Drunk soldiers.

Antigua, 14 febrero 1990, nighttime.
James managed to persuade me to talk some locals into bringing us to a bordello, not that that took much persuation....the promise of a free bottle of Venado did it all.
The inside of this bordello is a complete mess with sigarette buts, dirty tissues and used condoms littering the floor.
The soles of my shoes stick to the wooden floor so dirty this place is.
Some soldier guys sit a table covered with empty El Gallo bottles and a 1 litro botella de Venado - local rum, remember? - small glasses with the amber colored liquid in front of each of the four soldiers, their AK 47s lying discarded on the floor.
One of the soldiers is lying face flat down on the table, dirty vomit full with half digested pieces of his lunch covered around his head, his loud snoring reaches me at the bar, ten meters distance.
His friends are getting quite close to the same condition. The spanish they yell at me is incomprehensible to my Gringo ears. Not that my spanish is bad, quiet the opposite but they are just too drunk to make themselves understood in whatever language. I know they want me to pay them another bottle of Venando, you don't even need to understand spanish for that obvious demand.
I ignore their demands for free booze and continue my conversation with the bar tender who is sporting an enourmous beer belly covered by a shirt that has not seen any detergent powder for quite some weeks.
I know his name is Jose because his wife called him that about five minutes after she went with my travel partner James to one of these little rooms in the back of the place, they have no door, only a curtain seperating the room from the rest of the bar.
"Jose, traigame un condon, y da de prisa, tu idiota', antes de que ese maldito
hombre va a dormir". "El es tan borracho"!
Jose, after bringing this rowdy puta her treasured condom, proudly tells me "esa mujer es muy rica en la cama, senyor". "Usted no quiere follarla despues de su amigo"? Adding "es mi esposa, senyor".
Basically, this idiot, as his wife called him, is pimping his own wife.
This is my first trip in Latin America but I'm learning fast and feel real happy I've gone to the effort of learning spanish.
This is macho country, this is the world of El senyor Muy Hombre!!!!!!!!!
By the time Jamesw is finished with Maria, the bar tender's wife, most of the soldiers, but one, have followed the way of their snoring friend.
The only one still conscious is playing with his rifle now eyeing me malisciously.
James is too drunk to understnad what is going on so I drag him out of the bar giving the gun toting soldier an unsuspected punch full in the face while passing his table. He's instantly in the realm of his snoring friends, out cold on the dirt packed floor, arms and legs spread at grotesque angles.
No body seems to mind.

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