It was held at the Sampaka Bar which I discovered (check me out, stick me in a new town in the middle of nowwhere and I´ll discover the cool new places before the locals...!) and which C & I have adopted as out unofficial local, where we are greeted with hugs from Mario, the (gorgeous, lovely, ex-model, married) owner and his big bear of a bro-in-law, Carlos.
C & Tom said, what, did he used to be a hand model?! But they´re just jealous. The chicas however, all agreed Mario is hot stuff, and I *will* get pics up when I get longer than an hour on a computer, I promise!
What with my card *still* not arrived, and C having spent all of the last of our cash on the to-ing and fro-ing (and lending money to OzK) that day, we counted up the last of our pesos - 27 between us (less than 5 quid) - and I felt like a proper student, as we vowed to stick to beer and pretended we didn´t really want to drink that much anyway (after the day we´d had!??!)
How very different to my life in London where I can spend freely; I´ve been debating buying a pair of little ankle boots for 120 pesos (20 quid!) for the last two weeks - it´s getting nippy though, and I´ve only got summery shoes & trainers.
We were therefore overjoyed when we got to Sampaka´s and it was a free bar all night. I wondered how on earth V could afford this, as we know she doesn´t make a huge amount of money, and we´re not sure what Marcelo does, but he used to work in a phone shop.
As an interesting aside, outside, getting some air, I spoke to Mario and Carlos, and told them it was because of me that Marcelo had booked this place, and it was great because now lots of local people (about 50 of their friends) would know about it. He hugged me for making it happen (can´t stop that party organising!) but said it´d been hard work preparing (food, drink, cleaning) and they´d have loads of clearing up after.
C said never mind, they´d also have made "mucho dinero", but Mario, smiled, shook his head and told us he´d charged only 300 pesos (50 quid!!!) for this whole fiesta.
I do despair. I have promoted his bar, got it a booking, the fullest it´s been in 5 weeks of opening, and they must have run this night at a loss. However, Mario said he saw it as publicity for the bar, and V later told me they had taken pics of the packed venue with people dancing and having fun for the website they were building, so I consoled myself with the fact they got something else out of it too.
But still - they appear to want to shoot themselves in the foot! I wanted to offer to help sort their marketing strategy out, help publicise it, advise on pricing even (i.e. um...make a profit?!)...but I reminded myself I´m not working in advertising right now, it´s not my market, and my Spanish isn´t good enough! I do hope they are in business in a year though...
Anyway, as I said, it was quiet when we got to Sampaka, and after their EPIC journey, C & Oz Kirsten were spaced out, but like a good Oz girl, K drank through the pain with a brave and resolute "Beer helps".
All the voluntarios were there, except Ali who wasn´t feeling great, which was a shame as it was Tom´s last night.
Sampaka Bar and the lovely Mario. This was taken another night, but what the heck.
All us voluntarios (but no Ali)...from front, John, US Kristen, Finula, Leanna, C, Oz Kristen, Tom & me
Veronica and Marcelo, birthday boy
Norma our Spanish teacher, out of her cast, and her hubby Fernando (aka a Spanish Anthony Hopkins) - Veronica´s lovely folksTom was on fine form, regaling us with some tale of a caricaturist who forced him to have his pic drawn. He was now stuck with a rubbish picture of himself, one he never asked for, didn´t want, and that his own mother would struggle to recognise, but he hadn´t had the heart to not pay him the 2 pesos (33p).
C then had the *excellent* idea (not) of running back to our gaff, and grabbing paper and pencil and getting me to draw Tom properly. (I used to paint people´s portraits when I was 16 for spends - I may have to fall back on this if I can´t get a job on my return!)
I smiled and reluctantly agreed; said I´ve become C´s little performing monkey, to be wheeled out at parties, but I was touched when he kissed me and apologised that he only did it because he was so proud of my skills, and a little bit envious too.
I´ve never attempted to draw anyone who is getting drunk, after I´ve had a few beers, in dim and now flashing lights (by now, a dance floor had emerged from the tables being pushed back), surrounded by a crowd of curious friends and others.
No pressure then!
Tom couldn´t keep still so I took a pic of him and worked from that. All I could do under the circumstances. It wasn´t my best, but everyone was impressed enough - no one laughed or squinted at Tom when they looked at it anyway.
I signed it and got everyone to write messages around it as an impromptu leaving card, although I stressed this was not going to happen everytime someone left.
(Later that evening, and visibly moved - or a bit drunk and emotional? - Tom thanked me outside, and said "You´ve got a good heart", which is the loveliest thing to say, but then I reckon *every one* of these volunteers has a good heart...I guess that´s why we´ve all bonded so well regardless of age, nationality or background, a shared wish to make a difference...)
I did chuckle when C & I decided to head at about 3.30am and Leanne implored us not to leave her "with the couples" (the remaining Tom & John & Kristen & Finula were chatting in pairs)...C gently reminded her we were actually the only couple there.
Anyway, to spare everyone´s blushes, I won´t go into much detail about the *real* gossip of Sunday night, safe to say, one of the guys, for all his boy-band good looks, *didn´t* manage to get lucky with his target chica of the evening (if you´re a regular reader this will all make sense), but someone with the gift of the blarney unexpectedly did.
The happy couple
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