La Piojera

I have recently discovered the greatest place on earth. It is called La Piojera. Yes, it is a bar; sorry mom. La Piojera is Chile. It is filled with students playing folk music, street bands earning a living, and even blind guys singing hilarious versions of your favorite songs.

The drink of choice at La Piojera is the Terremoto, or earthquake. Why you ask? Because after two you are totally cagado. I think thats what makes panhandling so easy in there; everything sounds good. The Terremoto is the deadly combination of an unprocessed white wine, with pineapple ice cream and a liqueur of which I can never remember the name. In order to decide whether or not you like it you have to finish one, at that point you have to have another because you like it. Number three is optional but highly recommended for those of you who like to stumble home.

La Piojera grasped my heart upon my first visit, but when I really fell in love was last night. While we were ordering our drinks two Carabinieros came in to use the bathroom. They were greeted by shouts, whistles and cat calls an indication of good things to come.

Once we had our drinks we were witness to a classic battle. La Piojera has a family of cats that roam around the bar, which often attracts dogs. Today a dog happened to chase a cat into the vine trellis, and was unknowingly being taunted by that cat as it was obviously in no danger.

The blind "singer" that I have already mentioned came in a bit after this and thrilled the entire bar. But the highlight of the night was the encounter my friend and I had with a table of four girls.

The stakes were high, we somehow had to find a way to be charming and command attention not only in spanish, but highly outnumbered. The ratio was two to one, great odds if you ask me, yet we still felt like Leonidas and his Spartans.

Unlike Leonidas we survived, they then invited us to the U.S. Embassy (McDonalds) to eat and continue the conversation. We were promised salsa dancing next week.