The next story in Café Chronicles takes place at Café San Parrillón, which is on the corner of 7th avenue and 65th street in the Chapinero district of Bogotá. It is the perfect local diner-type restaurant. They have the special of the day and do the typical Colombian diner food along with burgers and all that. I went a couple of times and usually got the special. The ambiance of the place was also pure diner, but the staff was always incredible. There are very few places in the US where you can get good service, but in Colombia, it is still hard to find bad service. I imagine that will be changing over the next few years as chains take over and you get fewer staff members actually invested in the place. 
The other thing I liked about Café San Parrillón was its location. Having windows that look out onto Seventh Avenue gives you a never-ending stream of interesting and diverse people. The story does hint at the types of people you can see.
All over Colombia, men will give women attention as they go by. The lazier ones might make some sort of noise, on occasion, there are some who are more creative and even poetic. Women, though less common, have something to say as well and tend to handle the attention with aplomb.
The same sort of thing happens in other parts of the world as well. So, as I sat there, I started to wonder why people still might do this. Sometimes, it seems that construction workers and such do it as part of the job. It even seems perfunctory, and I can’t help thinking that they should just record them and use a motion sensor to start the recording. I also wondered about the efficacy of the act. This effectiveness of whistling at women becomes the conceit of the story, which takes on a fable-like quality.
Henry James Morello 