Had a shower once I got my room and after a quick look at the guide book went over to Monasterio de Santa Catalina, an enormous mostly-ex convent. Some waffle describes it as a city in a city, that is a touch of an exaggeration but it is impressively large and if certain walkways weren't blocked off with ropes to kind of create a circuit I could imagine getting a bit lost in there. Did the guided tour (a personal guide, in English, which was slightly awkward but OK) and then walked round again on my own going into more of the rooms, as they skip some on the guided tour.
Went for a brief wander afterwards. It's spitting slightly and rather grey, but if anything it's still a bit on the warm side. Nowhere near as bad as Nazca though I think.
Now down some desolate bar far too early (it's just gone 6pm) but I don't feel like eating yet and as I have to leave semi-early in the morning (checkout is 11am, which fits fairly well with the 12:30 bus) and am feeling under the weather I am disinclined to e.g. go back to the hostel and read then come out at a more 'local' time to start drinking.
Wi-fi doesn't work in my room for some odd reason, I think it's that same mysterious DHCP problem I had at Loki in La Paz.
Not booked a hostel for tomorrow in Tacna or Arica. Not sure what I'm going to do, I may play it by ear and see if I can get a hostel in Tasca tomorrow night on arrival. Need to think about it.
There is a canyon near here which sounds impressive but I have no time to see it. I have definitely only scratched the surface of Peru, I guess I will be back in a couple of years to do Machu Pichu and I will probably see more of the country then. It can't be helped, I have to get back down to Santiago. It does seem a bit of a shame though and apart from feeling slightly ill this feeling of rushing and not having time is spoiling my enjoyment a little right now I think.
Oh, the beer here is warm. I am the only person here and the guy put a couple of bottles in the fridge when I ordered one. WTF? Tried some other bar recommended by the guide book earlier and they had no beer until tomorrow.
Oh, if I didn't already mention it, for some odd reason some of the rooms at the hostel are named. There's IIRC the "Sun Room" and the "Star Room" and, oddly enough, the "Steve Room", which is my room. (I doubt the staff did that on purpose. Unusually this hostel has a genuine single bedded room, I suspect just the one, and that's the "Steve Room". I wonder if this has some unpleasant mystical significance. :-) )
7:20pm. Went for a brief stroll, there a several nice looking little bars on calle San Francisco I hadn't noticed earlier, probably because they were shut. All deserted but at least I can have a cold beer. Down at "Brujas" on corner with Ugarte. Union jack on the wall, for some reason.
I observe there are relatively few street vendors here compared to Nazca. I have a vague suspicion they are generally rarer here in Peru than in Bolivia, but I could be deceiving myself. At least in the areas I have seen here though, they are scareish compared to Nazca.
From what little I've seen Arequipa is a bit odd. The centre is quite attractive in a vaguely colonial way, the outskirts as seen from the bus on my way to Nazca a few days ago have that a very rundown desert town kind of appearance.
8pm. Brief observation, now a TV screen in this bar had pinned it down for me, that Pitbull's "Calle Ocho" seems very popular over here at the moment.
8:10pm. My beer being out and the music not quite to my taste, I have "cut my stick and gone to the h'oppostion shop", to probably misquote Surtees. Down some small, noisy but slighly more lively bar next door. A bit dubious actually, especially about the existence of a toilet, but WTF. Can always go back. The music here is vaguely Latin pop, but right now it beats the pseudo RnB the other bar seemed to favour. Bit disconcerted at the barman saying "seven" in English when I asked how much it was, but I shall not take it amiss.
8:50pm. Not feeling great down there, a bit too small and not that appealing, left and visited the unflushable and hence unspeakably foul bog presumably shared by these three of four little bars just off the street next to "Brujas". Now down a different bar in this 'complex', just on the offchance. It's a bit bigger and I feel slightly less conspicuous. This is clearly not going to be a great night and I never expected it to be, but at least I am feeling healthier (maybe a paradoxical side-effect of the beer) and at least I'm having a go. Music is loud here and sadly a bit RnBish but WTF. Beggars can't be choosers. I may even pop back to Brujas after this, "foul" would be an exaggerated description of these bars, they are at least vaguely welcoming, but it may be that I got the best of the bunch (at least in terms of music) to start with and didn't appreciate it.
I am unable to avoid thinking that at least unlike Brazil I am not totally at sea with the language for all the fact that musically I am coming up for the third time, and on the other hand I find myself thinking fondly of superficially dead places like Chañaral where I found the few bars that existed peculiarly suited to my tastes. If I could teleport I'd gladly move to whatever that bar was in Chañaral or down to El Bar de Ruperto in Puerto Natales right now. But I guess this is the joy of travel, experiencing new kinds of shitness. :-)
FWIW, the clientele in all these bars is mostly local. Down here there is one couple who may be travellers, judging solely from the woman's slightly pale skin and bright red weatherproof-looking jacket. One or two of the locals look middle aged and are wearing ties, which I find odd, maybe they are tourists too.
Maybe it's the beer or maybe it's the lively (even if not quite my scene) atmosphere but I am feeling a bit more cheerful, and my guts appear to be quieting down as well. Still, whatever the reason, I guess it's all good.
9:30pm. Just heard Katy Perry's "Hot and cold" (?) for the second time tonight. It says something about tonight's music I welcome it for its familiarity. Although there was a remix of "Brimful of Asher" which I enjoyed far too much earlier...
9:40pm. "Sweet child of mine" playing. Not a great favourite of mine but still hitting the spot in this musical desert. It's not that I'm averse to local colour in the way of music - the nights in Santiago with Stefano bear witness to it, if nothing else - but in this slightly soulless waste of bars something familiar if a bit naff is welcome.
2:45am. OK, more oddness. I made a conversational sally at some guy at the bar back down at Brujas, I just got home. Lots of bad Spanish but what the hell. I even told them the spitoon joke in Spanish and got a laugh. After buying a beer I think I was sort of invited to go on elsewhere, though I declined on grounds of feeling pissed and having to go on the bus tomorrow, I don't know if they were glad or not. Still, an amazing change from earlier. I clearly need to get drunk more often, it helps me to meet people :-) Oddly enough they were all students at the same bartending school, the mere existence of such a thing is exotic by my standards. I was honest about such things which may or may not account for my general acceptability. Whatever, a pretty cool night considering how it looked earlier. I just wish I could get a GPRS connection to send this.
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