Guide book says a lot of the sample bars it gives in this area (sample as it says they come and go and to 'have a look round, follow the crowd') are Wed-Sat. One, El Sheikh, is listed as Tue-Sat, and I know it's still here as it saw it tonight. Shut like all the rest.
No big deal, in part I am just justifying coming back here. I don't know what time I have to check out but I will assume 10am, no way should it be earlier. I will ask at the desk if, as I expect not to be, I am not too incoherent, when I get back.
Not booked a hostel in Posadas yet.
After buying the bus ticket I had a cheap and acceptable lunch and walked over to the ethnographic museum and the San Francisco convent/museum, which are practically adjacent. These are the two main attractions listed in the guide book. Neither was particularly stunning. The convent does have an attractive courtyard garden (to look at only) even if the museum is just a sort of wing of the building cluttered with not terribly interesting pseudo-religious artifacts with little information or structure. It is cheap though, you just donate what you like, I gave them ARS2 as that's what the ethnographic museum charged me.
The guide book said the ethnographic museum had a gaucho chair made of cow bones and hide, but it was just a single room and I didn't see it. It was better curated but still hardly fascinating. They told me about some 'ruins' which I think my ticket is also valid for, but I believe these are the ruins of the old town (it was relocated something like 3-400 years ago) and are EIGHTY KM away. (I thought they said eight and said "so I'd have to get a taxi" and they said that would be too expensive. Apparently there are collectivos from the bus terminal. I just may go tomorrow in the absence of anything else definite to do, but with a 12h overnight trip to come and not wanting to run the risk of somehow getting stuck out at the ruins, I suspect I won't.
I had a walk round the lake (well, as close as you can get to it, which isn't very close most of the time) in Parque Belgrano afterwards, the name of which sadly reminded me of MacArthur Park and I then got the song stuck in my head. I did at least derive a certain innocent enjoyment from observing a hockey match, from a distance, while walking round.
Then back to the hotel for a bit of e-mail replying and web surfing. I have left the laptop out uploading the Buenos Aires photos, since it's better to avoid a backlog (otherwise picking out the photos and getting round to uploading them becomes more of a chore) and I suspect I may find net access a bit scarce in the near future.
Oh, for what it's worth, as I was walking back about 6:30 there were a couple of McDonald's signs showing the temperature, it was 23/24C. It may have been insane around midday for all I know, but I found the weather pleasant when I was out in the afternoon.
It is acceptable out here on the terrace tonight but I must admit I feel it just a touch unpleasantly cool. Maybe I'm going soft or maybe it's just one of those physical condition phases I am going through.
According to the guide book Posadas is where, when going north (as I am), things start to feel tropical. So I expect the nights to be a bit warmer there. I just hope 'tropical' does not mean an increase in size or quanity of eight-legged friends...
10:50pm. A group of four guys sat at the table next to me about half an hour ago. I feel a bit of a curmudgeon but their perfectly reasonable if noisy chat is grating a little (and one has a laugh that goes through me like a knife). I don't like to move as it seems a bit arsey, and I'm sure I'll be able to hear them wherever I sit, but this is neither matey nor conducive to reflection. I feel a bit awkward somehow being sat so close. (I suspect they are a little pissed. I am a bit surprised given what I've been told about local culture - not that they might be pissed, but that it would be so early. But then this town seems a bit of a special case in terms of late night stuff, at least in the early part of the week which is all I am seeing.)
Apropos of nothing, they let me choose my seat when I booked the bus earlier. Sadly all the single seats had gone (the cama buses tend to have a 1-2 layout in each row). I compromised on an aisle seat in a pair, I suspect (from my first overnight bus experience from Santiago to Chañaral) that sucks, but despite vague recollections to that effect (I have some idea the overhead light and other controls are inaccessible from the aisle seat of a pair), I preferred free access to the bog should I need it, at the cost of maybe having to let someone else past. I chose the lower deck as it only has three rows so if I do want to stir in the night I minimise the number of people I might disturb, and I also have the idea the bog is on the lower deck. I'd have gone upstairs like a shot if I could have got a single seat up there though.
11:40pm. Just been to the bog and one of the two urinals is still blocked with the same puke it contained last night. I wonder just how long it's been there. :-)
Midnight. Some foul kid just did what I note a lot of - mostly child - street vendors seem to like doing here. He made the round of the tables dropping some naff goods (in this case a couple of cards with big-eyed vaguely-Japanese-looking cartoon girls on - nothing pornographic, you know the sort of art I mean) on the table, then came back a minute or two later to collect them if you don't want to buy. (Some kid dumped what looked like a small flashing-LED plastic whale on my table the other day. I can't swear to that as I didn't want to touch the thing lest I incur an obligation, but that's what it appeared to be. Maybe it was a keyring, I don't know.) To give them their due they are not pushy when collecting them, but still. (I said no when he dropped the cards off this time, but he ignored me so they still sat there untouched for a few minutes.)
I do wonder if it ever works, I guess it must do, hard as I find it to believe. "Man, I hadn't thought of it til now, but I have always really wanted a flashing plastic whale keyring. The guys back in London will be green with envy! How much?"
00:40. Nearly finished the second litre, am vaguely tempted to stay out but I have an early start and probably best not to push it, am out quite late as it is. Not a brilliant night but I feel fairly relaxed.
Am seriously considering booking up for a dormitory in Posadas, primarily on 'what do I have to lose really' grounds (obvious and only real answer is 'my stuff', but I have to assume there are lockers). Not going to book tonight but I can always get something there on the day and if, as I suspect I will, I am just puttering around town tomorrow I can book online from an internet cafe if it turns out this isn't just drink-fuelled thinking (though I am fairly sober anyway).
It occurs to me my visions of dormitories are probably excessively hellish. I picture bunk beds rammed in tightly, but the one time I did sleep in a dormitory (first night on the Uyuni trip) it wasn't like that. (That was different from what I'm contemplating now, although the trip as a whole was pushing my comfort zone slightly - at least to think about it beforehand, on the trip everything was cool and I wondered why I'd been concerned - at least I was, and knew I would be, sharing a room with people I knew at least slightly as we were all travelling together.)
Posadas is probably a good place to experiment. I will only stay for two nights anyway (I am assuming it's a short enough onwards trip to Iguazu Falls that it will be a daytime trip, otherwise I'd stay one night - but if it's a day trip to IF then one night would give me only one day to see Posadas as I'd have to be on the bus the morning after that sole night) and since I am not arriving late in the day I can check in and get settled and rearrange/stash my stuff without being under too much pressure. (If I am that concerned about the facilities for safe storage, I could always shove the valuables in my small backpack and stash it in a locker at the bus station, I guess, with that much time available.)
I appreciate this is probably all a little laughable but screw you guys. :-) Truth, though it kills me and any respect people might have for me. :-) Anyway, what are the chances of anyone still reading this given the amount of waffle? So I get to be nominally honest in public without any of the downside of it really being public.
It's odd, as I have observed, and probably blogged, before, sleeping on a bus or ferry or plane full of strangers in a seat bothers me not at all, except for the obvious and quite genuine physical comfort issues. But as soon as it becomes just a few people and becomes a 'social' situation, I start to worry about it.
On a completely different note, I fancy I can actually see the Southern Cross. It's a kite-shaped group of four stars (I can't see a central star that would make it a cross, but my faint memory suggests that star is notably less prominent) and there are two bright stars nearby pointing at (slightly above, really) the three 'most bunched up' stars of the cross which my memory suggests are 'the pointers', Alpha and Beta Centauri. The long axis of the 'cross' also points to what I believe is south (away from the three bunched up stars in the kite), which I have an equally faint memory is the case. I wouldn't be too sure I know which way south is geographically, but for what it's worth. I appreciate this is far too much detail for my hypothetical readers, I am writing this mainly for a bored Future Steve who may dig out a sky chart and see if these details are all actually true and confirm it was Crux Australis rather than just some random four stars...
1:15. Just paid, back to the hotel. For what it's worth I think it's a bit livelier than last night but hardly rammed, there are about 20 people on the terrace. Will doubtless surf a bit when I get home but I do need to be up tomorrow morning. I'm sure it'll suck getting up but I do nearly always manage to get up when I have to, so it's all good. If I'm knackered I'm more likely to sleep on the bus, and since that will inevitably be a crap night's sleep it makes the dormitory experiment easier as I'll be more in need of sleep my first night in Posadas too.
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