When I checked my email later that day, Joe had said to give him the name of the hotel or meet him at Señor Frog’s at 7pm. He also mentioned that he found the bar we were supposed to meet at the previous night and was there at 11:15pm. He said that he had a crazy night and ended up staying with a family at their house south of the city. His story is hilarious and completely insane. I wish he would write a blog for it but I'm sure he doesn't have the time. Anyway, I ended up missing him at the bar so I headed back to the hotel to find him waiting for me in the room. He said he just asked the cleaning lady to let him in and she did. We had a beer together and told each other our stories from the previous night. We walked toward the most populated, or touristy, part of town to find a place to have a drink. The American bars looked like a Spring Break for 40-year-olds trying to relive their college days. We decided on a bar that had a balcony overlooking the water. They had 2 for 1 Coronas so we knew we couldn’t go wrong. We talked, drank some beers, and ate popcorn. The table behind us was filled with about 10 Americans being loud and obnoxious. The table next to us was where all the action was. There were 2 cute, very young Mexican girls sitting at a table with 2 men in their 40’s. Joe had his back to the table so he couldn’t see that the girls kept looking at us. I ignored it until it became too obvious. Every couple of minutes they would turn around and stare right in my eyes. I told Joe what was going on and we began to try to figure out the relationship between these young girls and the men. Since they had no shame in showing their interest in us we automatically assumed they were prostitutes. One of the men was always touching the girls and rubbing their legs. We figured out that they were businessmen and he had done this before. His buddy was a little timid so his friend knew the only way that he could get him to hook up with the prostitute was to get him drunk. They drank beer after beer after beer at tha
t table. The girls didn’t seem to be drinking too much and would disappear to the bathroom for extended periods of time. This must have meant the old guys were giving them drugs, maybe cocaine to take in the bathroom. The guys became drunker and the girls kept their eyes on us. There were no smiles, just the look of determination. Maybe they were trying to add us to the list for the night. On one occasion Joe left for the bathroom and one of the girls followed immediately after him. I thought for sure something had happened. He said he didn’t even notice the girl but that there was a bunch of cocaine going around in the bathroom. I asked if one of the guy’s at the table was in on it and Joe said that the guy came in and saw it but was totally shocked by the scene. This didn’t make sense with our hypothesis. As the night progressed, we were both ready to go. However, I confessed that I couldn’t leave until we found out the truth of what was going on with this odd double date. By now, the two men were drunk and holding each other. They were crying and rubbing their heads together while calling each other “brother.” They were acting like classic drunks except for the rubbing of the heads and crying. The girls attention had now shifted to us. It appeared the guys had found their love for each other and the girls were moving on to us. Just then, a blonde girl with a fake tan from the American table came over to us with a bucket full of Pacifico beers. She said her table couldn’t drink the beers so she wanted to sell them to us. I thought it was a little absurd for her to try to sell us the beers rather than just give them away. We didn’t have as much as she was asking so she asked for whatever we had. We gave her some
change which amounted to maybe 20 pesos. She told us she was from Chicago and was 25 years old. This is where I lost track of the conversation because I was busy trying to understand how she was only 25. Her face was worn and her hair was very dry and damaged like it had been dyed too much. She looked more like she was 25 going on 35. So there’s a message for you fake tanners and hair dyers. There’s a high price to pay for looking tan and blonde in January. The seemingly old lady left and realized that I didn’t want to drink any more beers. The Mexican girls had their eyes locked on my so I motioned for them to take a beer or two. This began the conversation. Joe started in with the Spanish and I was too far away to hear what was going on. At this time, another girl from the American table came over to give us our change back. She said that we could just have the beers and didn’t need to pay for them. She had a very nasal voice and used the word “like” too much. She too was very tan but looked more like she was 25 than the other girl…so maybe she was really 16. I listened to her life story and then caught the last part of Joe’s conversation with the Mexican girls as they were leaving. Suddenly, the younger looking one looked very innocent and not so much like a prostitute. Both girls hugged and kissed Joe and then ran over and hugged and kissed me before leaving with the men. Joe looked at me and confessed that our theory was a little off. The man that couldn’t keep his hands off the girls was their father and the shy one was their uncle. They hadn’t seen their uncle in a couple of years so they decided to go out and celebrate. They had lost a friend recently, which was why the men were crying and rubbing their heads together. It was all just an innocent family outing. Joe and I left the bar and walked back toward the hotel. As we were walking, we looked inside one of the bars to see the Americans we had just met dancing with balloons tied around their heads. They tried to get us to come in and join them but it just didn’t seem like it would be worth it for us.
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