Quetzaltenango, Friday

1234 At Palacio de Los Jugos, ordering churasquito tho tbh not sure what it is and I had to point to it on board outside to communicate to waitress. Asked if the salad was beetroot and she said it was "pure", which I think is mashed potato, so fuck knows.

Teacher had to go over to school to collect his money so he wanted us to finish class at 1230. I have him Q300 for today's classes and tip; this is only a smidge under 200 tip as there was half an hour less class today and I bought him a bottle of water as well as the tea which was all he had yesterday.

Got to be at flat for 1330 but think have time to eat and if I actually get something edible here this is a good opportunity to eat something "proper" and I can then may be take some relative junk (Xelapan goodies and/or tortilla chips) back to hostel and just camp out in my room with that junk for the night.

Bit sad to be saying goodbye to teacher but that's how it goes, and there is possibility of coming back - if nothing else, I suspect a few weeks here is a good way to acclimatise a bit if I want to do some volcano hikes on a subsequent visit.

We read article in paper about some tourists being rescued from Tajamulco but they were all apparently OK and the article didn't say but we inferred they had gone up without a guide (they were probably Guatemalan and maybe overconfident) and had done various stupid things. So I will try not to worry overmuch about something similar happening on Acatenango.

Waitress just asked if I wanted pechuga a la plancha. Fuck knows, I said yes - that seems a good option anyway, even tho it wasn't on board outside.

1437 Food was OK though for first time was a pseudo-sauce on chicken, but scraped it off and maybe it was just juice from cooking. No trouble checking out of flat, got to Casa Argentina maybe 1350, checked in, dog OK (made a point of stroking it a bit), paid Q50 and have en suite anyway (though the toilet doesn't flush; luckily I noticed before taking a dump). A few guys sitting around smoking on stairs up to room as shown up but not really an issue. Another guy down on lower terrace with laptop and a kitten climbing all over him.

Shower is both fierce and actually has truly hot (almost painfully hot) water. I didn't know that but as I didn't get to shower yday I took advantage of having time to take a shower and although at first I thought it was only cold and fierce turned out it also did got and fierce.

Also seized opportunity of private bathroom to wash my dirty shirt and set of uw, I think they'll dry OKish for tomorrow and this way I think I have clean clothes up to and including Tuesday, which will take pressure off a bit wrt laundry. No mirror in bathroom but used the credit card sized mirror I've been carrying around to have a shave too. Going to head out to language exchange in a minute or two, have been topping phone charge up a bit.

Bathroom smells a bit (mould?) but nothing too bad. Paid young woman who showed me up to room so should be good to leave tomorrow.

Not sure if I will buy junk to eat here tonight or not. Half feel I should avoid doing anything which might cause me to need to take more dumps than necessary, absolute worst case is I lose some weight and feel a bit hungry for next few days and I can always have a massive binge when I get to San Pedro on Monday.

Let's go to language exchange anyway. 

1930 OK, language exchange was fine, much busier than usual. Left 1715ish, most people leaving then or earlier anyway.

No big problems with QT. We're carrying far too much tomato sauce for pasta for my liking but I'm sure it will be fine. Got sleeping bag and mat. Asked advice re bag and they suggested I borrow a bag from them, take it to my room and experiment to see if I preferred mine or theirs - the doubt being that there's no way to attach stuff externally on my bag.

Having had a play, I can fit - it's a bit tight, but only just - everything inside my bag, including my fleece for when I don't want to wear it. I can also attach the sleeping mat externally under the compression straps which seem to hold it pretty firmly, though I don't plan to do this if I can help it. I will apparently have to take another item of group gear (not large) and a knife/fork/plate tomorrow, but think this will be fine. Currently the only communal gear I have is a plastic box of trail mix and a small bag of pasta.

I did briefly try on the borrowed bag and it sticks up a bit annoyingly behind the back of my neck. My bag does have a hip belt etc so I think it will be fine. Obviously I may regret this but no way to really tell; also my bag is *supposed* to have a full suspension system (whatever that is, exactly) and thus be fine for this sort of thing, and if it *isn't* any good I'd be as well ditching it and getting something which does have all that crap adding to the weight of the bag for future trips, so it makes sense to try it out as a backpack which I haven't really done (except experimentally back in my flat in London) before.

Feels a bit heavy when I wear it but obviously this is same regardless of my bag or theirs, and the weight does seem to be mostly on my hips as I believe it should be.

About 11 people on trip not counting the two guides. I am *probably* the oldest just based on appearances, but it's not like everyone seems to be 25.

Not going to have a second shower today; it might be nice but I don't want to get the towel damp just before I have to pack it.

The shirt I washed earlier today is nearly dry; I am wearing it now to help dry it off and I will wear this tomorrow. This frees up a clean T-shirt to wear on Tuesday. The uw washed earlier is still dampish but I will stick it in the mesh outer pocket of the small bag (my daypack) I am having shipped so with luck it will dry off completely while in storage and then I'll have that clean for Tuesday.

Didn't get any junk to eat tonight; I don't think I need it, I will probably feel better for not needing to use bog so much tomorrow and it won't really hurt if I do end up feeling a bit hungry tomorrow (plus I do have those peanuts and there are apparently opportunities to buy snacks in town).

There was a biggish bee dying on the floor when I checked in. I pushed it to one side to avoid treading on it by accident. I thought it was dead but I accidentally dropped some damp uw on it half an hour ago and when I shook it free it wiggled its legs a bit. I feel sorry for the poor little fucker but I am not going to tread on it so it will have to die naturally.

Breakfast at 6am tomorrow so need to be up 5:30ish. Yawning a bit and nothing else to do so should probably clean teeth and move towards bed. Probably won't be writing anything during trip so will have to summarise on Monday night.

2007 Just got into bed. Can hardly believe it's so early. Power has just gone off, oh no, it's back after a couple of mins. Ah, and fantastic, just had Duolingo reminder. Will probably lose my streak this weekend but let's do the damn thing now.

2019 Done that and rebooted in phone in hope this will reduce chances of some rogue app eating all my battery overnight/tomorrow. Of course this is really just a persistent hallucination on my part; Android intelligently manages the processes to ensure optimal performance, and the battery monitor never shows any app misbehaving, so there isn't actually a problem. We have always been at war with Oceania.

Will send this and put phone in airplane mode too.