So I got vaccinated this morning. Bit of a balls up when I turned up at the clinic - they had no record whatsoever of my appointment and didn't have another slot 'til next Tuesday. I managed not to start cursing but did persist a bit (instead of just slinking off to wait a week or pay for private vaccinations) on the offchance it helped. I left in a pretty foul mood all the same but they called me back literally a few minutes later to tell me they had a cancellation for 11:30. They might have done that anyway, maybe being a bit persistent helped, who knows?
Got typhoid (valid for 3 years) and combined tetanus/diptheria/polio (valid for 10 years). Malaria is low or no risk so it's just a case of using insect repellant; ditto for zika and dengue. Mildly shitted up by the fact rabies is recommended for IIRC long-term travellers or whatever, and I simply don't have the time to get it done now. I've had a bit of a poke around on the web and not too worried about this now. If you get bitten and and get the post-bite vaccination promptly it's fine; I think they told me this today and I already knew. I think the post-bite vaccination is widely available in Guatemala - it's not like I'm heading off on any multi-day expeditions into the middle of nowhere either - and the suggestion seems to be that nearly all cases of rabies in Guatemala are from dog bites, and I would imagine I'm going to know about it if I'm bitten by a dog. (The idea of a bat bite had me a bit worried because it might be something I wouldn't realise was a bite.)
It seems to cost about £165 to get the three rabies shots in the UK, which takes about 3-4 weeks in total. (It's not available on the NHS anyway; I was told by the nurse today they didn't do it, presumably not even if I paid them.) I just might get this done prior to a future trip, given it lasts ten years, but I've never had it before so who knows if I will bother. See how I feel when I come back from Guatemala I guess; I'd probably have time to squeeze in the vaccinations round Christmas before any subsequent trip in January.
The vaccination booklet I have seems to imply I was due for a hepatitis A booster in August 2016, but the nurse told me today (she double checked the booklet, and I do believe her) that I didn't need it as I'd had two shots already. (As I say, I did believe her, but a quick bit of poking around on the web finds slightly confusing information which does seem to back this up; one site says the first two shots provide 20 years of protection and possibly lifetime protection.)
My left arm hurts a bit but nothing too bad yet.
I did finally manage to buy some trousers apparently suitable for hiking on Monday, after an epic trek (wearing cotton trousers; living on the edge, baby) into central London and back to see what the shops there had. (I walked; apart from saving tube fares, I figured it's only sensible to get some walking in before trying to walk uphill in Guatemala.) In the end I just bought some from Sports Direct, although it was the branch on Oxford Street or wherever not one of my local ones. I dropped them into that local tailor yesterday to be shortened, and will go over to collect them shortly - if he's done a decent job, I'll be pretty impressed (one day turnaround for a fiver, I think he would have been willing to do them same day if I'd wanted but I didn't want to push it). I also managed to buy a fleece and jacket combination at one of the local Sports Direct shops yesterday, so the enormous list of things I need to buy is gradually dwindling.
I plan to go and try to buy some shoes (local Sports Direct again; cheap 'n cheerful, that's me - I did happen to go into one boutiquey outdoors shop in town which had some trousers at £140 a pair, at which point I decided that wasn't the shop for me) this afternoon and maybe a pair of those waterproof over-trouser things. I can see the weight saved in my bag by not taking a netbook being stolen away by all this stuff, but if you need it you need it (and I must admit I was probably taking a bit of a risk that time I went off wandering into the hills in Mestia without having basic gear like the stuff I'm buying now) and while it's moderately bulky I guess most of it is fairly lightweight (I care far more about weight than volume), and I would be have been taking a jacket of some kind otherwise so the weight can be offset against that in part.
I do feel there's so much crap to sort out before I go and I'm running out of time; I've hardly managed to do any Spanish study because I've been getting so worked up trying to sort out the clothes. If the trousers are OK when I get them back from the tailor that will hopefully take a lot of the pressure off; as I think I said before, I can buy other clothes off the peg (even if I don't like the price or the neon colouring or whatever), it's just the trousers which are really tricky. The one consolation is that I'm not spending insane amounts of money on the clothes - trousers were about £25, the fleece+jacket about £50 (I could have maybe saved a tenner there by trying it on in the shop and then ordering the same thing off the shop's web store, but apart from being a bit cheap I wanted to get the things bought and in my possession ASAP), the shoes will probably weigh in about £30-40 tops. Yeah, I'm sure I'm not getting the best possible quality, but I have to assume the stuff is basically functional (doesn't leak and/or insulates, as appropriate) and I'm not doing anything terribly extreme.
[time passes]
OK, about 4 hours after the vaccinations and the muscle(s) in my upper left are hurting nicely now... On the plus side, the trousers are fine and I went out and bought some shoes, need to wear them for the next week or so to try them out but probably OK. They're a bit chunkier than I might like for normal not-hiking wear but I think an acceptable compromise. Because I'm just so goddam tough I'm going to ignore the burgeoning pain in my arm and trog out again to see if I can get any more stuff, and maybe see if I can get my Metro bank card replaced while I'm at it.
[next day]
So I did go get my Metro bank card replaced - very slick, very convenient - and I bought some (in hindsight, overpriced - but not insanely expensive at £22-ish) waterproof over-trouser things at SportsDirect. I then ended up going for a few beers with Patrick - only a few, not loads! That was fun and he gave me some advice re all this clothing stuff which (like any advice in this area) was a mixture of scary and helpful. I got home quite early, foolishly indulged in a massive snacking binge even though I wasn't actually all that hungry and went to bed. My left arm was hurting like a bastard at this point. Long story short, I woke up several times during the night, once in a massive cold sweat, once feeling sick, another time with my brain seemingly doing the "stuck record" kind of thing, unable to move off from one (totally inoffensive, but relatively dull) thought, another time with my feet inexplicably cold. I guess this is all down to some mixture of beer, the vaccinations and the snacks.
(While I don't think the beer was more than a relatively small component of this, this did give me a kind of reminder that I ned to be careful not to render myself too uncomfortably sick while I'm away on holiday via over-indulgence. Obviously sometimes the situation gets away from me and that's kind of part of the fun, but I am also taking this as a kind of warning. It was pretty miserable feeling all these different kinds of sick in the comfort of my own home, with a private bathroom on hand and everything.)
I finally woke up about 10-11 feeling much better (but a bit tired and not really wanting to get up). I trogged over to Decathlon at Canada Water (Patrick's suggestion) - that was about an hour each way, as before I figured walking would be good exercise/practice and would save money on tube fares. I was pretty impressed at the size of the place and the levels of stock, not like e.g. Mountain Warehouse in the centre of town where most things didn't seem to be available in all sizes.
I managed to get some non-cotton short-sleeved T-shirts (really cheap; about three quid each) and since Patrick had mentioned it I also bought a bandanna/scarfy thing which I can apparently wear on my head and drape down the back of my neck instead of a cap. Frankly I'm not sure I'll have the balls to wear this, but it was only about three quid and it weighs bugger all so taking it with me won't hurt. I guess it's the sort of thing I might feel OK wearing on an actual hike but when I'm just wandering around town I will probably wear my cap, or just put sun block on my head.
No joy getting a long-sleeved T-shirt. I did find one which wasn't completely skin tight by design, but it was still a bit tight and my nipples were on permanent display when I tried it on so I decided against that. Sorry ladies. :-) Notwithstanding advice I have read that a long-sleeved T-shirt can be better for keeping cool, I am probably going to bow to what's available in the shops and just take short-sleeved ones with me, and maybe I will be able to pick up a cheap long-sleeved T-shirt while I'm over there. (My Spanish teacher tells me there's quite a bit of cheap clothing available in the market in Antigua.) I haven't completely given up, I will probably be going into town at least once more and Mountain Warehouse did have one or two vaguely possibly acceptable long-sleeved T-shirts so I may try those on; I didn't bother before because at £15 they seemed a bit pricey, but compared to other stuff I've seen that isn't actually too insane if they actually fit etc.
I am finally close to having completed all the clothing purchases. I'm not saying I won't buy anything else, but it's just the odd item or two and at a pinch I could get away without it. I hope this will allow me to finally concentrate on all the other little bits of preparation I want to do.
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