I went out and walked about Santa Marta instead. The hostel is at the city center, just off the beach. There's a central square surrounded by a dozen banks, and a few casinos (and hardly anything else, scum collects) with a great equestrian statue of Simon Bolivar, the George Washington of South America, who died here at 47 in 1830.
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| The Liberator |
There's a container port with one of those great hoist cranes to lift the containers off the boats on the waterfront, and a beach that verges into a breakwater.
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| Port lights at night |
The water seems relatively clean, and there were urchins diving and swimming all along the waterfront, looking for coins and seafood.
I was propositioned by this very talkative and friendly woman who wanted to give me a massage. Twenty five bucks, my choice of creams. Much more subtle come on than usual from the prostitutes down here, who usually are quite aggressive.. She left me the pretension that we could have been talking about shiatsu, which we in fact could have been, but I'm pretty sure weren't. I was grateful for this, because I can't stand aggressive whores. I listened to her, as she told me about her life and all about the coast about the city.
I left my camera in the room, so this evening after eating a forth time at the superb Mexican place that is owned by the hostel, I decided to go out and walk about getting pictures, including the two prior.
This is why I detest libertarianism. Like this crap is supposed to be legal? Leave me the f**K alone, please. Where are the cops? If you think prostitution should be legal, think about having our public spaces invaded like this. This type of thing makes me appreciate what it must be like for girls to be hit on and leered at. Not cool.
Still, there is in fact a certain nasty charm in being propositioned so blatantly. They're actually kind of funny, the things that they say, like "¡Que rrrr-ico!" (how yummy!) "¡Ay, papi!" - other stuff like that. Until they get down to groping (no respect for personal space, they try to feel you up) and flashing you (the girl - I think she's a girl - in the picture below actually has quite a nice ass, I know because she showed it to me several times) and asking to fellate you. I flatter myself, I think a few of them would have done it for free..
They wanted me to take photos of them, I obliged:
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| Que rico. |
Yeah. So that's Santa Marta by night.
I then headed back to the hostel, which is quite happening. There's a bar upstairs where they blare the tunes until two-ish every night. Not so loud that it disturbs my sleep, so I don't mind. As I mentioned, there's a really, really good Mexican place in the same building, and the downstairs has a groovy swimming pool in the center courtyard, with a movie room where they have probably a few hundred films tevo'd and on constant rotation. The crowd is twenty-ish and international, but largely anglophone.
The hostel too, has an air of decadence about it. This picture is on the wall in the stairway to the bar area. It's pornographic and sacrilegious, so don't study this image too closely if you don't want to be offended:
That's just how we roll these days, eh. Penis jokes never get old, especially when they're blasphemous, right?
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| Creepy. |
There's also a ram's skull on the wall of the barroom, which reminds me of this.
All of which leaves me ambivalent, in that while this town and hostel are once beautiful, they are also charged with a souspeçon of corruption. I've been of paranoid mind these past few years.. I've been getting over it lately, throwing myself more fully back into an emphatic life of prayer where I'm trying to avoid analyzing things and becoming judgmental (ergo prudentes sicut serpentes, et simplices sicut columbæ.. that in my case by grace alone, because I'm too much the fool to manage it by my own) and thereby jacking up my inner life with the idea that I understand anything or anyone, or that I am actually in control of anything or anyone beyond my own mind and heart, and even that is touch and go, most the time...
Anyhow, as I came back to catch some sleep before diving tommorow, I noticed that the hostel is right next door to this:
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| eis qui sine peccado.. |
Which made me smile. We're also right around the corner from another Paroquia de San Francisco here, as well. I took a couple crummy shots of the church, it's a humble little colonial structure, I like it quite a lot. I hope I can assist at mass there sometime before I leave here these next couple days..
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| He's always popping up, wherever I happen to go.. |
Tonight is the eve of our little brother's feast. Saint Francis, pray for us. I pray tonight especially for my little whores, may they come to no harm in the resurrection..
I think that's all I got for you guys tonight. Blessings on your heads. Sleep tight.
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Oracion Simple
Senor, haz de mi un instremento de tu paz,
Que alla donde hay odio, yo pongo el amor.
Que alla donde hay ofensa, yo pongo el perdon.
Que alla donde hay discordia, yo pongo la union.
Que alla donde hay error, yo pongo la verdad.
Que alla donde hay duda, yo pongo la Fe.
Que alla donde hay desperacion, yo pongo la esperenza.
Que alla donde hay tiniebas, yo pongo luz.
Que alla donde hay tristessa, yo pongo alegria.
Oh Senor, que yo no busque tanto
Ser consolado, cuanto consolar.
Ser consolado, cuanto consolar.
Ser comprendido, cuanto comprendar.
Ser amado, cuanto amar.
Porque es dandose, como se recibe.
Es olvidanose de si mismo, como uno se encuentra a si mismo.
Es olvidanose de si mismo, como uno se encuentra a si mismo.
Es perdonando, como se es perdonado.
Es muriendo, como se resucita a la vida eterna.
Amen +
I think that's all I got for you guys tonight. Blessings on your heads. Sleep tight.
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