1552 Apparently I sent the last part... Anyway, got a second coffee, moved table to be out of sun - view of lake a bit more constrained from here but still nice. Phone batt at 15% so mulling more and reading less. For a sitting around afternoon like this should have brought battery pack out with me but there you go. Will go home after this one I think, but no rush.
Religious slogans painted up all round town. Prob noticed this on flying visit during lake tour visit here earlier in trip but v obvious this time round. 13%. Need to be careful as want Google Maps on hand for navigation after I find cash machine (already seen some but yesterday during undirected laundry wandering).
1750 Back at hotel, left Tacomex about 5 after 3 coffees, tipped Q6 on the Q47 bill. Withdrew cash and got back here about 1730. Bit tempted to head the 20m or so down the narrow path with hotel entrance to lake to watch sunset, but thinking might do that tomorrow instead.
I opened the laundry, all good, everything's there.
1758 Well fuck. I need a shit, just went into (shared) bathroom and there's a nastily large (but not *extreme*; plausibly large UK sort of thing) spider on the wall in the shower. Closing the door was enough (noise/vibration) to make the fucker apparently teleport itself along the wall a bit. I then noticed there's another (presumably dead) fucker of similar size on the floor in front of the toilet, which is almost more disturbing as I would be sitting right next to the bastard on the cubicle and if it's not dead it might plausibly move onto my foot. So I haven't had my shit yet. Not sure what to do. Edgy, I just screamed a bit at sight of a dangling velcro tie on my phone charger cable here in room.
Other guests seem to max out at one apparently German couple in room next door. I don't know if there's much chance of them noticing it or doing anything about it.
I suppose there's a slim chance the one on the wall will fuck off and let me adopt an out of sight, out of mind attitude, but even if that happens the presumably dead one on the floor ain't gonna move itself.
Am I really going to walk 10-20 mins into town after dark (albeit not that late) in order to find somewhere I can use the toilet??
1812 Fortunately I'm not absolutely busting for a shit but I don't think I can hold off until eg tomorrow morning and hope there's something at the entrance to the volcano trail where you pay Q100. I'm not optimistic but let me go see if there's another toilet up at the restaurant end of the hotel before considering other options.
1944 Finally got my shit. I couldn't find another bathroom, no staff around, the fucker had moved right around the room and was conveniently situated on the glass bit right above the door. German chap either didn't notice it or was unfazed when he went in to have a shower. I loitered around dithering heavily and looked up other hotels on booking.com. Finally decided to bite the bullet but booked only for a single night at another cheap hotel. Got here on foot only to find it completely unclear where entrance was. Various phone calls and fuck knows what exactly happened and me waiting around in some street and then a big chap with a broom showed me a side entrance which had been locked before and some woman was waiting and showed me to my room. I expected 3 bed shared bathroom but have private bathroom, at Q58 night. It's a pisser to lose the Q100 I've paid for tonight and tomorrow night at old hotel but there are limits; if I can't even have a shit without shitting myself and there's only the one bathroom then fuck that. Those buggers seem to fail to provide the usual crumb of comfort whereby the average spider appears extremely reluctant to move without provocation.
What a shitty end - not just having to move, the actual shit involved in getting in to this hotel (I was losing the plot and chuntering to myself in the street outside) too - to an otherwise relaxing and pleasant day.
There is in fact a tolerably sized but not tiny spider on the wall in here, but this is a lot more in town (practically party adjacent) and feels a lot more urban unlike the ruraly garden quality of the other place. I'm also on the first floor (UK terminology) which may help.
Of course because I only booked for one night in case it was shit and the woman will be asleep at 6am tomorrow I am a bit fucked wrt staying for an extra night. I *think* I can leave my bag and lock the door behind me and arrange to extend for another night when I get back from volcano, but I may have misunderstood. FFS.
2106 Have copied photos from 3 day hike to phone and it's very slowly uploading them. Have e-mailed old hotel to say I've left and key is in the lock; I had already paid on turning up, but I don't want them reporting me as a missing person or anything.
(I didn't see any staff there in the hour (?) or half hour I was dithering outside my room in the little terracey bit, including when I headed over to restaurant in search of another bog. I could have gone and rung the doorbell to make someone turn up, I suppose, but rightly or wrongly I didn't imagine they'd be very helpful.)
The room here has two entrances on opposite sides; I opened the one I didn't enter through and peeked out very briefly, it appears to lead onto another elevated walkway like than on the side I did enter. While I'm sure Nick Stone would appreciate having a second exit, this makes me (somewhat irrationally) nervous. I think I'm a bit jittery after the whole business of changing hotels and lurking in the street with my bag trying to get in here and the slightly weird vibe of this place (entrance is via some huge but apparently deserted yard).
Cranberries' "Zombie" faintly playing in distance.
Of course there are no sockets next to either the double or single bed. I may have to resort to charging phone as I sleep from the battery pack.
2143 Fucking hell. I just *touched* the sink with my knee as I went to clean my teeth and the fucking thing fell off the wall. I *think* I caught it, and it appears to hook loosely back on the wall and still work, but that was a nasty shock. At this rate - and I feel terrible saying this after feeling so chilled and a bit smug (there was a hummingbird flitting round the lime plant around the restaurant open-ended-no-glass-"window"-looking-over-the-lake, which I didn't mention due to low battery earlier) sitting at that restaurant admiring the view and thinking mostly positive thoughts earlier - I will be fucking glad to put San Pedro behind me. Unfair but there you go. I really do want to do this hike tomorrow but if it goes tits up I may well not extend here another night for a second try. But let's hope the issue simply doesn't arise and everything is fine tomorrow, then I can leave more-or-less as planned on Thursday morning for (say) San Marcos and beyond having lost ten-ish quid on paying for a hotel I couldn't stay in, I will leave having accomplished everything I wanted here.
Did I already say the place I had the excellent lunch earlier was La Mano de Dios? I looked on way back to hotel before it all went wrong. I may go and see if I can get the same thing for dinner tomorrow if I'm not down from the volcano too late, though will need to come back here to pay for extra night and shower first. But while it's not *great* being out after dark, at that time of night it won't bother me overly much, especially if I don't have all my possessions with me as I did tonight.
2203 The sink plughole drain appears to leak onto the floor slightly now (though it is not completely disconnected). Maybe it always did. Not my problem, I can live with it for a couple of nights anyway. Shower and move towards bed, I think.
BTW it was nice to sleep in a proper bed for first time in a few nights last night.
2219 Just had genuinely pleasant hot shower, got out, brushed against sink and the fucking thing fell off the wall again. Managed to put it back on but surely sooner or later it is going to hit the floor and smash?
FWIW I booked a room with shared bathroom (but still a triple, because that was cheapest and this was cheapest place) so in a way the private bathroom is a bonus (and I don't think I'm being charged more) but that doesn't alter the shock value of this damn sink.
I am reluctant to imagine filling in a booking.com review for either of the two hotels I've been in here; I perhaps should but I don't want to be vindictive and it feels like if I can't say anything nice I shouldn't say anything. Staff/family at first hotel seemed nice enough and it's not exactly their fault I have a phobia, OTOH it doesn't seem entirely unreasonable to warn people the garden-y rural-y nature of the place means the sole bathroom may effectively be unusable, but OT3H it still feels a bit off to mention it based on one incident. And this hotel I feel my impression was coloured by the awkward arrival, but I *did* book at last minute and I wasn't feeling at my most emotionally stable and it was after dark which always shits me up when things go wrong. I am also reluctant to mention the sink - a legit criticism - lest (even if the review is anonymous) they treat this as an opportunity to blame me for and charge me. But mostly it's the not-entirely-their-fault emotional charge of my arrival and check in here that currently makes me think I won't leave a review.
I used to make a point of writing tripadvisor reviews everywhere on last trip IIRC, but not doing that this time. Not entirely sure why, but I'm not - I feel somehow reluctant to say anything negative, and that in turn makes me feel it's pointless to say positive things.
There's no real reason it should but I fucking well hope the sink doesn't decide to fall off the wall on its own during the night.
The beer followed by coffee thing earlier worked quite nicely, BTW. The beer made me feel pissed, then gradually sobered up while having the coffee and arrived at a reasonably meditative frame of mind by the end of it. May not always work like that, but perhaps worth another try - and it is a relatively responsible way of drinking too, given I only had the one litre over maybe an hour and a half.
2234 Bed.
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