Quetzaltenango, Sunday

1552 On terrace at Kasa Kiwi with a litre of Gallo for Q30; tempted at 2 for 50 but if I *do* stay out it's only Q10 and the idea is this is just a taking advantage of the very nice weather (this was only place could think of with terrace and price isn't bad; Salon Tecun *may* have a terrace but not sure) and not a night out; I wasn't planning to drink today but the weather and a chance conversation on way back from CdB made me think of it. Did homework (and had half pizza) before coming out; ideally will start to work on the backlog of vocab back home tonight but not essential.

CdB trip pretty good; turns out the main pedestrian access is via some stairs which in hindsight I must have passed when attempting to walk up following the winding road on my second try. Nice views, also had a couple of goes on the (free) long slides up there which was surprisingly fun and had a egg-and-frijoles-in-tortillas snack at a kiosk (overpriced; I think should have been 15 but I never got change from my 20), also had a rice-based atol up there (another 5) but still not tried atol de elote.

Live music on here but no free tables round that side. I am sitting very aloofly in a solo chair by the edge of the terrace on opposite side to bar and music but the free tables round this side seem very "sun in face". I genuinely didn't come here in even a vague hope of getting into a conversation; if it happens then fine, but I really just wanted a beer in the sun (but not sun right in my face).

Might have quick poke at hostels for Friday night while I'm here.

1607 OK, had a quick poke. I really wanted something near QT (not strictly relevant if near school as I will have finished officially there on Wednesday) but neither booking.com nor hostelworld.com has anything, regardless of price, in that area. This seems a smidge odd given there is after all that strange hostel which has QT within in (notwithstanding my slight dislike for it and its dog), maybe there is no availability but perhaps more likely it simply isn't on these sites.

I really did want to be near QT if possible to (presumably) reduce awkwardness of getting there on the Sat morning and to minimise lugging around of my bag or equivalent bags to/from the Fri meeting and indeed on Sat morning. In some sense it seems churlish to worry about lugging a bag half a mile when I am planning to walk 45km with roughly equivalent bag, but there is enough uncertainty and worry around the hike without making things harder than necessary.

hostels.com seems to be part of hostelworld.com now and hostelbookers.com doesn't seem to have anything either.

OK, the prices shown on booking.com's map are unhelpful. There is (one room remaining!) somewhere nearby, but at Q150 a night it's a bit pricey (single room of some description) and off top of head not sure if there 22% tax on top either. Maybe I should just suck up a bit of a walk and go for eg the hotel I was at when I first arrived here or somewhere else a bit closer but not much.

I could in principle also brave the dog and enquire at that weird-seeming hostel which includes QT on its premises tomorrow after school.

1634 Having had look at QT website the *approx* start time on Sat is 0615 at their office. This is not great but I suppose it's also not the 5am start I had feared. It would still mean leaving a "distant" hostel at 0555ish to get there in time but is this really a huge deal on top of everything else? I half suspect I could leave my bag at their premises overnight and perhaps just take my daypack back and forth with the essentials for the single night in, but wouldn't like to bank on that.

Wondering if I should just go with a dormitory for that night on "silly to object given communal-ish nature of hike" but a) maybe I would like the privacy beforehand b) bit worried about having to get up and out at such a time without causing massive disturbance. (Maybe you're not supposed to worry about that. OTOH if it's actually dark at that time, as I suspect it is, that might be awkward.)

Within reason I shouldn't worry about ten or twenty quid here or there. Yes, it does add up, but I am not too careless about it generally and if it eases things a bit it may be worth it. In five years' time I won't remember the extra expense.

Do feel slightly a sad loser here on own, but it is true I didn't want more than a peaceful beer in sun. Bugs me slightly I might struggle to make connections if I did want to though. But overall I'm not doing so badly, it's all practice, shouldn't imagine it's the stereotypical non-stop party for everyone else, etc etc.

Quick look on web says Casa Argentina has single rooms with shared bathroom for Q40. I suspect that's out of date but notwithstanding the dog it is a decent price. I might e-mail them, it wouldn't commit me to anything I guess.

Yeah, bashed over an e-mail in probably sub-optimal Spanish. Don't expect a swift response but I think I can afford to wait a day before I make alternative plans. Bit edgy about that dog but probably be fine, I suspect (not that I feel I was "wrong" to do it) it was a transient shiftiness on my part in legging it for the door and the fucker has no fundamental objections to me.

Now l've been up there and know what I'm looking at (perhaps could see before) I can see the cross and (I think) the building at the lookout on top of CdB from here.

1700 Sun is going down behind hills, it's still very light but not so warm. Have been nursing beer quite well (dicking around with accommodation helps), won't try to rush it but don't think likely to be overly tempted to stay for another. I can indulge in irresponsible drinking and/or attempted socialisation when I'm at Lake Atitlan and onwards and don't have school in the morning (though of course some days I expect to have trips with early starts, just not every day).

Kept waking up in night wondering what time it was again last night. Not *entirely* unpleasant and I wasn't worried about CdB trip in way I was a bit about Chicabal, but not entirely good either. Think I did have a very weak form of the "oh shit" bleak feeling at one of those wake-ups, though not enough to force me out of bed to stagger dazedly around the room trying to get my head straight. Do wonder - pure speculation - if these mini awakenings are related to feeling cold.

Have zipped fleece up - was comfortable wearing it even with the sun before, though I had it off during CdB walk - and feeling just a smidge chilly.

Live music still going, not bad though it's other side of large terrace and just treating it as background music.

Not amazing cover in English of "I will survive" now. Game effort though. Maybe it's not that, words don't seem quite right but tune is similar. No, I don't think it was. So maybe it was a good cover of some other song. :-)

1726 It's probably psychological in part but feeling chillier now despite warmth of day earlier than I have up here at 10pm ish (with other people and having had a few beers, usually though not always) on other days.

Am yawning too, which may not be unrelated. Should try to go to bed earlyish; I have to be up for school Mon-Wed and in practice Thu and Fri too, I then have early start Sat and prob Sun and Mon too (QT site does say, I simply aren't checking) so I really need to try to bank a bit of sleep, assuming it sort of works like that. I expect Fri to be a bit stressful with private lessons and checking out and changing hostel and the pre-trek meeting. I will also need to clean up the flat Wed/Thu.

Don't get me wrong, it's not freezing but I feel a bit uncomfortable. Most other people are moderately layered up too, it's not just me.

Almost at point of necking remaining beer so I can leave, for better or worse. Incidentally on a positive note I didn't get any blisters from yesterday, nothing hurt particularly this morning and I didn't feel today's walk up Cd b was particularly harder because of having done the walk yesterday.

If I didn't say yesterday, Chicabal is not "trivial" - there's a lot of walking uphill and you - well, I did - feel the strain, but you just keep walking and it doesn't take that long and it's generally fine. I had a couple of slips on the way down but never lost my footing nor did I feel particularly at risk or tempted to descend a section suspended on 'inverse all fours'.

Some chap just asked if could take my seat as stood up to look at view for last (small) glass, didn't understand him perfectly but meh, and I let him. What was I actually going to write? Oh yeah, I maybe need to start stockpiling small (Q10ish) bills ready for the trip to Atitlan, to avoid getting shafted on not getting change or them not having change.

Will do little circuit round edge of terrace, have piss and go home via supermarket for unhealthy snacks.

2024 Got back to flat about 1835, there's a Christmas parade on (I think there might be one every week at this point) and I had to walk miles to try to get round it only to find it was passing practically in front of flat. I did manage to sneak across the route of the parade during a gap. In an ideal world I might have taken advantage of this happy coincidence and watched parade but I had bags of snacks and wasn't really in mood and it's not my kind of thing generally. A certain smell of marijuana round parts of the (pretty dense) crowd, not that I have any objection.

(Was a bit warmer at ground level than up on terrace at KK, even though it was dark by this point.)

That hostel have replied - with a bare price, so it may turn out to be a dorm not the preferred private with shared bathroom - at Q50. Quick poke on booking.com shows this is price of single room in some places (without the peculiar advantage of location for my specific purposes) and a dorm in others. I am kind of thinking it's probably worth a punt, it's only one night and it takes some pressure off a bit wrt the trek.

Yeah, fuck it, it's an adventure. Have replied asking to confirm reservation, let's see what happens.

2114 Fireworks but not standing on balcony (direction not so good anyway), going to shower (even though really don't want to) and go to bed. Feeling a bit low grade fed up. Not really upset or disturbed or worried. Maybe it's having to leave here/school (as always, if so, it's kind of good I don't want to leave), maybe it's the uncertainty of the accommodation change and private lessons Thu/Fri and hike and so forth looming a bit. It's fine, I'm not feeling a bit run down in some way. Maybe lack of sleep/that waking up in the night thing. Let's shower and see if I can sleep - I don't feel seriously tired, but a bit - and see how I feel in morning.

Need to buy a new razor, the current disposable is (I think) responsible for a few minor cuts every time I shave.

Don't really feel cold with fleece on in flat and really it's no worse than usual and perhaps warmer but really don't want to shower, but has to be done and not *that* big a deal.

2140 Bed.