Chapter 11: La Charla

One of the many bars in this hilltop village is called La Charla. Luis and Alejandro are enjoying an early drink before the midday rush starts. This bar is the place for small talk or where you can pick up pieces of gossip. It is a very popular bar with the locals, small, cramped and normally crowded. At peak times it employs three waiters who compete for space behind the bar but somehow manages to serve everyone in record time while keeping a tally on large sheets of paper behind the bar. Each sheet has multiple columns which bear as a heading the name or nickname of the person having ordered the round. At times it gets very confusing when everyone is inviting everyone else to a beer or glass of wine. No prices are entered on these chits, just a tick. Once four ticks have been entered, the fifth is a diagonal cross line. Bar prices are in multiples of the cost of a caña. Tapas cost the same as a caña. Larger portions warrant two or more ticks. The atmosphere is good natured and the noise is overwhelming as everyone wants his opinion to be heard.

Food is available as tapas; either from large metal trays behind the bar, being dished out on small tapas dishes with a piece of bread or from the small vitrina nestling on the bar counter. The house specialty is Gambas Pilpil, a very spicy dish consisting of large peeled prawns in hot oily paprika sauce. Served in a round earthenware dish, it is ordered from the kitchen upstairs where the lady owner presides over the food preparation. 

Orders are placed in a small square dumbwaiter, a bell is rung and the person responsible above pulls it up by rope. Once the order is complete, the bell rings twice and the food is lowered and served. More ticks entered under the appropriate heading. Depending on the size of the Pilpil dish, two or four ticks are entered.

The washing up of dishes works in the same way. Dirties are placed in a washing up bowl which when full is ordered upwards for emptying. Glasses are washed in the sink behind the bar.

On this particular day, the sun is shining and reflecting in the clear plastic bags filled with water hanging over the bar, acting as a very efficient insect repellent throughout the year. The crowd has spilled out onto the pavements, one at a steep angle upwards, the other around the corner still in shadows.

Then the bleating of animals is heard and from one of the side streets emerges a tall man dressed in baggy trousers, jumper and a cap. Carrying a stick and sporting a leather haversack over his shoulder, he leads his flock of brown long eared goats into the square, then passing the crowd outside the shaded side of the corner bar and heads for the hills just visible below the village. His animals follow him with not a look at the crowd, some of which are holding their noses. Once passed, a trail of pellet like droppings litter the trail the goats followed across the village square.

Now is a good time to squeeze indoors again and refresh the glasses. Luis and Alejandro stay outside enjoying the sunshine before it gets too hot.

"Look at this", Luis nudges Alejandro and points at a person slowly weaving its way across the square and passing the fountain, stumbles, slips on the goat droppings and crashes head first into the paving stones.

Shrugging, Alejandro says "It’s just David, adding yet another bruise to his already battered forehead."

True enough, David slowly gets to his feet and continues towards the corner bar. Blood drips from his forehead but otherwise unharmed, possibly because as is his way, he is a bit intoxicated at the time of his fall. A frequent visitor to the local doctor, nobody pays too much attention to him or his injuries. He is however always treated well by the village people and quite often one or other will buy him a beer. His village dialect is very difficult to understand, and probably only bartenders and his two brothers understand anything of what he says. 

Luis and Alejandro step aside, so David can enter the bar. He has a tab in this bar, and a caña is served. The owner knows that once a month, the tab will be settled. Where the money comes from, nobody queries nor cares about.