La Cantina

Everyone needs a local bar to call their own. Preferably, it should be dark enough to obscure the difference between day and night, have regulars that are at the bar drinking by 11am, a jukebox with a decent selection of classics, a proper TV (not forty of them) to watch a futbol match and most importantly, must be within stumbling distance. Unfortunately the only watering hole within walking distance is La Cantina, the bar in the lobby of the Best Western.

So it was there that my English neighbor and new drinking buddy Rich and Habitat employee Diana headed over after work on Friday. It has none of the aforementioned qualities but they serve alcohol and it's a place to people watch (I also learned that they have free wi-fi). "Did that guy have his floral Hawaiian shirt tucked in? Who does that? Is she wearing leather pants?" People watching took on an added dimension when we made an interesting discovery after a couple of rounds. La Cantina doubles as a defacto brothel bar. It was packed to the gills with sex-workers (to use the PC term) plying their trade to Westerners. How did we know they were prostitutes? Most of the time it was obvious but sometimes it was harder to tell because some women here where some fairly ridiculous outfits. Identifying the prostitutes was a cheap form of passing the time.

The other equally significant discovery was that Thursday is karaoke night which means I'll have some real gems to post on the blog in the coming weeks. Because really, what goes together better than gringos, prostitutes and karaoke? I'm going with friends to watch the Costa Rica vs. Chile futbol match at the stadium today, it should be fun. Carry on.