Day 2 - January 21

Day 2 - January 21
Did a shot after losing a bet on a card trick
Went to a nightclub in Arica, Chile - Beats
Pisco Sour, Champagne

        I don't remember anything about the card trick here, but I do remember the rest of that night. Mélanie and I were travelling through Chile with Sjoerd and when we got to Arica we stayed in what is still one of the best hostels I've ever been to. The owner was some fiftyish-year-old guy who charged travellers with the day-to-day running of his hostel in exchange for free board. These two English guys who'd been there for five weeks made all the food, did the cleaning, and ran errands for El Jefe, while he slept in until midday, woke up, ate, slept again until 8pm, then woke up and started drinking. To me, now, that life seems like it would be profoundly sad and lonely, but when I saw that at 20 I honestly thought this guy was a fucking God.
        This night was the English guys' last in the hostel, they'd been there over Christmas and New Years and were full of stories about the guy who ran the place, and he was making a big show of taking them and anyone else who wanted out for one last night on the town. I remember in the cab El Jefe drunkenly explaining that in Chile the people don't pronounce the 's' in words: “'Dohh-mil'! Decimos 'dohh-mil'”, he repeated over and over. That's instead of 'dos-mil' – two-thousand.

        We went out to some night club and I spent a bunch of money on drinking. Mélanie wasn't into it, but she told me to go if I wanted, so I told her I loved her and left her in the hostel sleeping. I felt bad for leaving her there, but I wanted excitement and new people, and she seemed fine with it.

Click here to read the next part - Day 3 - January 26th