Crashing

Sarah cooked up a beautiful stew tonight, here at Patanuk, which a whole lot of us devoured in its entirety. Lovely big hunks of meat, fat roasted vegetables, and a thick and juicy gravy-like sauce. Perfect dish for a cold, rainy night in Argentina. And went great with the standard several bottles of red wine (goes without saying, really :P).

Although I have no particular problem with my lodging at Sol y Mar, I have been persuaded to change the hostel that I'm staying at, for tonight (my final night) here in Máncora. The ever-indecisive Einat can't stand the unreliable water and the crowded little dorm of Sol y Mar any longer; and she's convinced a Canadian girl called Erin, and myself, to come with her to the HI down the road. Personally, I really couldn't be bothered moving for one night; but then again, I couldn't be bothered arguing with Einat either. This place is much nicer, but it's a bit more expensive as well.

My bus this evening left Chiclayo at 10pm, and pulled in to the sandy shores of the beach resort town of Máncora at about 3am. Seems like this is about the best possible time to get in — it's that kind of a place. The entire town was pumping full-volume with discos, clubs, and bars. Drunk gringos and sleazy locals everywhere. Girls squealing, hips grinding, beers clinking. Pity that I was too buggered from my bus journey to get into it. I checked into a budget dorm at Sol y Mar (yep, front desk open and kicking at this time), downed two shots of vodka, and crashed until the morning.

Got back to Huaraz this evening, from my 5-day Santa Cruz-Llanganuco hike, to discover that Jo's Place is full. I'd asked them to reserve me a bad for tonight, when I left on Wednesday: but they said that they couldn't make any guarantees, as they were already booked in advance for 28 de Julio (Peru Independence Day) weekend. Anyway, I begged the very-hospitable Mrs. Jo to find me somewhere — anywhere! — to crash for the night; and she let me sleep in the cantina (the breakfast kitchen / dining room). I didn't care where I slept tonight; I just cared that I slept. Which I did. Soundly.

Tonight I spent the night at what I shall now dub the "San Francisco Airport hotel suites". I was in between flights — I arrived here from Vancouver at about 8pm tonight, and my flight the next morning to Miami boarded at about 6am — so I didn't want to bother finding a place to stay for the night, or even to bother leaving the airport and coming back again so soon. So I found what seems to be the unofficial place to spend the night at SFO.

After Day 1 of DrupalCon finished, we all went down to the Sunnyvale Sheraton for some drinks and mingling, and then we continued on to the Firehouse bar-slash-restaurant for more of the same. By the time we were done drinking and mingling, I'd missed the last Caltrain back to San Francisco. Luckily, the very kind and magnanimous Bill Fitzgerald let me crash on his motel room couch for the night. So I spent one night in Sunnyvale itself!