Day 2 - Don't You Know It's Illegal to Sell Iguanas on the Highway?

This hotel room has marvelous curtains, able to block out any rays of sunlight that the beach town has to offer. So I wake up in near darkness, and then spread these gold and red fabrics to reveal blinding light. Wonderful, and a welcome change from my current, curtain-less apartment that wakes me up every morning without sympathy.


Angel Lola collected me at 9 to walk over to the cinema. On the way, she warned me about all of the dangers of being in this city. I shouldn't dress the way I dress, I should hide my watch, I shouldn't walk around at night. Great. I got a coffee and two croissants (medialunas) and then saw a gruesome comedy from Argentina, DIABLO. It's effective and well directed. It reminds me of DOWN TERRACE, in that it was a crime film confined to a home, with a similar sense of space. Alternatively, though, it featured the violence that that film avoided. It was also quite funny, but judging by the audience reactions I don't think I got all of the jokes.

At that point, the angel told me she felt sick and wanted to leave. I have a feeling I'll never see her again. I walked and met up with Alex and his angel, and we had lunch. Seeing their relationship, it made me jealous - I feel like I've lost my companion, and I felt sorely alone. He ate calamari that was very delicious. I had a steak that was ok, but I made the wrong decision. Menus here are often daunting because I don't know what they are saying.

I also had my first experience with local wine. Taking the advice of my friend Jeremy Parzen, I simply asked for white wine rather than naming a type. His blog, do bianchi, is named after the common saying in Venice of asking for "two white wines;" I think this is a non-American experience, as naming a color seems to encourage the waiter to bring the house/local wine. What I got was Vasco Viejo, a "vino blanc." No other details were on the label. The wine was floral and definitely low-alcohol, an easy drinking, very-very slightly effervescent wine that reminded me somewhat of vinho verde. A nice companion to the calamari that I should have ordered.

I also drank carbonated water (agua con gas), a ubiquitous drink here. It was the same in my experience of Europe. We are so stupid to not be drinking this every day back home. It makes your body feel good.


I retired to my hotel for a much-needed sauna. When I went, there was a matron standing around to help. I fumbled to communicate with her in Spanish. She held up a towel and a robe. I took the towel but said "No, gracias" to the robe. She gave a knowing smile. What does that mean? She seemed amused by my desire to be naked in that room. Is that not customary?

Boy did I sweat.

Quickly, I rushed to see the American skateboarding documentary DRAGONSLAYER. A nice film about some less-than-stellar people. One amazing moment in which a couple describes their meeting:

Woman: I was at a skatepark, and my friend started yelling, "She needs to get laid!" I said, "Yeah, I need to get laid." And he saw us and said, "Well I've got a big dick."
Man: Yeah.
Woman: And basically we've been together ever since.

After was the Alex Cox film EL PATRULLERO, a film he shot in Mexico about a highway patrolman who gets caught up in some difficult stuff. The film is beautiful, and the story is an engaging critique of…a lot of things. There was one amazing line which I used as the title of this entry.

Following the film I sat in a cafe and ate another sandwich de jamon crudo y queso. I think I could eat these forever and never tire of them. I was feeling very lonely, as I am without angel nor friend and it's surprisingly difficult to find people who will/can speak English.


I started writing ideas for a film, which degraded into writing a list of all the things that are wrong with me and then writing paragraphs about each of these flaws. Probably not the healthiest thing to do when you're feeling lonely.

I met up with Pablo and Alex and we talked for a bit. It was getting late, and after a bit we went back to the hotels. I flipped through the channels on this bizarre TV and went to sleep.

Oh, one more note: I read that I should be careful of wild dogs. So far, all the dogs I see here are just lying down on the sidewalks. At night they get up and sniff around, but they don't seem to be any trouble. I remain, nevertheless, leery.