe give it a miss and try somewhere else.
To give this bar credit, they do keep giving me two (admittedly small) bowls of snacks with each beer. Well, I'm only on my second, but still.
11pm. Went for a wander. Little sign of real life. Am at Kusturica on 25 de Mayo which I walked past earlier, saw two people in the bar and noted it as the most bar-like place I'd seen so far if I found nothing better. And I didn't, so I came here. No one in the bar this time. Turns out everyone was in the patio at the back. Everyone constitues about 20 people at a guess, but the music is passable and at least it's not dead like sitting on the street at that other bar. This is OK but it certainly isn't party central. I think there is a very slim chance of entering into a conversation but frankly I'm not too fussed. If I can only get served (I checked, it is table service) this is fairly pleasant in a relaxed way.
Got served, a litre bottle of Quilmes. For atmosphere, I'm wearing a T-shirt and fleece and the temperature is very pleasant. Terrace is quite nice if slightly underlit, although I suppose it does add to the mood. Very 'tropicalish' with thick foliage round the edge and a palm tree. A moderate amount of that insecty chirping in the background which always reminds me of Mexico, probably just because that's the first place I heard it. I am deliberately not sitting too close to the border foliage lest there be lurking nasties. (While sat outside the other bar, a movement caught my eye and I could swear I saw a cockroach manhandling a fag butt down a drain. An oddly repulsive sight assuming I didn't imagine it. Didn't see a single other cockroach so maybe I did, but I could almost swear that's what it was, at first I thought some sort of fluff was attached to the butt and it was the wind but then I got this impression of legs moving and it seemed to resolve. Thinking about it, that's val
uable cleaning service really if true. Helps keep the council tax down.) Music is English language, I don't recognise the current track but previous two were "Yellow" by Coldplay and "Cigarettes and alcohol" by Oasis, which probably indicates the style of music they are playing tolerably well. Maybe we'll get some Smiths in a bit. :-)
Clear sky, quite a few stars visible although it's too light to see many and nothing I recognise.
23:45. There is a couple intermittently snogging and 'repeatedly kissing' (an act which I find frankly cringeworthy even when I'm participating myself) at a table about 5m away. I am speculating that sort of thing gets on my nerves primarily when I can *hear* it. (I can't hear them snogging, of course. It's that repeated kissing noise that keeps attracting my attention.) I am thinking back to that damn couple who also played music out loud sat just behind me on the boat put to Isla del Sol who were doing the same thing and of course I could hear them and they pissed me right off without me having to see them. Of course I'm just a bitter old man. :-)
Wed 00:10. I have just counted and there are eight customers on the terrace including me. I doubt there is anyone in the bar. But some guys just got served so I may have one more and then back to the hotel and hopefully not too late a start tomorrow. Maybe being forced out of bed at 9:30 this morning to check will have helped knock my sleep cycle onto something a bit more normal. (For whatever reason, despite or perhaps because of my restlessness and then later boredom on the bus, I - perhaps unusually - was not at all sleepy during the journey.)
00:15. Just ordered another litre, there are five people here including me now. I am half curious how this might pan out. I didn't ask at the hotel if it was 24h reception, it said it on their web site and to be frank it ain't cheap (though nothing here I could find easily was) so it had better be. Worst comes to worst (which I don't expect it to) I won't die on the street overnight. (And of course if push does come to shove I will employ the banker's solution and check in at a hotel which does have 24h reception.) It is getting a tiny bit cooler now but it's still fairly pleasant. They are now playing something that sounds a bit like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Not my favourite band by a long chalk but it could be worse.
Jesus, the new bottle has a layer of frost on it and my hand hurts after pouring some out.
It's very early days yet (not that the days are going to get very old here) but oddly I do seem to be allowed to speak to people in Spanish here and they do seem to understand me.
00:25. OK, two more people just left.. Me and two guys in the far corner left, unless there's anyone in the bar. If/when the guys leave I will ask if I'm in the way and clear off if they aren't staying open anyway.
The phone keyboard is sorting itself out. The alt key is still a little ropey but it was almost dead the other day and the full stop seems to be back to normal.
Hmm, two women just sat at the table which those two people (women) vacated a minute ago. I infer it's the same women, so maybe they didn't leave after all. Man, this is exciting stuff, isn't it? Move over J K Rowling, there's a new author in town...
I might observe a bit randomly - I didn't just think that - following my visit to that crater on Easter Island I am vaguely wondering if I could visit a volcano or two in Mexico. From talking to that guy at Loki in La Paz Guatemala (if memory serves) would be a good place to see a live volcano, but it's not on my itinerary, plus he showed me a photo from some trip there of someone holding a frankly gigantic spider which was presumably just encountered en route, so I shall not be touching the country with a bargepole, it's small enough that unlike Mexico (where I always get the jitters anyway) I couldn't feel properly safe anywhere...
I do wonder if spiders exhibit one of the largest size variations of any species/genus/whatever the term is. I suspect dogs may be similar in variation (although my gut feeling is that money spider vs goliath knocks toy dog vs wolfhound into a cocked hat). But probably whales win, I suspect a pygmy sperm whale compared to a blue whale is an amazing ratio.)
00:50. Those two women have gone but two guys have appeared from somewhere so there are still at least four other customers.
01:05. About three guys just turned up. I can't help wondering why, unless this is as lively as it gets in this town on a Tuesday. Maybe they just want a decent quietish place to chat together. Maybe when I leave all those shut bar/club-looking places practically next door will be open. :-)
I seem to be hitting a dry patch lately. I don't think I've had a non-goal-oriented (eg 'can I have a beer?', 'what do I do with my keys?') conversation with anyone since those guys in Santiago spoke to me for half an hour when I was there on the Sunday night before I went to Easter Island a few days later. Maybe I'm forgetting something. But that's two weeks two days ago. Maybe there were similar droughts earlier, but I can't help thinking I managed to end up chatting with people in English (ex-pats, other tourists) or Spanish (badly, but still) more frequently than this before. Ah well, I'm sure it will sort itself out. I shall have to make an effort to stay in possibly busy hostels going forward, not that I was inattentive to that here, but nothing obvious came up when I was deciding where to stay. (Despite the 'hostal' in its name, which may not even mean what I think, the place I'm staying here is very hotely. The room, for not much less money, is nowhere near as nice as the fla
t in BA, but the place is hotely as a whole.) At least I'm doing my best to be out and about to meet people thanks to my insatiable thirst, and maybe in a tourist hotspot like Iguazu Falls I will be able to blag my way into a conversation with some other tourists at least.
To be fair, there was that overture I cynicised myself out of my first night in Buenos Aires. But nevertheless, it wasn't a real conversation, even if it was my fault it wasn't.
Maybe I should screw my courage past :-) (to is not far enough) its sticking place and stay in a dormitory on the next place en route to Iguazu Falls. If it's only a night or two I will probably survive and it may promote interaction. It's a shame if that's necessary as I seem to have got by nicely without it so far, but maybe I'm just that bit more desperate now. On the other hand, apart from personal foibles, that does seem like an excellent way to get some of my valuables stolen.
(Hmm, thinking about it, I 'obviously' didn't chat to anyone (unless I am forgetting something, which I doubt) for my two weeks in Brazil at the start of the trip. But I arguably had a not purely 'business' chat with the French-Australian waiter my first night in Santiago, and I met people a few days after. So at best/worst that period matches this one, and of course then I was heavily freighted with a cargo of recent farewell drinks with various people back in the UK. I will explode with words building up in my vocal chords if something doesn't change soon at this point. ;-) I half seriously wonder if that's why I'm spewing more crap out on the blog now. Of course, in a purely practical way, if I go out and don't meet people I am more likely to fill time up with blog posts than if I go out and get distracted, so it may be a purely practical correlation.)
Yeah, at the risk of harping on, and the blog may give the lie to this, I've just mentally run over the trip so far and ever since I left Brazil I've chatted to people pretty frequently. Not absolutely everywhere, but some places I didn't stay long anyway. This definitely seems like a dry patch. I am not going to accuse people on Easter Island or in Argentina of being miserable London-style curmudgeons :-) but nonetheless, as it has happened it's been a bit barren lately. Still, as I doubtless said already, I am sure my luck will change and I may start stretching myself to ensure it will.
01:50 Just myself and those three recent arrivals on the terrace now. No big deal, I should be getting to bed anyway. Will doubtless be out tomorrow to see if it's any more lively so even more reason to take it very slightly easy tonight.
0200. Purely to satisfy my compulsion for accuracy, I will note that while looking around for the waitress to get the bill there are two women on a bit of the terrace behind me, so there are six of us here, not the mere four I mentioned earlier. I'm off home after I finish this beer though if I can just find the waitress, who is notable by her absence. I may just finish up and try to locate her indoors.
Ah, she just emerged to serve the three guys with another beer. ARS16 for two litres (well, they're somewhat deceptively 970ish(I can't remember what I read in BA and it's too dark here)ml bottles, but still). I had to double check the price, I assumed I misunderstood. That is amazing, albeit I have only Buenos Aires as my yardstick here. Less than £1.50 a litre. That may even beat Chile although my memory is fickle in these matters. Gave her ARS20 with tip, a generous tip but suddenly I feel I can afford it. And I'll probably be back here tomorrow so it can't hurt to invest a bit in goodwill.
Anyway, it's 0205 and I've nearly finished the second litre. Will have a piss here, as if I do end up spending the night on the street or seeking another hotel or even just walking back to the one I have (though I think it's pretty close) there's nothing worse than a full bladder and not wanting to risk foreign legal shit by using a dark alley as a toilet. And then home. So I will post this now, and if shit happens I can always make an additional entry. It will pass the time on the street. :-)
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