Antigua, Sunday

0954 Getting breakfast at hostel. Woke up about 3-4am feeling a bit itchy and realise I have mosquito bites on my back and in several other places. No idea how exactly. Will have to be experimentally rigorous with repellent including over clothes for a few days to see what helps. Felt a tiny bit trapped and alone and helpless but went back to sleep without great difficulty and feel fine now.

Need to shower and shave and clean teeth and get cash and do a bit of comparison shopping for a transfer to Pana and book a transfer. None of this is difficulty but the shower, shave and teeth cleaning steps seem a bit of a performance with a shared bathroom.

Hope to do 'something' touristy today before I go over to Snug maybe 5ish. I might leave everything at hostel (to prevent pickpocketing) and have a wander round the market and/or I think there is some kind of historic building right next to the hostel I might go over to. And of course I need to get lunch/dinner as well. It'd all fine, if I do nothing more than go see that live music and mill around in a hopefully enjoyably lazy way the rest of the day it's good enough.

Feeling a tiny bit concerned the trip is being more expensive than I'd like. TBH I think this is mainly because I'm contemplating USD70-ish for that paragliding thing in Pana, and - while I doubt I'd do it - I noted a day cycling tour for about USD45 (or was it GBP45?) in Pana too, which makes me wonder if the activities I want to do will be pricey. OTOH I am primarily interested in walking and I'd hope that's cheaper.

1212 Back at hostel. Asked two companies re bus, first was 70, second 75 so have booked for 1230 tomorrow with the cheaper one. Withdrew 1k, which should see me through the next few days of regular expenses and paying the hotel on arrival. Going to stash the cash and card away now and probably go for a quick wander round market, leaving phone, camera and virtually all cash here at hostel. This is probably excessive but WTF.

Trying to pay attention to ATM fees now so I can avoid paying more than necessary - on my Starling debit card the 5B machine today charged 31.20 fee on my 1k withdrawal.

Oh, dropped in some washing, paid 70ish for that and picking it up at 3.

1227 OK, it's absolutely pissing it down, judging from the sound of the rain on the roof of my room. Not sure what to do. May hang on here for another 10-20 mins and see if it eases off.

1404 Back at hostel. Had brief wander round the normal market - interesting but slightly intimidating in the standard market fashion - and the artisanal market (two quite attractive patios with fountain in middle with stalls selling crafts around). It then started to rain heavily - it was only spitting when I left hostel - so I sheltered briefly under an eave in the street and then decided to have an early lunch - popped into Delicias Chapin (sp?) and had steak and rice and salad (uncooked; I asked for no dressing and got it like that so I ate it, I figure I have to take small risks like this :-) ). 40 plus 10 for a black coffee, made it 60 with tip. Only just had enough cash without dredging out my hidden belt due to going out very light in case of pickpockets. Didn't have phone so couldn't read book but stared out of doorway at rain etc; not exactly fun but perhaps good to not always be reading on phone.

Food was OK but it seems to me no matter where I go or what I pay (I could have had cheaper options at DC too), I get about the same quantity of food. I'm not exactly starving or feeling hungry most of the time, but I always seem to wish there was just a bit more food on the plate. Maybe in this case leaving the guacamole 'explains' it - someone who had eaten the whole plateful would have felt fuller.

Had stopped raining when I left DC but streets ankle deep in water in many places. Managed to wend my way the short distance back to hostel without walking through anything too deep or getting splashed by a car. Hostel had shut door and put a sort of splashboard up against it, which I stepped over when the receptionist opened the door to let me in. We had a brief conversation, she told me a few months back the water had come halfway into the sizeable reception area (concrete floor, at least, no carpet) and they'd spent two hours sweeping it out. She didn't know if the water level in the street would go down over the next few hours or if it would rain again like that later. I may struggle to get across the street to pick up laundry if it doesn't go down, and I'll take my daypack across to carry it back to avoid dropping it. Also wonder if I'll struggle to get to Snug later without getting feet wet but we'll see.

Plan is to just camp out in my room for the next hour and then see if I can pick up the laundry.

My notionally waterproof-ish walking shoes do seem to be mostly living up to this; of course if I do step in some ankle-deep water it's just going to go over the tops of them and get in that way.

1543 Yay! Just collected laundry and instead of 3 pairs of socks I got 1 pair and one mismatched pair back. I went over to ask and after a cursory search they insist they don't have the other mismatched pair. So I'm now down 1 pair of socks, and 2 pairs if I actually insist on matching socks.

I had read advice that you should photograph your laundry before handing it in, but was I really supposed to tumble out a load of dirty underwear onto the counter in front of them and take a photograph of it? Fucking hell.

And yes, I have checked very carefully they are not somehow lodged inside one of the T-shirts I got back.

I didn't make too much of a fuss as ultimately what could I do? I cling to a faint hope they will find them later and drop them in at the hostel (it is right across the road) but I appreciate this is unlikely; still, this was one reason to be unhappy but not rude, insofar as my Spanish skills permit. No more laundry washes for me unless I am truly desperate, or I might take a single non-underwear item at once since I suspect the whole wash disappearing is less likely than part of it going astray.

The only consolation is that they weren't expensive socks, although I don't know how easily I will be able to buy more here, and losing some underwear or a pair of trousers would be way more devastating. If there's one thing I should in principle be able to buy without too much trouble it's socks.

1726 No denying I'm still pissed off about the socks. If I were in London I'd be annoyed but would simply trog over to the shop and buy some more. I guess buying some here - in Panajachel, I guess - will be a small retail adventure.

Raining lightly but will head over to Snug now. If it's no fun I'll just come home, no need to force things.