Easy money: Chapter 2, The Hang Over

Next morning Tom sat in the hostel living room sipping some coffee, and recovering from his hang over, his thoughts going over last night, a night that was pleasant, but it could have been better, he wasn’t lucky with chicks, unlike Jim. But he felt he left at the right time; it could have ended less pleasantly if he had stayed longer; he didn’t want to be around his friends after they started taking the coke. Anyway his mind turned to his more pressing problem; he was running out of money, and his flight home was still a month away. He had miscalculated his credit card payments, which came higher than he expected. He had also spent much more than he should have in Bogotá; hanging out with English young lads with a lot of money to spend was one reason; they would always calculate the prices in pounds, and then would say "That’s so cheap compared to England" or "That’s only like X Pounds". He enjoyed hanging out with them, but it was always expensive. Then there were those expensive hotel rooms he paid for when he would occasionally got lucky, always with a local chick; he had a rule of not hitting on gringas while traveling, they were destined for the local boys, he thought. Anyway he found a way to make some money in Bogotá; by teaching English lessons. But he would have to stay in Bogotá to do that, and he would not be making much money; enough to pay his expenses if he works daily until his flight, but he would not be able to do all the things he still wanted to do in Colombia; the lost city trek, diving on one of the Caribbean island, paragliding in Medellin, and the Barranquilla Carnival, among others. His other option was to ask money from his parents, but their relationship had been strained lately, and his decision to go traveling for a few months did not help matters; they thought he should start getting serious about his life and his career. He would only go to his parents as a last resort; he would rather teach the English classes and give up on all the cool stuff he wants to do.

His friends took longer than him to recover from their night out; after all they did stay out longer, and used more substances than he did. Only around 4 in the afternoon did they start to wake up. Everybody was feeling kind of hungry, and they decided on the local burger place, El Torro Rojo. They made their orders at the front desk, and then went to sit down. They were all having a hangover from last night, Andy had it the worst, “When I am high I just want to stay high, so I just keep taking more and more coke” he said still looking smashed from last night. “I think my nose is missed up, I can’t smell anything” Andy added while yawning. "But imagine how much that stuff would have cost us back home" Ryan commented. “The Charlie here is even cheaper than drinks, I’d just rather do the Charlie than buy some more expensive drinks in the club, drinks that I don’t want to drink anyway, Jim commented. He was the newest to the group, he just arrived to the hostel a couple of days ago, he seemed to be traveling on a relatively low budget for an English guy; in the club he was all the time complaining about he prices of the drinks. "Back in Medellin I used to be the middle man for the guys in the hostel. I knew the local dealer. I would get the money from the guys at the hostel, and buy them the coke. Sometimes I bought 10 or 20 grams at a time, then I would get it at a discount, not enough to make a big profit, but it paid for my share; I had my coke for free” Jim told them, seeming proud of his former coke dealings. “I wonder how much 1 Kg would cost around here” Ryan asked. “Around 1000 Pounds” Jim replied, and then added: “You know if we would just buy a large quantity of coke, we would probably get it for really cheap. I think we should do it”. Tom did not like the idea of his friends possessing large amounts of coke, and felt compelled to intervene; "Do you know what will happen to you if you get caught with a large quantity of drugs, you could get into serious trouble mate, forget about it". "Yah I wouldn't want to get caught with such a large quantity of drugs, one could spend a few years in prison for that" Ryan supported said in support. But Jim didn’t seem repelled from his idea, “No body cares in this country, all cops are corrupt. In Cartagena I got caught with some coke, and I paid the cop to get out of it. At first the guy wanted 100$, I offered him 20$, we haggled over the price, and in the end he accepted 40$. The purposefully search the gringos only for this reason; to get bribes; they really don’t care about gringos taking drugs. After the whole affair we even went and had a drink together, me and the policemen". "How much did you have on you then: 1 gram? 2 grams? I don't think that with 1 Kg you would get away with it that easily, you would go down mate, or you would have to come up with a really big bribe to get your way out of that mess”, Tom replied. Andy finally joined the conversation as well, "I don't think I am going be going near that crap again for a while, I am feel missed up man" he said in an absent voice. "Yes, maybe we should just take it easy on that Charlie for a while" Ryan said in agreement. At that point their conversation was interrupted, the guy at the order desk called them; their burgers were ready and they went to pickup them up.

Tom was feeling quite hungry, and the sight of his juicy burger raised his spirit; a double burger with cheese and bacon, but when he looked into his burger, he was dismayed to see they had drowned it with mustard and ketchup. He didn’t mind the mustard, but ketchup! Inside his burger! He couldn’t understand why anyone would do that, next time he will have to remember to tell them not to put any damn ketchup in his burger. “Me and Andy are heading for the coast tomorrow, how about you guys?” Ryan inquired. “I just got to Bogotá; I think I will stay here for a few more days at least. Besides I just came from the coast down here, and I am heading south after Bogotá” Jim replied. “I think I am going to be here for a while too, I am going to be teaching English classes; I need to make some money” Tom said in a depressed tone. Then Tom remembered something and turned to Jim, “What happened with that chick you were dancing with last night?”, “I got her phone number, I’ll give her a call later to set up a date for tomorrow. I don’t think I am up for a date today”. “Good for you” Tom said winking at Jim.