Cafés con piernas

So, after finding out that moteles are widely spread around the continents, and not as localized as I thought (which is not really that surprizing, considering that they seem to flourish in conservative societies), cafés con piernas might just be that specifically Chilean phenomenon...



A strip joint that serves coffee or a café that serves strip-tease dances? In any case, both are readily available in over 200 hundred establisments spread around Santiago, especially around the business district. You can identify them by the tainted windows, the neon lighting in full daylight, and the disco rhythms that can be overheard as you pass by one. Sometimes, the bouncers would hand out flyers to young high school boys or dirty old men. Damn it, they would never hand me one of those...

The café con piernas has been a Santiago trademark since the 50's, but took off as a widespread phenomenon during the Pinochet years, as they offered entertainment for men before the 11pm curfew that the military regime had imposed. I guess that it is way too good of a business not to continue well into the 21st century...

En la cama

I write a very unpolished post, out of sheer impulse and desire to share with you guys my unexplainable fascination (yeah right!) with a very Chilean phenomenon: moteles. That is, rent-a-room-for-sex.

Let me try to explain: let's say you and your partner (taking the term very loose to mean anything from a one-timer, a paid entertainer, a lover, a mistress, to a full pledged spouse) wanna do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel. Reasons need not matter and they are as varied as the type of your partner. What do you do? "Your place or my place" is so overrated (and besides, most of the times, your passion must remain a secret so as not to scandalize parents, wives, fiancees etc.), so the decision then centers on whether you'd prefer a Thai-inspired VIP room with Jacuzzi at "Hotel" Valdivia or a simple run-of-the-mill room, anywhere from 3 to 12 hours. (I still can't decide if 3 hours is a generous approximation to the length of the ritual.) Rates for most places include drinks and snacks, such as the universal nachos and cheese. I need not say that this is a phenomenon that sprung out of a oh-so-conservative Catholic society, but, just like the "cafes con piernas" (more on that later), they have become part of the Chilean imaginary, with hundreds of such establishments within Santiago alone.

Gettin back to the personal (much more in tone with the topic),I would go either with the Super Vip Caracol or the Vip Palacio Hindu. Oh wait, I have no one to go with... ;D A girl can dream, can't she?

You guys should feel free to explore the tempting offers and comment on your favorite room and theme. Come on, don't be shy... ;)

P.S. "En la cama" (Matias Bize, Chile, 2005) is a great illustration of the topic, a film kinda like "Before Sunrise", but taking place entirely in a motel room.

The Oscars

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2. "Crash" confused and depressed me, while I kept thinking to myself how unfeasible those situations seemed and how unstable the characters were. The death of the subject and the birth of depression in its purest form [in cinema]. Oh, America, how I miss thee!

3. Jean Claude was my hero when I was 12. I think I still have a poster of him hidden somewhere in the mountains. [Mi secreto en la montaña]. If this doesn't make any sense to you, check out a brilliant piece of journalism right here.