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COLLECTED AGENDA #8

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COLLECTED AGENDA #8

WHAT I DID — San Salvador, Lago de Coatepeque, El Zonte Thanks for reading Chloe Pingeon’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I’m on a plane back from El Salvador where I spent the week learning about The Art Of The State and The Decentralized State and Charter States and Crypto States at a strange conference with my boyfriend.

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WHAT I DID — San Salvador, Lago de Coatepeque, El Zonte Thanks for reading Chloe Pingeon’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I’m on a plane back from El Salvador where I spent the week learning about The Art Of The State and The Decentralized State and Charter States and Crypto States at a strange conference with my boyfriend. After, I spent the week driving towards the mountain and then the coast, lying in black sand in the heavy surf that comes off Pacific waves, eating whole fried fish and fried fish fins and fried fish heads, last night; sitting under red light back on a biohacking forward balcony in San Salvador, watching heat lighting over the more distant volcanos. I am trying to write something Real about the conference for a publication that is not Substack. I’d like to talk about all of that outside of the lens of the strictly personal. I’m writing about the rest of it… here: Tuesday, August 13 Tired, when I arrive in San Salvador . There’s Pizza Hut and Papa John’s side by side in a humid lot outside the airport. My boyfriend is sampling both. One is so much better, he says. I don’t remember which. Driving to an airbnb in the hills, somewhere a little above San Benito , past coconut stands and then lots and lots of fast food, weird fast food, Auntie Anne’s and the like, the type of fast food you don’t see a lot anymore and the buildings are all crystal clear, glistening clean. Driving past three embassies (Qatar, Germany, and Palestine) and then everything becomes green and quiet and the houses are built into hills, bigger mountains in the distance, the view becomes so beautiful. El Salvador is safe now . Canada safe , everyone keeps telling me, and I didn’t really believe this could be true before arrival, but it does feel very safe. Since 2019, the country has gone from the highest homicide rate in the world to the lowest in the Western hemisphere. Nayib Bukele cleaned up gang activity, built the biggest prison in the world for gang leaders, made bitcoin a national currency, and now things are safe. Everyone keeps talking about breath; you didn’t used to be able to breathe easily on the streets here, and now you can. I don’t really know how these things play out in the long term. I’m not qualified to speak on the effective longevity of this, or really to speak qualitatively on this at all. El Salvador does feel safe, though. Safe and open and alive. That first night, I’m on the terrace of a home rented by the group hosting the conference looking out over San Salvador. The house is indoor outdoor, lots of glass, so much of the architecture is like this here. There’s a pool built into the cliff edge onto which the house appears to be carved, rock steps leading down the steep lawn, heat lighting sparking over volcanic mountain ranges in sky that gets darker and darker and darker as the land retreats from the city. Deliriously tired when I fall asleep. Wednesday, August 14 For lunch, I walk through the hills towards town to get things like guacamole takis and shelf-stable milk . Later, I’m trying to work by the pool but the heat keeps lulling me into complacency. Half asleep. Back on the terrace, people keep drifting in and out and so I keep saying hi. Nobody I know, but everyone is friendly. Afternoon, my boyfriend texts me. We’re moving to a hotel because the house is getting too full. I liked the airbnb, but I feel calmer at Il Buongustaio . Small, sweet, a big back garden with sprawling marble arches and a classical aesthetic. On the phone with my mom in the dark in the garden, I swear I see a jaguarundi , a long and narrow native wild cat. I’m in the grass, looking through the glass towards the inside, everyone seated on the couch. I start screaming and then the cat is gone. Maybe I was hallucinating. Dinner at El Xolo , which is the best restaurant I’ve been to in a very long time. I’ve never been to a restaurant like this in New York. I’ve rarely been to a restaurant like this in life. It’s a deeply special meal. Food can probably best be described as “Modern Latin Fusion” - small plates, many of them, with foams, emulsions, mousses etc. We order one of everything on the menu. It’s a small enough menu. The best is a crudo with matcha ponzu, cilantro, fried corn and a watermelon basil vodka drink full of clarified ice. I tell my boyfriend’s friend across the table about the jaguarundi I saw, and he tells me that jaguars (a different cat) were the very first bio-hackers. Thursday, August 15 I’m at the Teatro Nacional for the conference and then after lunch I’m breaking away, going to the National Library which was built with Chinese cooperation for $54 million in 2023 and which is mostly children’s books sorted by very specific age demographic. I’m walking to the National Palace , where they give me a free tour and then they ask me if I’ve seen the National Library. I‘m walking back to the conference. Later, I’m sitting on a rooftop in the stillest air I’ve ever felt. Too hot to drink or smoke cigars. There was a documentary screening. Now, there’s an after party at an upscale pool bar near historic downtown. I like that things are boisterous, but I don’t really have much to say. Friday, August 16 It’s hot in the morning but then it’s monsooning in the evening. There’s a party at the house with pure slabs of beef to quote “be eaten only with your hands,” but I’m suddenly so tired and we can’t get in an uber. Dinner at Monarca instead. Translated: The Monarch, if that wasn’t obvious. The food at El Xolo is better, but it’s beautiful inside. Classic. Eating in the garden, the rain has stopped. Saturday, August 17 I’m waking up late, walking to a mall, buying cargo pants and taro iced tea, buying ceviche and pork shoulder tacos and diet coke at Fisheria . I was planning on returning to New York tonight, but instead I’m going to the mountains, to Coatepeque Lake , spending the night at Cardedu Hotel . The hotel is weird, very hard to find, very hard to reach by car and full of oddities on arrival like a large ropes course on the edge of the restaurant and a never open popsicle stand. I don’t like it here at first but then in the evening it’s storming and you can see the clouds and rain move over the lake like it’s in slow motion, and everything is very quiet and still and the outline of the strange hotel gets obscured by the storm. Sunday, August 18 I like the ocean far more than the mountains. Car to El Zonte this morning and it’s a two hour drive and then it’s all black volcanic sand, little open air restaurants with wooden balconies that go right up against the wave break at high tide and surfers riding barrel waves, weaving in and out of your view from shore, a very hot sun and an ocean that’s so warm. There’s an argument for surfing as the ultimate act of anti-intellectualism. In the wake of a strange conference, that feels appealing here. Maybe overly simple. There’s an argument for warm salt water as the fountain of youth… WHAT YOU SHOULD DO — NYC Tonight: Friday, August 23 is busy: From 8pm - TENSE is back with THE UNKNOWNS at The Locker Room . This is The Big One of the evening (imo), not to be missed! From Beckett Rosset — “Hear Hansen Shi read from his debut novel, enjoy the snazzy jazz musings of the John Ling Trio , and witness a breathtaking dance performance by Cristina Wesnofkse . Accompanied by the poetic meditations of Adeline Swartzendruber , tales of wayward girlhood from Kathy Joyce , and much more…” Tickets here . From 10pm to late - $Egirl and Quasimatt.com present a party at Gonzo’s with basically every Twitter Anon and also Everyone Who’s Ever Been On Quasimatt.com hosting. Apparently there will be a cheese board? Frost Fest continues with night two tonight at Rash with Nation , Big Rocco , MGNA Crrrta , Suzy Sheer , and Club Cringe . In Montauk at 8pm - Emily Sundberg is hosting a FeedMe party at DiveBar Pizza —- “Endless Long Island iced teas. Potentially life-changing free merch”. Saturday, August 24 from 8pm - late — Shannon Turns 22 at Sov House . There will definitely be a cheese board for this one. Sunday, August 25 – A major Confessions at KGB with readings from Christian Lorentzen , Zack Graham , Megan Nolan , Jo Rosenthal , Cassidy Grady , Annabel Boardman , and Jonah Howell . Saturday, August 31 from 1pm - 6pm — Mars Review of Books celebrates the end of summer with a white party in Connecticut, hosted at the estate where Ernest Hemingway wrote one of his earlier works. Drinks and catering provided, musical entertainment, bring your swimsuit. Tickets for the party, as well as for a more intimate vip dinner, are available here . Thanks for reading Chloe Pingeon’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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