![Taganga beach]()
I
When Nick and Scott walked out of the ocean the salt water and bright sun stung their eyes. They felt better than they had before, but that was easy, anything would have made them feel better than before. Nick was thinking about how jumping into the ocean was the best way to start your day. Even though their heads were pounding, they were both happy here in Colombia.
As Nick walked out of the shallow water he looked at his feet. He felt disassociated from the slow moving objects which were stepping through the clear water. Ahead of him was Scott, who had become a close friend, and he watched him drag his wet hair to the side of his head and then looked out at the Caribbean Ocean.
Nick turned in the fine sand, which was the color of dried honey, and followed Scott’s gaze out into the harbor. The sea was aqua colored in the shallow areas and gradated into royal blue in the center of the horseshoe shaped bay.
“What kind of juice you going to have.” Nick turned back toward Scott, still dripping. He was as tan and dark as his skin could get, and looked like an active young-man should.
“Probably get the same one we got yesterday, what was it?” Scott followed Nick as he passed him and continued up the beach.
“Mango y Lulo.” Said Nick.
“Yeah I’ll have one of those again, no sugar.”
“Hola Doctor,” Nick said, now smiling towards the lady working at the juice stand they had just walked up to, “como estas?”
“Ah, amigo, todo bien y tu?” The juice lady was old, her skin was dark and it was folded like leather in the places where it got hit by sun every day.
She had been working at the same stand for many years, making fresh juice on the beach. The wrinkles in her skin pulled back when she smiled, and she looked more young and her face became sweet, like the fruit she served. Nick came to see her almost every morning since he first got to this small fishing village and he liked to call her his “doctor” on account that he viewed the juice he got each day as the only medicine he would ever need.
“Dos Mango con Lulo por favor.” Nick nodded towards Scott and included him in the order.
“Si Amigo.” The juice lady said and stood up from her red plastic chair. She put down her knitting in her chair and then walked to the front of her stand. Reaching up into a basket, which was hanging from the roof of her stall, she grabbed two large Lulo fruits. Next she reached up and grabbed four small Mangos from the basket next to it.
Nick and Scott sat down in the two plastic chairs next to hers. In the shade of her stand they watched her remove the skin from the fresh fruits and then cut them into small pieces. She put them into the blender, added some ice, and the smell from the fresh fruit wafted towards them, mixing with the salty ocean air.
“Es tu nina? como es?” Nick asked the juice lady.
“Ah,” the juice ladies eyes brightened, and she smiled at Nick, and laughed a little when she said, “es muy bien senor, por que no matrimonia contigo?”
“Ahhh, no se,” Nick flapped his hand towards her. And then he leaned back in his chair and laughed along with her when he said, “es muy linda y es muy problemas tambien.”
Nick was referring to the juice ladies daughter. He had almost married her on the first Saturday night he was in town, but that was a story for another time. Since then he heard that her daughter works as a prostitute. It was good luck it turned out to be just another bad decision Nick didn’t make and he knew it.
The juice lady filled two plastic cups with cold frosty smoothies and handed them to the boys one at a time.
“Gracias Doctor.” Nick said.
“Gracias Senora,” said Scott.
“A la orden amigos, hasta luego” The juice lady smiled at them as they walked away. It was a happy smile, but Nick still wondered how much she meant it.
II
![Hot and Dusty]()
“I have to get some stuff for the bar,” Nick pointed towards the shop on the corner, “want anything?”
“Get the Santero Ron, I like it more than the Ron de Medellin we were drinking last night.”
“Yeah ok, we only drank that stuff last night because we ran out of Santero, Paul had a bottle in his room and I bought it from him.”
Nick stepped off the dusty street and up the curb into the store. The temperature dropped ten degrees once they were out of the direct sun and in the shade of the shop. The owner of the store was helping another customer and his youngest son ran out from behind the counter towards Nick.
“Nick!” the boy yelled tugging at Nick’s shorts. The young boy had a freshly shaved buzz-cut, and he was always wore a soccer jersey.
“Hola amigo!” Nick scrubbed the boys head and the boy looked up at him with a huge grin. Nick gave him a high five and the boy beamed back at him. The boy was proud to be friends with a gringo, yet he was too young to know why he was proud of it.
Scott stepped into the store and lifted the sunglasses from his face onto his wet hair. He let his eyes adjust to the shade and looked around the shop while Nick went up to the counter.
“Buenos dia amigo.” The owner wiped sweat from his brow and turned towards Nick.
“Hola, como estas, ahh, dos botellas de ron, una botella de vodka, una botella de tequila, cinco packs de hielo, veinte limas, una bolsa de herbabuena, y puedo conseguir dos casos de Aguila y un caso de Club Colombia. Y puede usted entregar más tarde? Ah, y un paquete de Marlboro rojo.”
The owner went into the back room to get the bottles of liquor then came back and placed them next to the two-liter bottles of coca-cola, ginger ale and soda water Nick had placed on the counter. Turning, he grabbed the large aluminum handle on the freezer to open it and pull out five, frozen, 600 ml bags of water.
“Is it pretty full tonight?” Scott asked Nick.
“It should be, a few people left to go on the lost city trek today but a couple new groups came in today. Some English guys and two Dutch girls.”
“What’s the bag of plants for?” Scott pointed to the mint leaves.
“For Mojito’s.”
“Nice, man, good thing those Aussie guys left, they were crazy! Well, crazier than us at least, last night was pretty good though wasn’t it?”
“Uhh, yeah it was all-time,” Nick turned towards the owner who was putting everything in a large styrofoam cooler for them to carry everything up the hill with, “un factura por favor.” Nick added.
“Ah, si.” The owner turned back towards the table which had the accounting ledger, and grabbed the pad of receipts to fill one out so Nick could get paid back by the hostel.
“$160,000 pesos,” The owner said in Spanish.
“Ok, no problema.” Nick pulled out his wallet and grabbed three crisp $50,000 Peso bills and one old and wrinkled $10,000 bill and handed it over.
“Here carry this,” Nick passed Scott the styrofoam cooler and put the receipt into his wallet and put his wallet in the back into the pocket of his shorts.
The bottles knocked around inside the cooler as they walked out of the store. They started up the hill, towards the hostel, on the hot and dusty street. On the corner they passed a group of kids playing soccer, which like most times, was being dominated by one of the twin boys with long hair. The twins dad waved to Nick and Scott as they walked past.
“Ever since you told me you think this hill is getting longer each day, I swear it is.” Scott used his free hand to slide his bangs back from his eyes. He was only here for a few more days but he’d been in this small fishing village for 10 days longer than he had originally planned and was starting to know some of the locals.
There was something special about this place. Scott wasn’t the first person to be here longer than he intended, Nick had been here close to four months and didn’t plan to leave until his visa expired.
“Yeah man, every day it gets a little bit longer right?” Nick wasn’t in the mood for conversation, this damn hill did seem to be getting longer each day and it was too hot and he was starting to feel like shit again.
The sun was directly behind them and their shadows were cast out in front of them long and stretching, and they both were sweating. There were only a few more houses to pass before they got to the hostel and the salvation of its shade, but the heat made the hill feel endless.
“You gonna invite your girlfriend over tonight?”
“Ha,”Scott laughed and tilted his head back, “that’s the point, she’s not my girlfriend, fuck, she should be your girlfriend.”
“No way man, I’m not that stupid.”
“Fuck.”
“Was it worth it at least?”
“No, of course not, she is always going to be there, and now it’s going to be awkward if I meet other chicks.”
“That’s what ya get for hooking up with a friend of the boss.” They were outside the hostel now and Nick turned towards the old lady who was doing laundry across the street.
“Hola Gladys, buenos tardes.”
“Hola Señor, como estas?”
“Todo bien, gracias,” Nick liked to keep it formal and polite with the old lady so he opened the door to the hostel and ended the conversation. He knew if he kept talking it wouldn’t be long before the old lady would ask him for money and he had already taken her fare share from him. He understood why she did it, her whole family was poor, but he didn’t trust her kindness anymore.
Scott and Nick walked into the lobby and Alfredo was sitting at the computer behind the registration desk. He clicked the spacebar to pause whatever he was watching on Youtube and turned his head towards them. His hair was big and puffy like an afro, but it wasn’t like a black mans afro, he was Colombian and it was a Colombian afro.
“Hola, como estas Nick y Scott? Es mucho rumba anoche si?”
“Hahah, si, super bien noche!” Nick was enthusiastic but only acting, he really felt like shit.
“Bien, Bien,” Alfredo was enthusiastic but it wasn’t an act, he was just always happy.
“Eh, Alfredo mas tardes, a la noche, un autra grande fiesta aqui… Tu es tu amigos rumba conmigo?”
“Siii, despiuis mi trabajo.”
“Ok perfecto, que hora?”
“Is almost 4 o’clock” Alfredo said after looking at the clock.
“Ok, el bar es abierto, mi cajero por favor?”
“Ok,” Alfredo turned back to reach under the desk and bring out the cash register for the bar and handed it across the reception desk to him. Nick reached out and noticed how shaky his hands were when he grabbed the cash box for the bar.
“Es todo occupado?” Nick wondered.
“Si, no mas habitaciones.” Alfredo said.
“Chicas o chicos?”
“Dos linda Chicas, y el novios.”
“Bien.” Nick stepped down the two small steps from the reception, and saw Scott standing at the end of the main hallway. He was bent down and had places a bowl of water in front of one of the two Tortoises that lived at the hostel.
“How’s he doing.” Nick asked.
“Better than us.” Scott looked up at Nick with a sparkle in his eye. He was such a good kid, but there was no doubt he had a mischievous boy living inside of him.
“I’m going to take a shower, I’ll meet you up at the bar, can you take the cooler up there for me? ”
“Yeah sure.” But Scott wasn’t paying much attention to Nick anymore. He had sat down on the floor to watch the tortoise drink the water he had poured into a green plastic bowl.
The turtle fully immersed his head underwater and Scott was watching the muscles in his neck and the way they rolled backwards each time he swallowed. The skin of his neck was wrinkly and soft. He took sip after sip until a small yellow puddle dribbled out from under him and then the turtle clumsily backed away from the bowl. Scott grabbed the cooler and went up to the stairs to the bar on the third floor.
Nick meanwhile, had opened the door to his room and walked towards his bunk. He put the cash box on the top bunk, which was his, and then grabbed his towel off the hook on the bedpost.
Alone in the room he saw Scott’s stuff on the bottom of the other bunk, but he didn’t know who had moved into bunk above his. A few bikinis were half-pulled out of the bag and Nick made a wild guess that it was probably a girl who had moved into their room with them.
On the bunk below Nick, Paul had poured the entire contents of his bags onto the bed. It used to be Nicks bed, but he had been out fishing the day Paul showed up and Paul had taken it without knowing. The funny thing was, Nick thought, is that the bed was still made up and hadn’t been slept in since Paul got here three days ago.
On his way upstairs he had seen Paul asleep in one of the fisherman hammocks which was hung in the courtyard next to the pool. Climbing the stairs he shook his head when he saw the red-headed Australian.
Paul’s mouth was open and he was wearing nothing but a tiger costume. Where he got it Nick had no idea, but this was that kind of place, and sometimes there were people like Paul who wound up wearing tiger costumes, with sunburns and open mouth, passed out in a hammock. There comes a point where everyone must sleep.
When Nick went into the bathroom he looked at himself in the mirror and tried to put on a good smile, but it was a tired smile.
“Shit,” was all he said and then slid the shower curtain across the aluminum rod and turned on the shower. There isn’t any hot water in the hostel, but it was never very cold, just cold enough to be refreshing. And hopefully, Nick thought, give me another fresh start to the day. He washed himself with soap and then stepped out of the cold water and pulled his towel off the back of the door.
Looking back towards the mirror he tried to pretend he looked a little better, but he didn’t, he looked just the same but now he was wet. He went back into the room and reached under his bunk to find his cleanest dirty shirt. Smelling his fake Guns & Roses t-shirt he wasn’t sure if it actually smelled clean. Did his nose just not work? Or was Nick’s laundry recycling program, the one where he put his dirty clothes under one side of his bed and then a few days later came out the other side, sometimes, like now, smelling cleaner than when he had taken it off last. He put his swim trunks back on, which were dry by now, and then stood up.
In the corner of the room was his backpack. He unzipped the top pouch to grab his Iphone, a fresh pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Ok, he thought to himself, I can do this, lets have another fun night, “Viva Sabado!” he said aloud to no one but himself. He grabbed the cash box from the top of his bed and went upstairs to the third floor bar. Scott was laying in the middle hammock and the two Irish girls were in the other two.
“Bottom o’ the afternoon to ya, how ya guys doing?” he repeated the shitty joke he had said to them yesterday afternoon.
“Arg, been better.” Scott moaned.
“Yeah we’re doing fine, whats the crack?” Jess, the dark haired of the two, replied to Nick.
“Nothing much, just gonna open the bar,” Nick walked past the bar, which had the styrofoam cooler on top of it, and went behind it with the cash box.
“Did you guys sleep last night?” Jess asked.
“Yeah,” “Not really” Scott and Nick answered in unison and both the girls laughed.
Nick turned back towards the bar and opened the book he used for the daily count. He looked at the fridge and then back at the cooler and then looked up at the Irish girl who was in the hammock nearest to him.
“Hey Anna, want to help me for five minutes and I’ll buy you a beer?”
“Sure,” She said slipping one leg, and then the other, out of the hammock.
“How ya doing today?” Nick asked her.
“Yeah good, me and the girls just got back from Santa Marta, it was bloody hot.”
“What did you guys get up to?”
“Nothing really, Gemma and Jess had to use the cash machine. Their cards don’t work at the machine here.”
“Where’s Gemma?”
“I think she’s downstairs Skyping her boyfriend.”
“Did you guys have fun last night?”
“Yeah we got on great!” Her eyes brightened when she said this and he felt something inside of him, but he was too hungover to recognize the feeling and it slipped away.
“Yeah me too, the first half of the night, when we were partying here, was my favorite, but dancing at the El Mirador was pretty fun too. It was just so hot last night.”
“I know, there was no breeze at all.” she said, looking up at Nick.
Nick, who wasn’t sure what her eyes were saying, or what he looked like to her, but he stared back at her and they both smiled. There was an awkward chemistry between them and Anna knew it as much as Nick. Unfortunately, their hangovers were the closest thing to an emotion either of them could feel at the moment, and then the moment passed.
Nick stood up tall, and said with the determined tone, “Ok, so I need to count all the beers, can you start with the Aguila’s?”.
“On it” Anna spun around and pulled on the door but the door was locked. The beer rattled around inside the tall, narrow fridge and Nick knew by the sound it just made that he forgot to unlock it.
“Oh shit, sorry.” Nick turned to face the sink behind him and then pulled out the knife, which last night had been left stabbed into the wooden table that they prepared cocktails on.
He stepped towards the fridge and when he slipped past Anna she turned away, as opposed to towards him, and Nick wondered if there was any significance to it.
With the tip of the knife he popped open the cheap padlock and then puled the fridge open. A wave of frosty air poured out, and the beers,which had been held captive, were now liberated.
“In this heat it is important to hydrate, as your associate in crime, I suggest we both drink a cold Aguila immediately.” Nick grabbed two beers from the top of the fridge.
“Want one?” he asked as he handed one to Anna.
“Sure do, thanks!”
And there it was again, the awkward chemistry. Was she turned on by him, or the cold beer? They had known each other for about more than a week now, but she never let herself really get within reach. There was something about her which was untouchable, she was, for lack of a better description, Anna, and Anna was her own woman. There was no denying that.
They had spent hours talking, both sitting across from each other drinking at the bar, or laying in hammocks, or walking home after the disco closed, trailing behind everyone as they became caught up in whatever nonsense they were talking about. But still, Nick hadn’t gotten any closer than he had the first night he met her, which to put it clearly, was nowhere.
Nick had told her the first time he met her that he thought she was beautiful. He had since then been as kind and friendly as possible. Most of all, perhaps to his detriment, he had been completely honest when he told his stories from behind the bar. They were mostly hilarious episodes from his distant past and transgressions from his not so distant past, but he hoped she could see past his mistakes, perhaps seeing them as he saw them, life lessons.
But there was something else, something neither of them could hope to understand, not here, not now. That much she had been clear on. Nick couldn’t help that he had a small sliver of hope she would change her mind. He tried to forget the silly romantic first kiss he had tried to give her when they went away with friends to the beach resort on his days off.
He thought he had done everything right, he even brushed his teeth and didn’t smoke until after she turned him, and his awkward attempt at a kiss, away.
It wasn’t a total loss though, standing on the deserted Caribbean beach he had pulled out a cigarette when he knew it didn’t matter what his breath tasted like anymore. Lit by the setting sun on one side, and the rising full moon on the other, they sat together and he showed her how to open young coconuts and drink their water.
III
![Hammock recovery]()
Hammock recovery
“Oh my god are you serious, shit Jess, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, I’ve just been trying to get drunk, I can’t even think about it right now.”
“But your sure?”
“Yes i’m sure, I was sick this morning and that’s why I went to the supermarket in town.”
“Did you see the doctor?”
“No, I just got one at the store.”
“What if it get it was wrong, are you going to go again?”
“There’s no point, I’m pretty sure of it now, fuck Anna, what am I going to do?”
“Uhh, shit, Jess…” Anna suddenly felt claustrophobic inside the tiny bathroom while her friend told her about the rather large problem developing in her life.
“What about Tom, he gets here in like 10 days doesn’t her?”
“You can’t say anything to Tom!”
“I won’t…” What the fuck Anna thought, she didn’t want to be in the middle of this.
“I’ll kill you!”
“I won’t say anything, I swear.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Here?”
“No, in town somewhere.”
“But do you think they even do it here?”
“What do you mean, because they’re all Catholics?”
“Yeah”
“I don’t know, I’ll figure it out.”
“Jess if there is anything you want me to do, if you want me to come with you…”
“I said I’ll take care of it.”
“Ok, I’m just saying, I’m here for you.”
“I know, thanks.”
“Fuck Jess.”
“Fuck Jess is right, I want a drink, let’s go, and I know you’ve got something going on with the bartender, what’s the deal?”
“Nothing, you know what the deal is.” Anna took one last look at herself in the mirror and adjusted her hair. She opened the door of the bathroom and the two girls walked fluidly back to their deserted bar stools. They had a renewed confidence from the Colombian talking powder Scott had given them.
IV
![Let them play dice!]()
Let them play dice!
“Let’s play dice.” Anna said to the bartender when he turned away from the two English boys he was talking too.
“I’m always up for a game of dice, you know me!” Nick asked to the two English boys, “Hey you guys want to play dice with us?”
As he asked them he turned towards the shelf which was above the sink behind him and grabbed a silver cup. The cup held five dice, and had been next to the cup which held the dead puffer fish. The dead puffer fish was pretty cool the first time you saw it, but Nick had yet to see anyone take more than a moments interest in it.
“What rules are there?” Harry, the larger of the two boys asked.
“The rules? What rules are there you ask?” Nick turned to face them and rattled the dice around inside the cup. He poured them onto the center of the wooden bar and said, “Ok, so this is how you play the dice game, the name of the game is the suerte tortuga, or, the lucky turtle, I named it after the hostel where we are all staying, the La Tortuga. So we are all playing for a shot, meaning we will all take a shot. However, whoever wins the game gets their shot for free and they get to pick the shot.”
“Who pays for it?” asks Patrick, the English boy sitting next to Harry.
“It’s on the house. So the winner,” He continued, holding up three fingers, “gets a free shot, they choose what shot we drink AND,” he pulled down his third finger as he said this, “the winner is responsible for making the toast.”
“We’re in!” Said Harry, with a firm tone, and his deep voice, which with his thick accent, sounded determined.
“Yay” said Jess and she slid her stool closer to Anna’s, who in turn slid her stool closer to the boys.
Nick raised the empty silver cup and threw it at a slight angle towards the bar and it caught the cup just under the lip popping it back up in the air. It spun rapidly and Nick, for once, caught it mid rotation. He spun around and slammed it back in its place, next to the puffer fish.
Turning back to the English boys Nick felt slightly honored that the girls had clapped for his little trick. They had been here for over a week, drinking at this same bar they were at now, sitting in the same stools, hearing his stories, which by now he was starting to run out of.
Anna and Jess played the dice game many times since they got here and were quite familiar with the rules. They sat waiting for Nick to finish explaining the game.
“To start, you roll all five dice,” Nick shook his hand and then rolled the dice onto the bar, “the point of the game,” he said looking at the two 4’s, one 1, one 2 and a 6, “is to get the lowest score possible.”
He slid the 1 to the left hand side of the bar and picked up the rest of the dice.
“Every time you roll you have to pick up at least one dice,”
“Di!” Anna interjected.
“Di,” Nick continued, “every time you roll, you have to put add at least one di to your score. I took the 1 because I want to have the lowest score possible at the end of the game.”
“Easy enough.” Harry said leaning forward onto his thick arms. He reached out and flicked the ash his cigarette in the piece of hollow bamboo that was both the tip jar, and the ash tray. It wasn’t his fault though, the tip jar just happened to be a hollow piece of bamboo, the same as all the ashtrays.
“Ok, so I pick up the other four dice,” Nick said with a mischievous grin meant for Anna, “and roll again.”
The dice rolled along the bar and there were Two 3’s, one 6 and 1 showing. Nick slid the two 3’s to join the 1 he had put aside last roll.
“Ok, so there is one special number and that is the number three. A three is worth zero, so if I want to have the lowest score I can at the end of the game I will take these two 3’s to my score and roll again.”
“And you can add more than one dice if you want to.” Jess said.
“How many times do you roll?” Patrick asked.
“Until the dice are gone.” Jess added while Nick was shaking the dice in his hand.
He rolled two 1’s and slid them both towards the other dice. “So you always have to take at least one dice, but you can also take more if you want to, that is where strategy comes in. I could take both 1’s and my final score would be three, or I could take one 1 and roll the other di,” Nick said the word while looking at Anna, “and hope I get a three, but if we were really playing right now I would probably take both 1’s.”
“Ok, I get it, lets play.” Harry said in his rumbling voice.
“First we have to see who goes first.” Anna grabbed one of the dice.
“How do we do that?” asked Patrick.
“We all take one dice and whoever rolls the highest number goes first.” Nick handed the other three dice out and took one for himself.
“Ok ready?” said Jess
“Ready” said Nick and he rolled his di onto the bar in front of him.
V
![A perfect game...]()
A perfect game…
Scott turned to Jess who had come to sit next to him in the hammock after the game of dice. They had slept together almost a month ago, on the first night he met the girls, but she had been weird ever since, and it wasn’t until recently that he had learned the reason why. She had a boyfriend, and that boyfriend was going to be coming to meet up with her in just over a week.
“Scott, remember the night in Cuzco when we got really drunk and ended up sleeping together?”
“Yeah of course!” Scott sat up interested in where this conversation was going.
“We used a condom right?”
“Yeah of course.” Scott said this with certainty, but he knew he shouldn’t be so certain. The truth was he knew he had been so drunk that night he wasn’t sure what happened.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah why? Do you think I have an STD or something?”
“No, it’s not that, I just need to know.”
“Want to go down to my room and try again?”
“No, that is definitely not what I want.” She stood and walked away from him and sat back down at the bar next to Anna. Women, he thought as she walked away.
“He said that we definitely used a condom.” Jess said privately when she sat down.
“Do you believe him?”
“I guess so, he hooks up with a lot of girls. It’s probably just my shit luck, or bad karma, that it happened to me.”
“What happened to you?” Asked Nick.
“Nothing” Both the girls said together.
“What kind of nothing?”
“The kind of nothing that doesn’t concern you” Anna looked upset now, although Nick had no idea what they were talking about.
“Ok then, anybody want to play another game of dice?” If there was one thing he had learned it was that no problem was a match for the dice game. If you played it enough it became impossible to worry about anything. He turned around to grab the silver cup and shook the dice.
“One more, then we are going out, right?” Jess looked at Anna.
“One more it is ladies, step right up, try your worst, let’s see if you have what it takes to beat the current world champion. Hey Scott, you want to play?”
“Nah, I’ll sit this one out” Nick was still thinking about why Jess had come and asked him that question. It seemed like such a random thing to ask now, a month later. She was hot, but he didn’t have time for her head games. Besides, the girl who was friends with the owner could be showing up anytime and Scott didn’t want it to be weird.
If he wasn’t able to find anything better tonight he would try to take the bosses friend to bed again. He didn’t really want to, but he was drunk and horny and really fucking high from the massive line of cocaine he had just taken. He wanted to have sex and at this point it didn’t really matter.
Scott watched them play dice at the bar and took a large sip from his rum and coke, which had been poured in that same order. A lot of rum, and a little coke to make it a little sweeter. He wondered if Nick was ever going to get anywhere with Anna. She was probably just leading him on, he thought, she got enough free drinks out of it thats for sure.
VI
![No fun was allowed that night]()
No fun was allowed that night
“Ok, last call!” Nick yelled at around midnight to the now semi-filled bar. Everyone but the Dutch girls came up to refresh their drinks.
“Are we going out?” asked Katrina, the Australian who Nick knew could out drink the whole bar if she wanted to. She had stayed here a few weeks ago, the night of the Lunar Eclipse, boy what a night that had been Nick thought as he made her another Mojito.
“Of course we are going out!” Scott said walking up to the bar and throwing his arms around Katrina, who in turn slid just as smoothly out from under it.
“One more of these tasty devils.” Scott said to Nick.
“No problem, last one and then I’m going to close up” Nick explained.
“Sounds good, I’m ready.” said Scott.
“Hurry up!” said Jess.
“Let’s go down to the room first” Anna poked Jess.
“Scott you want to come with us?” Jess asked Scott.
“Sure”
“Ok, I’ll meet you guys downstairs” Nick said as he was counting the money in the till. When he finished locking up and turning off the lights he went downstairs. He dropped the cash box off at the reception desk with Eric, the night watchman, and then went outside to join the eager group.
“Which way?” Harry asked, his accent even thicker now that he was good and drunk.
“Follow me,” said Nick, “wait where is Scott and the girls?”
“They were getting ready” Someone said.
“Ok, I’ll go get them, one second I’ll be right back.” Nick ran back through the door and took the stairs two at a time and when he got to the top he saw the three of them walking towards him.
“Come on lets go, everyone is waiting for us.”
“We’re coming” Anna told him. She sure looked pretty tonight Nick thought.
The group walked together down the dirt road and turned left at the first street. They followed it until the dirt became cement and then turned right at the stop sign. Straight ahead was the beach and they walked towards it. When they got there they turned left and walked under the loud music that was coming from Sensations, the second best dance club in town. They kept walking towards where the street ended and the beach began.
Nick knew what would happen next and so he preemptively asked anyone in the group if they wanted to get any Cocaine.
“Yeah, we’ll take some” said Patrick.
“Is it gone already?” Harry sounded surprised.
“It will be soon, we should get some more.”
“Ok, how much is it?” Harry asked Nick.
“15,000 for a gram.”
“Fuck me, thats only five quid! Harry did ya hear that? It’s only five quid a gram here.”
“Yeah I heard him, we’ll get five.” Harry pulled out his wallet and handed a wad of cash to Nick, “Just bring me the change.” He said dropping his cigarette butt and grinding it out beneath his flip-flop.
“Ok, I’ll be right back.” Nick took the money and veered away from the group towards the group of guys he knew would be up ahead of them, hiding in the shadows.
As for Nick’s role in all of this, he didn’t want to be a drug dealer, but he would rather that the tourists got what they wanted without being ripped off. Plus, he wanted one for himself.
VII
![Dance, Dance, Dance...]()
Dance, Dance, Dance…
Everyone except for Harry and Patrick knew what it meant when the song “Lemon Tree” came on at El Mirador. It meant it was last call and the bar was closing.
“Come on, let’s go get a bottle from the hole in the wall.” Scott shouted to Nick when the lights came on.
“One second, I’ll tell the girls”
“Ok, meet you downstairs.” Scott turned to walk downstairs and waved goodbye to the owner, Felipe, who was standing behind the bar counting the money in the till.
“Ciao!” He said, with a cigarette in his mouth which dropped its ash onto the bar when he spoke.
Nick found the girls where they had been dancing all night. They were both sweaty and flushed from dancing, “Come on, we’re gonna go meet Scott at the hole in the wall.”
“I want to keep dancing.” Anna pouted.
“Can we open the bar if we go back?” Jess asked Nick.
“Yeah definitely, but let’s go get a bottle first and see whats going on down at the beach.” Nick led them down the stairs, past the security guard, and turned to wait for them at the bottom of the stairs.
“Where’s Jess?” he asked.
“She had to use the bathroom.” Anna said, her cheeks still flushed, her face with an animated life.
“Is she ok?”
“Yeah she’s fine, she’s just been dealing with some shit.”
“She seems a little off.”
“She’ll be fine,” Anna said this definitively, “here she comes, come on.”
“All good?” Nick asked as Jess as came down the steps, wondering what was really going on.
“Yup, lets go!” Jess sounded cheery but both Nick and Anna knew there was something going on, but neither of them said anything else.
VIII
![Paul]()
“Come here Princessa!” Paul said in his little kids voice. He had rejoined the group at El Mirador and was in fine form. Standing in front of the group he looked hilarious, he had been sprayed with some sort silly string and it was all over his face. The drawstring of his shorts was undone and he was holding a can of tuna that he bought for Princessa, the queen of the street dogs, as he called her.
Paul loved rum, in fact he loved it so much that he forgot to come back to the bar until it had already closed. He had spent the afternoon, and then most of the night, sitting right where they were sitting now and drinking Ron de Medellin with random people he met on the street.
“Why is her name Princessa?” Scott asked, “Here Nick, your up.” He handed Nick a tiny plastic shot glass filled with Aguardiente. Nick liked the popular Colombian spirit made from sugar cane. It tasted like licorice.
From out of the shadows came Princessa. She walked with authority and every muscle from her nose to her tail rippled beneath her tiger colored coat.
“Come here Princessa…” Paul’s voice became even more silly and cheerful. Nick downed his shot and then returned it to Scott.
“A couple months ago there were two German girls,” Nick said, “both their names was Franzi, they named her Princessa but before that I used to call her Brokey T, on account of her broken tail. She’s the only dog I have seen fishing down by the water.” He pointed at the end of her tail which was bent at a sharp angle.
“She can fish?” Anna asked.
“Yeah, she stands at the edge and waits for the waves to wash little fish close to her and then jumps on them.”
“Here Jess take one” Scott had refilled the plastic shot glass and handed it to Jess.
“No thanks, I don’t like that stuff.” she said, but her actions denied her words when she took the shot and gulped it down.
“Haha, ok then” Scott said with a laugh, taking the cup from Jess who turned on the cement ledge she was sitting on, and spat onto the beach behind them.
“Let me have one too Scott.” Anna demanded and Scott gave poured her one right away.
“Yes mam.”
“Thanks,” Anna handed him back the cup, “that was good, I want another.”
“Hold on darling, let me get one.” The bottle was almost gone and he had only had three, or was it four, shots. He didn’t remember but he knew he needed at least one more.
“Let’s go Jess.” Anna said, she was drunk and all she wanted was to party more, but the crowd on the street had slowly dwindled. They had been sitting there for at least an hour now and there wasn’t much left to look forward to.
“I want to go with Nick, he said when we get back we can open the bar.” Emma told Anna.
“Are you gonna?” Scott asked, looking at Nick.
“Yeah for sure, lets go!” Nick said as he stood, but he had no intention of opening the bar, he just wanted to get back and try to find a way to have a minute alone with Anna.
“Let’s go to Sensations!” Jess exclaimed as she stood up.
“It closes at the same time as the Mirador.” Nick said, man the girls were drunk he thought.
“Ok fine lets go back to the hostel then” She stood up also and grabbed Anna’s hand, pulling her to her feet.
IX
![Spontaneous human pyramid]()
Spontaneous human pyramid on the beach
Nick was a writer, and as the group followed him back to the hostel, he turned towards them and began to recite a short poem he had been working on. It wasn’t quite right yet, but it was starting to come together.
“At a certain point the night is done, but not for you of course. There are hills to climb, roads to walk, and many miles between now and then.
But its over in terms of hope and has been for hours. The only reason we’re still here is to finish the bottle. Those small plastic cups, filled with small shots of licorice. Warm, straight forward, and strong enough to make the world keep on glowing, and boy were we glowing. We had been all night, but at a certain point the night is done.
The night was done and I was done and there was no hope of kissing a girl, or finding a new party, there were just miles to go and hills to climb and that was all.”
“Who wrote that?” Scott asked.
“I did.” Said Nick.
“I like it.” Scott caught up to Nick, the girls were lagging behind a little bit.
“Thanks, it’s not finished yet, but it captures the experience here, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah for sure, hey, so what do ya think, you got a chance with Anna?”
“Doubt it, but I’m going to try.”
“Good luck on that one. Man, what’s with Jess tonight?”
“Don’t know, I saw you guys talking at the bar earlier, what did she say?”
“Nothing really.” Scott lied,
“Think you’ll go for it again? She’s pretty drunk.”
“Fuck I wish, she seems pissed at me for some reason though.”
“You go for Jess and I’ll take Anna.”
“That’d be fun, and then we can switch half way through.”
“I wish.”
“Yeah man, fuck you should have been in Cuzco with us, the night I hooked up with Jess was wild, it was that Monday of the lunar eclipse.”
“That night was crazy here too, I kept the bar open all night.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and I’ll bet you that you end up with that friend of the owner again tonight, did you ever talk to her today? I thought I saw her at the Mirador.”
“Yeah I talked to her, I told her I would Whatsapp her later. She was there for a little bit and tried to get me to go meet the boss at the garage bar or whatever its called.”
“El Garaje,” Nick corrected him,“its just down the street from the hostel.
They walked into the hostel, and it was 3:30am when Nick got his phone from his room and looked at the time. He went up stairs to the bar and was surprised to see a bigger group of people than he had expected.
“Hey guys,” Nick said as he walked up, “how’s it going? I wasn’t sure where you guys went”
“Going great!” Harry said coming out of the bathroom and slapping Nick on the back, “thanks again for getting us that Charlie, its damn good.”
“Haha, no problem Harry, where’s Patrick?”
“He’s passed out over there.” Harry pointed to what looked like a dead body hanging in a hammock, “sit down with us and have a drink.”
“Need some ice?”
“That’d be lovely, thank you kind sir.”
“One sec.” Nick went behind the bar and grabbed the knife to open the lock on the fridge. He scooped two cups of ice out of the ice chest and then locked the door, even though it didn’t matter, anyone could get into it if they really wanted. But no one ever did.
X
![Can't stop, won't stop!]()
Can’t stop, won’t stop!
“Why not?” Nick stood back, his ego hurt from being rejected once again.
“Because, I told you why.”
“So what, he’s your boyfriend or something?”
“No, it’s not like that, I already told you.”
“It’s not like what?”
“I don’t just get drunk and hook up with people.”
“I know and I like that about you, but look Anna, I have liked you ever since the moment we met.” Nick was trying not to sound desperate, but he wouldn’t give up yet, now he wanted her for two reasons. One was lust, and the other was the feeling that he had lost some sort of game, and he didn’t like to lose, not ever.
It was the same two reasons which he had been confronted, and confused by, ever since the first time he tried to kiss her. They had been on the beach, under a full moon while they drank fresh coconut. Did he really want her for who she was, or was it a matter of pride which he felt must be restored? Whatever it was, she had turned him down twice, and he felt rejected.
“Can’t we just be friends?” She tried to grab his hand with hers. Her skin was much softer than Nick’s, but he dropped her hand. He reached out for the drink Harry had been so kind to refill just before he cornered Anna after he saw Jess walk into the bathroom alone.
“I’m going to bed.” Jess said walking up to them, “I feel like shit.”
“Are you ok?” Anna stood up and looked at Emma, “I’ll come with you.”
What is my problem, I am so pathetic Anna thought. She knew she liked him, but he was too crazy, and he drank too much, and, and…Well he had too many demons, and she didn’t want to be with someone like that, not now, not ever again.
XI
![]()
“Sorry, what was your name again?”
“Allison, jeez, you want me to spell it?”
“No, I’m only kidding, come here.” Scott adjusted his position in the hammock and the girl on top of him brushed his hair to the side of his head from where it had fallen over his eyes.
“You have nice hair.” she said.
“Thanks.” Scott pulled her towards him and kissed her. It was sloppy and they were drunk, but she had a nice body and when it came down to it that’s all he cared about. The reason Scott slept with so many woman wasn’t because of an insatiable sexual appetite, it was because he didn’t like sleeping alone. He always woke up feeling lost.
If he hadn’t met this girl he would have sent a message to the bosses friend. But this was easier, no awkwardness, he had only talked to her for a few minutes before he invited her to join him in a hammock. A few seconds after she climbed on top of him they were kissing.
“Lets go downstairs.” Scott said, pulling his head back.
“Where?”
“My room.” Said Scott.
“Is anyone there?”
At this point Scott had one hand on the small of her back with the tips of his fingers slid under the waistline to her skirt. His other hand had found its way up the back of her leg onto the back of her thigh, and then it kept going to where he could feel her warmth. She moaned when one of his fingers slid across piece of material which was overtop the warmth. To Scotts experienced mind he though it felt like the material must be satin.
“Mmmm, ok… Ohhhh.” She moaned loudly, more loudly than she should have. There were only a few people left in the bar now though. There was Harry and Patrick, one of the Dutch girls and some other guy who he’d met earlier, but by this time in the evening he had no idea what his name was.
Scott led Allison by the hand downstairs to his room. It was still dark, but there was a faint dusting of color which meant the morning was coming soon.
He opened the door and when it shut it behind him it was dark. But in the moment it had been open he had seen Nick asleep in his bunk, had heard the faint snore of the Dutch girl in the bunk above his, and the bed below Nick had a pile of clothes on it, but was still made up. What the hell did Paul do each night?
![Viva Colombia!]()
Viva Colombia!
![]()
![]()
I
Deciding which books to bring is a difficult decision for every backpacker. Knowing there will be times they’re your only source of entertainment means literally weighing the pro’s and cons of each book you pack. Ebooks do make it easier, but nothing beats a real book. That’s how I connected online with Steve Bieber, the owner of Authors Bookstore in Bogota, Colombia. I asked him the question; Which book would you bring on a backpacking adventure? His answer was Tom Clancy’s first novel “The Hunt for Red October.” It was published by the Naval Institute Press, a tiny publisher in Annapolis, Maryland where Steve is from. He loves the tight editing style, length, and of course the suspenseful story. After a few more 140-character exchanges on Twitter I told him I would stop by when I arrived in Bogota.
When it comes finding inspiration
Everybody loves 
In a market saturated with talent, 
