Appaloosa

Six o'clock having rolled around and being hungry and thirsty, I decided to check out the Appaloosa one last time and see what passes for Tex-Mex in Bamako. I packed up my Moleskine journal, fountain pen and La Route and The Road and walked the 5 minutes to get there. When I got there, the Lebanese guy I met the first time I went there was behind the bar. He thinks I'm positively nuts to be backpacking through the countries I'm backpacking through. Well, I can't argue against that. This is certainly not a trip for just anybody. You really have to want to do a trip like this to do it. And I mean want it bad. The challenges you need to face and overcome are immense, constant, and tiring.

Anyway, I wrote into my journal for a while, then read La Route for a while. When 7pm rolled around, I got a menu and 4 white women walked in and ranged themselves behind the bar. It became clear from their accents that they are all Eastern European. The oldest one is Ukrainian. The circumspect Lonely Planet description of this place and the Lebanese guy's mysterious mercenary-like description of his career path was suddenly coming into a little more focus. I too will remain circumspect to some degree except to say that I think that perhaps young pretty Ukrainians don't always know what they are getting themselves into when they agree to take a job in a foreign country. After a while 3 white men came in and zeroed in on the Russianesque girls. They all spoke English with each other and acted all flirtatiously as the alcohol started to flow. I was left alone by all the women except the hot African girl (prettier than the 4 white girls) who waited on me. And all she did was waitress stuff. I guess backpackers keeping to themselves before the crowds arrive reading and writing are probably not considered the type of person willing to pay for fake attention from pretty girls.

For food, I ordered chicken and cheese enchiladas. OK, let's see what a Tex-Mex bar in Bamako can deliver. I got my enchiladas. I won't say they were bad--they weren't. But they weren't Tex-Mex. I would categorize them more as California Mexican. I'm not claiming to be an expert on Tex-Mex, but more than one person has noticed that I'm a lot fatter in my passport picture taken when I lived in Houston and peaked out at 235lbs compared to my current 150lbs. That fat came from 2 sources: 99 cent Whoppers and Tex-Mex. Anyway, they were tasty--just not Tex-Mex.

The bill came to CFA 10500 (US$21) and I gave the CFA 12000 (US$24). I came back to the Maison des Jeunes and was happy that the annoying guy still wasn't around.

September 16, 2008 22:40 Mali local time