Cartagena, Thursday

Thu 0933 Bit hungover this morning but not too bad. Had breakfast, now lurking in room, not quite sure what to do today.

Had a quick poke on expeda re flights. There don't appear to be direct flights to Cali from Cartagena, Barranquilla or Santa Marta. Prices appear to be around £70, £60 or £80 respectively.

Lack of direct flights is a bit disappointing, but since it's true for all three places it suggests that the extra hassle and expense of returning to Cartagena to get an onward flight isn't worth it. Gut feeling is that I will go on to Santa Marta next - I may pop into one or two agencies, eg perhaps Mamallena and the one in entrance to this hotel, today to get prices and see if it is a door to door service - and then unless something happens which makes me feel Barranquilla outside carnival is really worth visiting *now* (rather than "maybe, on a future trip") fly from SM to Cali, rather than shuttle over to Barranquilla for a couple of nights on the vague pretext of getting a slightly cheaper flight.

It's just possible I could get a direct flight to Medellin, but I haven't checked and am thinking it might be better to do Cali next - if nothing else I think it can be very hot there and if I go after this stint on the north coast I will already be at least partly acclimatised.

Feel a bit nervy about going out onto the street, rationally or not.

If I didn't already say - I think I did - it's really pretty impressive this hotel is changing the sheets every single day, given what I'm paying.

1746 Been back at hotel a few minutes. Not exactly a bad day, but feel mildly dissatisfied.

So I went out and tried to look confident and not walk too fast and no one hassled me. Think this is just lucky, I didn't even notice the normal non-offensive street vendors.

I found another cash machine in walled city and withdrew the max of 900k; it didn't tell me a fee and since getting home and looking at Starling app it looks like there might not *be* a fee, but I won't count my chickens.

I then went to Alain's (that is the name, I took a photo of menu in street as I left) and had bistec a caballo. I think I managed the Spanish OK with the waitress today. However, the food wasn't amazing; I've realised the salad is always dressed and that's what that mild vinegary taste is, and there was also a mushy fried tomato on top of the steak under the egg (though I didn't mind that too much; I'd rather have had the tomato separate instead of as a kind of ad-hoc tomato sauce on my steak though), but not too bad. Had two limonadas and when got bill was mildly shocked. BC was 18k as expected, each limonada 7k and total was 32k. I think I must have been misreading 7k as 2k for price of limonadas before, but fuck knows. You'd hardly believe I've been stone cold sober every time but one (and then I'd had 330ml of beer) and yet I cannot get my head round their probably perfectly logical bills. Anyway, I tipped 5k, since this suggests there *is* no tip being added to the bill (the 5k I thought was being added might be the 2k-vs-7k confusion in limonada price), which is maybe a bit high but then maybe I've stiffed them unintentionally on the tip on other days. Absolutely fuck knows. I had been led to believe restaurants would add 10% tip automatically.

I took advantage of the toilet at Alain's to stash my bank card and 900k in my security belt; I had been feeling a bit edgy when I left the bank, but with them in there I wasn't really worried.

I then went down to the naval museum, which I'd seen before and which moderately appealed to me without being a "fuck yeah, I must see that" thing. It isn't that big but there was loads of mostly Spanish-only text and I ended up reading most of it. Quite interesting and maybe even informative but perhaps not the most exciting afternoon. Periodically busloads of tourists would come in (with guides who'd call "bus 14, we are leaving" to herd them up at the end) and do the place in maybe 15-30 mins. I half envied them, but also thought "fuck no, I don't want to be harried round half a dozen tourist sites and not get to appreciate them properly" (though to be fair I doubt they're going to have deathbed regrets about only spending 15 mins in the naval museum).

I then walked back to hotel about 530ish, had a not-quite-sure-why super awkward Spanish conversation with woman on tour desk in entrance about a shuttle to Santa Marta - there is one, it's door to door (though she did drop in "it drops you *near* your hotel" , but I didn't quibble) but I can't remember the price. 50something or 60something.

Anyway, I wanted to get a 5l bottle of water from shop opposite so went in a couple of tour agencies on other side of road. One I had a really weird conversation where because I didn't know the word "pasadia" and felt too nervous to realise that was the root of our understanding, the woman on the desk talked to me in English via Google Translate on her desk PC and I spoke to her in Spanish. Anyway, I did get my information - they only do day trips (pasadias), not transfers. The place next door didn't do them either but told me to try some place further along. I didn't see that place but went to Mamallenas and although I didn't get to speak to anyone they have a service advertised for 56k - *presumably* door-to-door. This might be the price of the one I was quoted at my hostel, but not sure.

Anyway, this feels a bit expensive but not terrible and it seems there's one every two hours and it takes about four hours. I might look into booking some SM accommodation tonight. It is a bit tempting to go out tonight but last night was a bit heavy and I do want to go out for a few tomorrow evening and in some ways a quietish night in (marred only by trying to decide about SM accommodation etc) is appealing anyway.

I was trying to fight down a mild sense of "what the fuck am I doing, that the sole 'event' of today will be four or so hours browsing the naval museum, I should be having more fun" while at the museum. But it's fine. I think really today was about getting some cash (though that shouldn't be a major chore) and continuing to fight down my fear of walking around etc. I also can't really expect every day to be massively exciting or memorable.

In terms of what I want to do in Cartagena, it would be nice to visit La Popa but that might require getting a taxi and its indefinably unsafe to take one off the street. Uber is now dead here so I could maybe investigate cabify or something. The other thing that might be nice is there's some "free entry" thing in the booklet/map I got at Castillo San Felipe - I think this is really just a marketing swizzle because it says you have to go to a dock somewhere and pay for transport and maybe some kind of tax and then you get to this structure and you can get in free if you show the booklet - but the idea of a little boat trip out to this fort or whatever is kind of interesting. But I have no idea if I'm capable of surviving the process of getting to the dock, since it's probably somewhere you need to get a taxi to. I may look into one or both of these tonight, I don't know.

2214 Right, I've booked a room (double, but shared bathroom - there are laundry facilities available apparently and if not I'll have to risk a laundrette) in Santa Marta for 4 nights for COP252k; not amazingly cheap but not too bad. There's a bar. roof terrace and some activities which raises some minor social pressure (OTOH a Jenga night might be fun...) but I actually picked the place initially because it was one of the cheaper options. I don't know what the "hassle" factor is like drinking at bars on the street in SM (assuming it's safe to go to them at night without taking a fucking cab) but if there's a nice roof terrace bar at the hostel that should still be good for a quiet solo drink. I was vaguely tempted to book for more than 4 nights but I can always extend if I want to and I don't want to overcommit; I might hate SM or the hostel, or it might just be dull and I might want to try one of the other nearby towns. (Eg outdated guidebook says one place - Taganga? - can't easily check right now - is an almost obligatory stop on the gringo trail, and while that sounds shitty, it *may* also be the sort of place that would be easier to get into conversation with people.)

2332 Massively noisy parade outside, or that's what it sounds like. May just be a bar or club across the street for all I know.

Fri 0007 Yes, very noisy. Not sure if more so than other days. To be fair I am not deeply bothered by it. I maybe feel a tiny bit jealous I'm not joining in, but then again if it really is a club or a parade it's not and never has been my scene, the music is very Latin with a lot of drums etc (I should stress it's not club-type banging RnB or whatever, which is why I say it sounds like a parade) and not exactly my cup of tea (while being exotic and broadly pleasant enough). Bed anyway.

Cartagena, Wednesday

Wed 1649 Promising start to day but feeling mildly shitty.

Got up for breakfast, today a strangely gelatinous bread roll (quite nice, but odd to me) and coffee. Came back to faff in room for maybe an hour and read up before heading out to Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. I had checked on the map and knew this was close but felt a bit edgy walking along the street between hotel and there with few other tourists. Nothing happened.

Anyway, after feeling a bit jittery about ambulant vendors etc round the entrance I paid my 25k and got in. I had taken a 500ml bottle of water with me, as advised by eg web beforehand, and while I did drink the bulk of it I would probably have got by without it. It was however good to have it in my hand to help discourage mildly aggressive water vendors.

The castle (as I will call it here) is pretty impressive. I watched the film in the old soldier's hospital 1.5 times (I came in part way through and watched the entire film when it restarted), quite informative. The aircon in there was also very welcome. (It was/is hot today as usual, although not unbearably so, I expected to be finding it way more oppressive than I have.) On the way out I was about the last out as I stayed in my seat to have a quick look at the map I'd been given when I got my ticket, and for some reason by the time I got to the door there was an enormous stream of people all coming in together. So I ended up stood behind the door (in the relatively dingy room, as it was showing film) and peeking my head round to see if the stream had finally finished, and I ended up having a brief conversation after one woman said I gave her a scare lurking behind the door like that - I apologised and I think it was all quite amicable.

Nice views over the city and I did a bit of meditative staring. I went over the whole place about twice, I think. The long underground tunnels were quite creepy (and it had occurred to me, before the incident in the hospital, that someone could be an arse and hide in one of the side alcoves and leap out to give you a scare; this didn't happen), especially when (as was quite often the case) there was no one else around - though it's cool that it's not so busy that you're always surrounded by people, because you do get to feel that sense of isolation and the atmosphere.

In the main long tunnel there was a fork off to one side which went downhill quite steeply. This tunnel was about the right size for me to walk down, but narrow enough it would have been a squeeze/both-turn-sideways-and-hope job to let someone else coming the other way go past. And for no obvious reason the lights on the wall stopped at that point. I peered ahead into the darkness and turned back.

Later on I was in another tunnel with quite a lot of other people and there was another stretch with no electric lights, but people were using their phones as torches and going on ahead so I did the same, and in this case it turned out merely to be a short-ish stretch without electric light before reaching another lit section and the far end of the tunnel.

Armed with this knowledge later on during my second drift round I went back to the steeply sloping tunnel. I was a bit nervous TBH - if nothing else the prospect of dropping my phone and the light going out didn't appeal, if I stayed calm I could have got out in the dark just by following the upward slope, but it would have been scary and I might never have been able to get my phone back unless I found someone else with a light to follow down.

The passage turned a few corners which made it a bit more eerie. Going further down, the floor was covered in water and I nearly turned back but ploughed bravely on. A few metres past that point an orange traffic cone blocked the way and honour satisfied I was able to turn back (naturally imagining someone or something coming up behind me in the dark). I'm glad I did that, it was sort of fun, but as I say even though in reality there was no danger it did press a lot of the right mental buttons to trigger feelings of doing something risky.

So maybe about 2pm I set off back to the hotel. Out of pure paranoia I took the memory card out of my camera - I'd taken a lot of photos, none amazingly unreproducible but you know, they're a kind of souvenir and memory jogger of *my* visit, not someone else's - and put it in my back pocket just in case I got mugged and they took the camera.

The brief walk back to the hotel was *nearly* trouble free. At one point there were a group of maybe five guys hanging around on the street, and as I had to go through the fairly wide gap between them I said "permiso" and walked through. No collisions or anything. One of them said "Amigo!" presumably at me, but I ignored him and kept walking, and nothing happened, but still felt a little bit rattled.

Anyway, came back to hotel (as it was on the way anyway) and dropped off water bottle and faffed round a bit. I planned to go into walled city, withdraw some cash and then go for a late lunch/early dinner at Alain's (if that's what it's called).

So I was crossing the plaza in front of the clock tower where there's an entrance to the walled city and some guy (who I couldn't see IIRC as he was behind me) starts calling - I am *assuming* at me, but I don't know - "yo!" repeatedly and IMO mildly aggressively. I did my best to ignore him, but I may have shown some kind of fear or other reaction in my body language or gait. Again nothing happened, there are people around there but I was still in a mildly empty space. That left me rather disoncerted, and wondering what would have happened if I'd been on my return journey with a big wad of cash.

Anyway, I had checked in advance on Google Maps and seen there was a Banco de Bogota near the clock tower, so I went there. The inside was cavernous but didn't appear to have any cash machines. There was a little both area to one side of the main door, but they weren't BdB machines (go figure) and would only let me have 600k max (for the standard 13.2k fee) so I cancelled the transaction.

I then went up to Alain's which looked like it was shutting - tables/chairs stacked up a bit etc - but after (not helped by my jitters from the earlier incidents) some poorly understood Spanish exchanges they said they would serve me, though I felt a bit awkward. Got carne asada, although this time the salad came with some manky thin white dressing on so I didn't eat it, and there was a bit of spaghetti in a very thin/light tomato sauce which I was fortunately able to eat. I didn't get a bill on my table, probably as they were shutting, but I went up to counter and waitress told me 19k and I gave her 20k and didn't wait for a tip and she thanked me as I was walking off.

To avoid a repeat encounter with "yo" bloke I took a slightly different route back. Lots of people but few obvious tourists in street. Nothing happened but rightly or wrongly by this point I was starting to feel a bit on edge about being in the street at all.

I'm not desperate for cash but this had seemed a good opportunity to get some, and I could have stashed the wad in my security belt in the toilet at Alain's before returning home. So while annoying that's not a huge problem, and if I have to withdraw only 600k (I will try another cash machine another day, but I had just assumed BdB's branch would have their cash machines and hadn't identified locations of any others, nor did I see any on my walk to Alain's) so be it.

Right, I think that's the facts etc done. Let me take a bit of a break before going onto the "psychology" of feeling on edge here etc. It's 1722 now BTW, I plan to go out for a beer or two later but we'll see how I feel, and there's no massive rush, I probably won't leave til at least 1830 and maybe a bit later.

1731 Quick shower later.

Right. Lacking anyone else to turn to, I asked Google for advice. Almost inevitably there's a bunch of sanctimonious wankery sprinkled with borderline useless information. But let me waffle.

So coffee bean bracelet guy the other day is 99% (he just might be an eccentric millionaire or something, I suppose) running a standard scam which Google seems to associate with Rome. Guy starts up a conversation, asks where you're from, makes some comment, offers you the "free" bracelet. This - which I never got to the other day - is followed by a sob story (often about a pregnant girlfriend, apparently) and a request for money. Giving the bracelet back is refused as it was a gift. Technically you can probably just walk away, maybe throwing bracelet to ground, and they won't usually (but may) get aggressive (I think as in "threatening" , not as in "actually attacking you). Advice given for Rome at least is to just totally ignore the people - don't say no, just don't engage with them when they try to get into conversation with you - the article I read acknowledges this goes against standard " decent" human behaviour, but IMO (can't remember if article said this), influenced by Cialdini's book, once someone else starts abusing these rules to obtain compliance from you they have forfeited the right to "polite" treatment. Admittedly this is a slightly grey area because in principle a random person shouting "where are you from, bro?" in the street could be a genuinely friendly person, but we're not living in fantasyland here and I think it's fair to assume the worst (given "worst" here means you ignore the person, not that you shoot them because you think they might possibly be a threat).

On aggressive street vendors more generally, much bleeding heart commentary about "they're human beings too, they deserve respect, they didn't have the opportunities you did, blah blah" . And there's some truth in that. One site which mixed good advice with smug wankery did make the point you should be polite with merely mildly aggressive vendors. Say "no thanks" or whatever, don't be rude. That's fair enough. I can handle those guys. It's people like "yo" guy today and *maybe* the "amigo!" guy who bother me; they seem to be interested in stopping me from moving, in *forcing* me to engage with them. A guy says to me "sunglasses?" as I pass, I say "no thanks" , it's mildly annoying but he's got to make a living and we're totally cool. If he's the fifteenth guy in a row to try to sell me sunglasses it's annoying but that's not his fault and he still deserves a polite no. However, if a guy *detains* me by abusing the rules of politeness (which is what "Amigo!" guy would have been doing) to make me stop and engage with him, or who starts out being rude verging on threatening ("yo" guy) is as far as I'm concerned no longer entitled to a courteous response.

So having set out my philosophical position on this after being riled by smug wankery on net, what about the practical aspect? Rightly or wrongly what's *really* bothering me here is that these more aggressive vendors (or possibly just con artists or potential muggers; I have no idea what "amigo!" and "yo!" guy actually wanted) make me feel physically threatened. I also worry that eg by ignoring "yo" guy, he's going to come charging up and grab me and say "don't fucking ignore me, you cunt" . (To which the abstractly correct response would be "don't fucking shout at me like that, you cunt", if physical violence concerns didn't exist .) I think in reality that is unlikely; if someone is determined to mug me they're going to do it regardless. So if I can manage it the correct response is to be polite but not allow myself to be detained (perhaps I could have called "lo siento" back at "amigo!" guy, on the offchance I had somehow done something he perceived to be rude - maybe he didn't hear me say "permiso", or something), and also to try to realise that these situations *almost* certainly don't pose a physical threat (some muggers may do an aggressive street vendor act to get a victim to stop etc, but most aggressive street vendors *are* simply going to be aggressive street vendors and won't offer a physical threat) and that acting as if they *might* is just going to make me more scared which will both ruin my holiday *and* probably make me give off more invitingly victimy body language and increase the risk.

Cartagena is apparently notorious for aggressive street vendors, so it may be better elsewhere, though I think Santa Marta may also have a bit of an issue.

On a side note, one of the exceptionally smug twats I found via my Google search for advice felt it was incredibly arrogant for people to leave a review of Cartagena, *the whole city*, on tripadvisor after visiting just the old centre for a few days. They're tourists, giving their tourist impressions on a tourist website for the benefit of other tourists. Perhaps strictly the title of the reviews should be " Tourist impressions of the most-visited tourist parts of Cartagena by other tourists", not a plain "Cartagena" , but I think it's pretty fucking obvious what is meant.

I do wonder if being alone makes me more sensitive to these mildly threatening people on the street. Of course, it may also be that I'm out of practice at being a tourist and dealing with these situations.

1820 So to recap I think my practical approach (if I can manage to implement it is) a) be polite but b) do not allow anyone to *stop* me, if I can be polite without stopping great but otherwise tough, I'm not stopping. Combined with c) don't assume any form of "hassle" is a precursor to mugging, it's completely counter-productive.

Did a bit of laundry (I think it helps to keep on top of things, especially as sinks are nearly always small, and I am trying to avoid washing underwear and "outerwear" together now) and will probably go out shortly. Bit edgy but it will be fine. Probably Plaza de la Trinidad, I will "accept" I may be politely bullied into handing over money to the odd street entertainer and am taking a handful of small bills which I'll keep in the knee pocket of my trousers where I'd have my camera during the day.

2208 Back home. The walk took *precisely* three minutes: should I really have taken a taxi? Streets were heaving.

Productive psychoanalysis session with Dr Hall, I feel.

So I'm a bit pissed; I went to Solar just opposite Cafe Trinidad and was initially peeved that a) Aguila (which I think I have been pronouncing incorrectly - a-gwee-la instead of a-gih-la - will check this with Odilia) cost 7k a bottle b) the waitress told me they didn't have that, only Aguila Light, and when I dithered I allowed her to upsell me on a half litre of BBC (Bogotá Brewing Company) lager at 12k c) after my first pint the waitress took it away while there was still a good swallow left. But still, I mellowed a bit when they apologised very nicely (changing the barrel) after massive delay in getting second "pint'.

Anyway, it wasn't a bad night. Bit of street entettainment, I felt a bit over-obliged to contribute but two rappers who did the table next to me (Harry Potter, what a surprise) left me alone except one made vaguely poisonous eye contact for some reason, prob gave about 8k over the night but OKish and most of it fairly voluntary.

I won't try to blog about it here and now but have been wondering if worrying about being mugged has a negative EV - really (*especially* since I have another phone back home to bootstrap eg Google account on a newly bought phone) the downside (assuming it's not psychologically devastating, after a day or two's recovery) is limited, and the downside *now* of continually worrying about it (never mind that " risk of mugging" vs "risk of mugging if i worry about mugging" are not necessarily that distinct, i.e. worrying may not even make me safer) are noticeable.

Anyway, I should maybe have come home earlier and given it was 12k a beer it was a pricey night (I asked and though didn't fully understand paying by card would have been more so paid 55k cash), it was quite fun in a self-meditative way. One of the street entertainers was a decent guitarist who did some English language and some Spanish songs, including that Hombres G one about "solo importa mi mujer" .

Wrt future travel plans, I am thinking I need to not get too stressed. For all my mixed feelings, I'll probably be back in Cartagena later in my life. Unless there's something personally MUST DO here which I've missed, I just don't need to get that worried. I've already got a billion regrets queued up for my deathbed, not visiting the Cheese Museum in Cartagena won't even get a look in. The mere fact that I'll *probably* return means I really don't need to worry about "sucking the town dry" in terms of tourism; it's *good* to save something interesting in case I do come back (as I probably wll).

I am not going to the palacio de la inquisicion or whatever it's called; yes the whole torture business (and this is one of top attractions in outdated guidebook) has a grotesque fascination but I am *not* going to succumb to it.

So I am thinking I will skim the guidebook to make sure there's nothing super-interesting I've missed, and I will then go ahead and plan to go to Santa Marta on Sunday and (assuming I can fly from SM, which I also need to check) that I won't return to Cartagena this trip.

(I mean, in terms of future visits, I already said the boat trip to Panama sounded cool if safe and I wrote it off cos I don't want to go to Panama now. So maybe in future, as a random example, I could travel from Panama *to* Cartagena.)

2234 No connection at all with any of my thoughts, but just listening by chance to HMHB "What made Colombia famous" , and vaguely cool I am currently in Colombia.

2303 Definitely a bit pissed. But did think earlier - not for first time - even the best meaning advice about "chance of getting mugged is minimal as long as you're careful" is ultimately unhelpful. "If you're careful" is the ultimate advice giver's get-out-of-jail-free-card. Was I "careful" tonight? Was a bit pissed but loads of people on street and hardly late at night. Was I "careful" walking stone cold sober in middle of day over to CSF *outside* the walled city and thus not in the tourist safe zone? Even ignoring my EV-ish calculations, it kind of feels like in reality there's maybe some blatantly stupid things (getting totally off your face miles from home) and then it's all a grey area where sensible is retrospectively defined as "nothing bad happened" .

On that note, I see all sorts of advice about not taking cabs off the street. In what sense is this dangerous? Are we talking about kidnap or murder, which based on what I've read is monstrously unlikely? Or are we talking about  being overcharged a bit, which TBH if you're drunk and/or nervous on the street somewhere and can "escape" the situation by taking a cab off the street seems like a pretty decent trade off? It feels like phrases like inadvisable and dangerous are thrown around carelessly, as though the reader will know what you mean, and for all the fact I'm probably a bit of a social idiot and incapable of appreciating these subtle distinctions the advice starts to feel a bit meaningless.

Thu 0013 I could say all sorts of drunken stuff but oddly enough what is coming to mind is (and I don't claim this is that relevant) a quote (sufficiently obscure I can't find it via a Google search) from the jacket of N F Simpson's "Harry Bleachbaker" , to the effect that "after a lifetime of pushing himself to the brink, he has decided to sit back and wait for the brink to come to him" . Insofar as I have a point, I'm thinking I should just stop giving so much of a fuck.

0035 Bed. Bit of a headache but meh. Running low on water so can't drink more. I must say considering how cheap this hotel is, it's impressive that they change the sheets *every single day* (and empty the bin in the bathroom with the dirty toilet paper in too). Yes, it's a sweaty climate, but still, they really don't have to be so pro-active about it and I think it's impressive.

Cartagena, Tuesday

Tue 2102 Just got back to hotel for last time tonight. On the whole a very good day and I feel much better than I have done recently.

So I got up in time for breakfast. I had set myself as goals for today primarily to go and talk to some tour agencies re trip to El Totumo volcano, and secondarily to go to some kind of museum. So after dithering in the hotel post breakfast - I really don't like talking to tour agencies, and (as discussed below) I was a bit dubious about the ET tour after reading various random blogs turned up by Google - I popped out. Google Maps did at least show a few tour agencies just down the street so I avoided the need to trog into the walled city (admittedly not far).

I had tried to get an idea of price from Google and I was expecting to pay USD35-45. The first two tour agencies didn't appear to have any staff on til afternoon - one told me that explicitly and the other had a guy in a locked money exchange booth and a vacant travel desk. Anyway, the next place - Mamallena Hostel and tour agency - happened to have a white board advertising a tour for 55k, at 830am or 130pm. I started at that for a while dithering. In the end I spoke to a MoS who spoke to me in English and signed up for the 1330 tour today. I had really intended to go in the morning, thinking it might be physically cooler, but given my lingering niggles after reading those blogs in a way it seemed a good idea to just "get it over with". I did ask why the tour was so cheap given I'd seen USD35 plus on the web but the MoS didn't seem to know or care. In hindsight I suspect these USD35 plus fees are a) including tips b) for tours which include a lunch.

I was told I needed to be there by 1315 and I could pay then. That gave me about three hours to kill. I went over to the walled city and after about 30 mins of trying to get some walking in I went to Alain's (practically deserted) for lunch - a pretty decent pechuga a la plancha with natural lemonade. Despite being stone cold sober I got confused by the pill - I expected it to be 14k, it was (slightly less detailed than yesterday) showing a 19k total but - gasp - *not in the box at the bottom* so I somehow decided 19k was the price of the meal and no tip was shown. Not a big deal, I broke a 50k at the caja and left a 3k tip, so I probably effectively tipped 8k (I do wonder why the tip is always 5k - tourist tax?? - but whatever) but still cheap-ish. I had half planned to get a second lemonade but given delay in a waitress turning up to put the bill on my table I sort of didn't like to ask.

So I came back to the hotel to prep for the tour. This mostly consistent of emptying my daypack, shoving some swimming trunks in lieu of underwear and plastering myself in sunblock. Some of the blogs I'd read implied ET was a massively congested tourist hellhole and I'd end up spending hours in full sun queueing to get up to to the crater wearing just swimming trunks.

Anyway, I then went back to Mamallena a bit before 1315. I wasn't picked up til about 2, but I had been telling myself a) this meant less time sitting on a bus grinding round n hostels b) I hadn't actually paid so if it fell through I was only out a bit of time and a metric fucktonne of sunblock c) I knew full well these kind of pickups almost always turn up late.

Anyway, I was picked up and put in a bus, then we drove off and those of us for ET were switched to another bus. There we acquired a group of maybe 6 youngish Americans, who all knew each other back in the US and the majority of who were flight attendants for some US airline taking a break of a few days in Cartagena (I think they mostly had to fly back tomorrow). While TBH I intially mildly resented them, one of them - the only bloke, a youthful-looking 33yo - started talking to me and while I felt a little bit "swamped" with all this sudden social interaction it was quite pleasant to meet them. They had apparently been waiting about an hour before being put on this bus.

We did in fact get transferred to a third bus after this, which was the one we actually went to ET on. I should probably have deliberately sat more "with" those guys at this point, but I also didn't like to be overly intrusive. They (and I was listening in and joining in a tiny bit) got chatting to a couple of Danish guys during this time; there's probably a lesson there about just starting to talk to random people on these kind of tours.

We did stop for 10 mins at a "pink beach" nearish to ET. This is some very salty water which crystallises out round the margins into a kind of white foam; the tour guide actually offered me a big crystal to taste (though it was quite rounded and polished compared to the ones on the shore and I wonder if it was "fake" ), which was extremely salty but otherwise unexceptionable. Apparently it's not a good idea to swim in this water; some of the group did paddle in it and reported painful feelings as a result. I didn't do this, though my flip-flop-only clad foot (I had pared myself down to the bare minimum of clothing and equipment - no phone, no camera, etc - amid concerns I'd lose the lot in some fuckfest at the tourist hellhole of ET the blogs had lead me to expect, though since I now "knew" some people on the tour I was less worried about this anyway) did sink into a bit of random mud and I ended up tipping some woman 2k to wash it off before I got back on the bus.

I have to say that the ruralish areas we were driving through looked really "primitive" compared to Cartagena - nothing I hadn't seen before in other Latin American countries, but still mildly shocking and made me feel a little better about the prospect of mild exploitation at ET. The immediate area before we drove up the causeway on the pink beach looked super desolate and threatening, the sort of place I'd be shitting myself about wild dogs or maybe even locals if I inexplicably found myself wandering round there on my own.

So we then drove onto ET proper - it was maybe getting on for 4pm by this point - and I was delighted (wrt what I'd read on those blogs) to see no gigantic queue on the stairs up to the crater. We were taken into a little hut with changing area and bag storage - with a sign on the door saying for exclusive use of Ruta Ecologica, which was the tour company I had booked unknowlingly via that hostel - and the guide told us a few things and then we got changed and went up to the crater.

There were quite a few people in the (small, as I already knew from those blogs) crater, and we did have a brief-ish pseudo-queue around the edge before going in one at a time, but not a big deal. We were also lucky that the level of the mud was high; some of those blogs had complained about a scary climb down the slippery ladder, but for us the mud was only a foot or so below the solid area of the crater.

The practically obligatory (but technically optional) massage when I got in was not the horrifically intrusive or disturbing experience I'd been fearing after some of those blogs. After that we were sort of left to our own devices. The experience of floating in the practically bottomless mud (mostly smooth, but with a few weird lumps in) was weird but enjoyable. You just could not sink in it, although had I been so inclined I realised I could have done a kind of inverse pushup using some submerged wooden railings round the edge (I contented myself with pushing myself under to about my chin, then letting go and bobbing up with a mildly disappointing slowness).

I felt a little bit awkward being on the social fringes of that group, but the ice had been broken and it did feel a bit more social than I'd been expecting. There was also a presumably Colombian old-ish (50?) guy who'd been on our bus and got in just before me who I didn't really speak to much (the odd "thanks" sort of comment) but felt like "one of us" , so to speak.

What I think was quite lucky from my POV was that we were there so late we were practically the last group of the day, so it was quite empty after we'd been in for a while, *and* one of the flight attendants decided to jump back in after getting out, which I don't think would normally be an option if the pool was rammed or something people would suggest. So I did that two or three times myself - I actually can't remember if it was two or three. It was cool but weird, if you jumped in you did actually go right under so it was a bit disorienting with your ears slightly blocked and it being a bit painful to open your eyes. It was also warmer when you went that bit extra under - it wasn't *cold* normally when you were floating in it, just sort of comfortable but not excessively warm, but going under you did feel a sort of pleasant warmth, though whether this reflects a genuinely higher temperature or just had something to do with the feeling of being completely submerged or the "shock" of jumping in I don't know.

I wouldn't have minded doing the jump a few more times but we were already pushing it a bit with the bus, I think. The walk down the stairs from the crater looked mildly imposing - I went backwards and had no real problem - and then we went into the lake to be washed off by some local women (always called "abuelas" on the blogs, but mine at least didn't look that old, maybe 50-60 but not stereotypical "abuela" ). Some bloggers had also made out this was a bit harsh and/or gropy, but while I didn't strictly *need* help washing off this wasn't unwelcome or unpleasant. As advertised I was told to take my trunks off (which was a struggle) and although - for better or worse - I didn't get groped my "abuela" did give the trunks a good rinsing for me. (The water is not transparent and no one can see your private parts; it's maybe two or three feet deep.)

After that I went back to the little hut and collected my bag and dived behind a little curtained-off cubicle so I could dry myself off with the towel I'd brought and swap the trunks for regular underwear without exposing myself. (My towel is microscopic, being a medium PackTowl original viscose, which is perfectly adequate for drying myself on, but would be a struggle to use as a privacy screen for changing trunks behind.)

At this point a massage guy and my "abuela" were at the exit to the hut waiting for money - we'd been told, and I'd guessed in advance, that 5k each was appropriate - and I gave them each 5k and there was no fuss. Blogs had lead me to believe a swarm of children who had performed minor services like "guarding your flip-flops" (I had left mine in the changing area anyway, given it was so late that the sun was not terribly fierce and the ground was borderline non-painful with bare feet and that there was no queue to stand in for hours while the hot ground was painful anyway) but there weren't any around.

It would have been 5k to tip the guy who films you with your own camera, but I had no camera anyway. I did actually seem to get my massage from two different guys but since only one seemed to claim any money I only paid one.

I gave my e-mail address to one of the group on the way back, as I had had photos taken of me - they were all Air Dropping them around, but I don't have an iPhone and I hadn't taken *any* phone with me. As it happens one of the guys - John, the youthful 33yo - just emailed some photos of me he'd taken at the pink sea as I was writing this bit, so although I hadn't got any other photos yet it's possible some of those will come through later.

There had been a suggestion I'd join them to "party" tonight on some kind of party bus, but I wasn't surprised that didn't come through - I think a lot of their group weren't keen to go out drinking, and if they are indeed flying back tomorrow I wouldn't be keen either. In a way that's mildly disappointing, but I was a tiny bit edgy - although I had said yes - about getting safely back to my hotel afterwards.

I got dropped off outside ML and although no one else had AFAICS I tipped our guide 5k - I appreciated the fact she had given me the 5k change when I paid, and I was in a good mood after the unexpected social interaction and lack of horribly painful tip-extraction and groping and unpleasantness at ET.

Jumping briefly back in time, the mostly-white hotel cat I had seen other day was on the landing outside my room when I came out after breakfast before going to tour agencies. It was very friendly, I spoke to it in bad cat-Spanish, but unfortunately ended up half kicking it as I tore myself away from stroking it, started to walk down the corridor and it followed me and put itself in the way of my leg. It didn't seem too perturbed by this - I guess it's going to be a semi-routine occurrence for a friendly kitten - and stuck with me as I went down the stairs, necessitating me pushing it gently aside to clear the next step down each time.

I stopped in at the little shop I'd been a mildly miserable git in the first night on ultra-brief walk back from ML to my hotel to get a 5l bottle of water (5k). Had quite a bit of trouble crossing the road to get to my hotel but got over eventually.

I had a shower - I had some mud up my nose and a few bits in ears and eyes which "abuela" hadn't got and I hadn't noticed before (except for the up the nose, which I *did* notice and half snorted out into hanky and half into throat and swallowed as I was waiting on bus to leave ET) - and did a bit of laundry and decided I would go have a few beers at the ML bar, which I did. In hindsight I should have gone into the back courtyard where I had seen more people, but I didn't so ended up sitting on my own in front bar for 3x330ml Aguila (5k each, plus I left a 2k tip when I left), but that was OK. Meeting random people in bars is a low percentage strategy for me, but I wasn't being hassled by random "entertainers" as I wasn't on the street and there was music and it was pleasant enough; I alternated a bit of mulling with continuing my re-reading of Mark Twains "Innocents Abroad" on phone, and I also looked a bit at outdated LP guidebook and MG website about Barranquilla.

I should say at this point ML has a (small) black cat and a small white cat, I had briefly stroked the black cat on entering the bar and both were sleeping over in the far corner while I was there.

I had been forming a vague plan, perhaps even before today but can't be sure, but definitely boosted by observing in tour agency at front of my hostel and at ML while waiting to be picked up (which was actually in some ways a pleasantly meditative experience, staring at the posters for some hostels in the region and realising that, yes, it's a Tuesday and I'm not at work and am sitting here waiting to be picked up for a tour and I'm starting to feel a bit chilled out and not too stressed out about the genuinely mildly anxiety inducing state of "being a tourist" , which I think takes a bit of getting used to) that eg there are shuttle buses to all sorts of places, including Santa Marta and Barranquilla. (There was also a whiteboard with maybe a dozen 'next boats' to Panama, which if this isn't the iffy business I'd been lead to believe - the massive list on whiteboard was somehow reassuring - is vaguely appealing, but really I don't want to go to Panama now, so maybe another time.) I had been worrying a bit how I'd get to the next place once I left here and whether it would be advisable/safe/stressful to get some kind of bus to (say) Santa  Marta, but I've now realised that I *am* on the tourist trail and therefore conveniences like shuttle buses (which *probably* take you door-to-door and thus avoid that "shit, do I have to get a taxi, and can I trust a taxi at the terminal?" issue) exist.

The LP guide book is rather dismissive of Barranquilla except during the carnival (which is 22nd-ish - I checked on phone from ML bar but can't remember precisely now - Feb this year - so not now, and I am nowhere near interested enough to hang around a month for it, unless Santa Marta proves *massively* attractive and I end up being in this region another month anyway) and MG doesn't make out it's massively fascinating either. I may be missing something which would really tickle my personal fancy, of course, but I'm not ruling out ever going there - all I am saying is that I'm kind of thinking I will go direct to SM (also recommended by Jack and Marta (sp?) who I met at Valeria's birthday), see how it goes (probably book accom for 4ish days and be open to staying a week or longer) and then I may well be able to get an internal flight from SM or if not I can come back to Cartagena and fly from here. So while it's possible I'll return on a subsequent trip, and I need to check about flights from SM, I need to bear in mind I *may* not be returning to Cartagena this trip once I leave (contrary to what I wrote the other day) and if there are any must/would like to dos, I should get them done before I leave (and though I probably won't, I could extend my stay here to do so).

While I'm rambling, I should say that although I already knew this, it's worth being reminded that nearby hostels which I'm not staying in will often have bars and for cheap beer (not that ML was cheap, but still, as cheap as anywhere else) and maybe prospect of meeting people I should consider visiting them. I don't need to be staying at them, which may be expensive (it is unfair, because these are prices for *tonight* whereas I booked my hotel weeks if not a month or more in advance, but just by way of comparison I am paying £11ish a night for my cell with private bathroom, whereas ML want £9 for a dorm bed tonight or £26 for a budget double room) and/or offputting because they might be too "party" for me to feel comfortable staying there.

(Not to say I *wouldn't* ever stay at a hostel because it seems potentially sociable, I have done so even if it hasn't often worked out. Just that I don't *need* to be staying to have some of those potential benefits.)

Anyway, I had three 330ml bottles at ML and as I was feeling very mildly drunk plus socialising seemed unlikely plus it seems I am likely to feel inclined to "go out" in this way most nights I didn't see any value in burning up alcohol (and to a lesser extent financial) budget on a fourth beer (plus I am still feeling my way re safety, even though it was a very short walk home I didn't want to push it) tonight, then got back here and started writing this with intermittent breaks for music and/or water.

Is that a pretty much complete account? I think so. So I'm feeling a lot better after today's fun activity plus some social contact, even if I didn't pull off the double by getting talking to anyone tonight. I'm also mildly getting into a more "tourist" mindset and accepting that I am going to be "sold to" and feeling a bit more relaxed and thinking that I can fairly pleasantly pass a week or so of my remaining time here and some time in Santa Marta; even though I'm not a beach sort of person and a lot of what's on offer here is beachy, in moderation (even if I have no further social success) I can probably enjoy doing a bit of mild tourism stuff and having a few quiet beers in the evening over a timescale of a week or two, before moving on (probably to Cali, though I am quite looking forward to Medellin and wondering if it might be somewhere I can settle down for a few weeks of Spanish lessons).

I think the plan for tomorrow is to walk - which makes me nervous, even though it's literally a few hundred metres (subject to knowing where exactly the damn entrance is) away - over to Castillo de San Felipe and tourist it up there, have lunch/dinner (depending on time) at Alain's (if that is its name) or maybe one of those other cheap restaurants not tried yet, then have a few beers in evening perhaps at another bar on Plaza de la Trinidad. (Yes in some ways it is a shame to restrict myself to super-nearby bars. On the other hand I have no reason to think there's anything "better" - on whatever way that might be measured - further away, and there are enough local options I am unlikely to run out of them before I leave.)

I do feel mildly hungry - the food at Alain's was (as before, and as in most Guatemalan comedores as I probably already said) good but  not a *huge* portion - but not terribly so, and in the short term it's probably not a bad thing if I go slightly short on food before indulging in a minor orgy of gluttony. There is at least a moderate vegetabley portion (beans, a mercifully undressed modest salad - perhaps with a very mild vinegary flavour but mild enough it may be my imagination and I can tolerate it anyway - and also today half a fried banana/plantain) so I'm getting some kind of vegetable matter down me.

I did speak (at their invitation - I think some of them have eg Mexican family connections, and maybe they also need the language for their work) Spanish a bit with that group on the tour, though obviously bulk was in English. They said I didn't have an English accent when I spoke Spanish, obviously a non-native accent but not obviously an English (UK) accent. Whenever I speak Spanish I keep realising I've made mistakes, but I guess this isn't all bad - if I recognise the mistakes I may eventually learn to avoid them, whereas if I don't notice them even after the fact I won't have any motivation to improve.

I think tomorrow evening I will start to look into flights from Santa Marta/accommodation in SM. I can then decide if I've had enough time in Cartagena and start to book things.

Wed 0001 Bed.

Cartagena, Monday

Mon 1502 Back at hotel, been back maybe 30-60 mins. Have this feeling I "shouldn't" be here, I should be out "doing something". But fuck "should". I need to avoid putting pressure on myself. I've got plenty of time and even if in retrospect today is *completely* wasted (which I don't think it is) I can afford to lose a day or two. (Even if I'm not a juvenile or ambitious. :-) )

I woke up a few times in the night, hips hurting a bit (perhaps mattress is a bit thin) but I didn't sleep too badly on the whole. Intermittent worries the hotel/this room is a complete firetrap but it doesn't appear overly heavily furnished and it's probably fine.

I did go down for breakfast about 830. Two or three couples down there during my time there, I think one of them French and the others native-Spanish-speakers. No one showed any inclination to speak to me or vice versa. Breakfast just a cup of coffee with milk (think I had a choice here, but that was suggested and fine by me) and a very dense bread roll with margarine, but that's all fine, and considering it's included in the already low price I'm not complaining.

I think I then faffed about in room skimming electronic guide book etc before heading out about 945. Plan was vaguely to walk round the old city walls and quarter the streets to get the feel for the place and find supermarkets/cheap restaurants.

I feel a bit better about the place than I did yesterday. It *is* very touristy though, in the sense that nearly every building is a shop or restaurant with a tourist orientation and there are loads of street vendors (fixed or ambulant) as well. It is undeniably attractive though.

I didn't generally feel unsafe or hassled as I walked round, with one fucking annoying exception and its mental ripples. I was walking along a relatively deserted bit of Avenida Santander (on the coast, by the walls) and some guy called out to me in English to ask where I was from. I said "England" and kept walking and he called out "which town?" and I called back "London" and kept walking. That was that, except maybe an hour or two later (after lunch) I was going down a semi-deserted street in the old town not by the coast and he accosted me again. I felt a bit fucking vulnerable, he did all the welcome to Colombia spiel, culminating in him (after holding it to my nose for me to smell) trying to give me a "free" bracelet of coffee beans. At that point I just said "thanks but I'm not interested" and walked off, but I felt a bit edgy. I am probably overreacting here, but I really hate these people who abuse the rules of social interaction (cf Robert Cialdini's "Influence") to " trap" you, and although I don't specifically know how the "free" bracelet would end up fucking me over I'm 99% sure he's not just a really friendly chap of modest independent means who likes meeting new people and giving them free trinkets to fill his days.

I'm now a bit scared I'm going to run into him again (after the first at-a-distance encounter he hadn't really annoyed or threatened me that much, plus I thought he'd never see me or remember me again) which bites.

I went into a coffee shop shortly after this (they had prices up - 1.8k for a (smallish) americano seemed OK) and although it was *probably* fine I felt really suspicious after the encounter with coffee bracelet bloke. Woman taking my order asked me if I had change when I tried to pay with a 5, I dredged out a load of change and she then asked me (which I understood, but thought I hadn't) if she could take my change and give me a note. I felt obliged - which I didn't like - to let her do it, and although she *probably* did do it honestly I can't help but feel she may have miscounted on purpose. Obviously the sums here are trivial but - even if it's probably irrational - I do feel very vulnerable (admittedly mostly in a "victim of petty predactory acts" way, not "victim of violence" way) and uncomfortable. (Oh, I also dropped 0.5k in tip jar and I have a feeling due to me feeling awkward as hell I might have handed over 2k in coins for the coffee instead of 1.8k.)

To some extent I just need to surf on top of these minor emotional waves, but right now I feel a bit fucking uncomfortable and awkward. I also feel a bit "what the hell am I going to do to fill my time?". I came back via a supermarket (2x1.1 litres bottles water for 2k).

Jumping back in time, I tried to look at the menus on the outside tables at a few cafes in various squares but was always accosted by a "helpful" waiter or waitress before I could really get a proper look so I just apologised and walked off when I got accosted.

I did find (and then struggled to re-find; I was trying to keep my bearings but it's hard, but I did generally avoid pulling phone out) a cheapish restaurant during the morning's walk and went back there maybe 1ish for lunch. Might have been called Alaine's but not sure; I dropped a pin on Google Maps anyway. It was down at the bottom of a sort of passage with a beauty salon at the front (luckily the woman touting for the beauty salon told me it was down there without me asking; I was feeling a bit surly and over-touted-at at the time - which I'm not proud of, but I'll be honest - but I did at least thank her and try to be pleasant). Got carne asada for 12k and a limonada natural for 2k - both very nice. Waitress asked me if I wanted the limonada natural "normal de azucar" as though that was a choice (not normal *o* azucar, as I heard it) but I just said "si" and she did the "dumb tourist, OK, con azucar" routine. Flushed with success at getting some decently priced food I did order a beer after, figuring it would be cheap there if anywhere. It was OK but not cheap - a probably 330ml bottle of Aguila cost 5k, which is what I'd seen in some mildly expensive looking cafes the other day.

I am genuinely confused because all that comes to 19k and that was written on the bill, but then the final total was 24k.The waitress had gone by this time (she had told me to pay at the caja) and I peered at the bill and decided that was probably the tip/service, though it seems a large percentage. I could maybe have asked at the caja but I didn't have the nerve/confidence that it wouldn't seem rude somehow (eg sounding like "you're charging me 5k for service, WTF?" rather than my intended "I'm a tourist, I don't know how this works, is that 5k the service charge?") so I just handed over a 50k and took the full 26k change. No idea if that's wrong or not.

I might well go back there - it's not as cheap as Diego's, but they have cutlery and it's a moderately pleasant semi-covered outdoor area - but I did spot some other similarly priced places in the street to the south as I left.

Oh, in the morning I did go into/shove my head into a couple of churches, but both had priests " doing something" up at the front so although it didn't stop most people I didn't really like to be wandering round looking at the building, statues, etc and ignoring him.

I have been snapping a few photos with my camera during the day anyway.

Is that about it? Oh, before lunch I popped into a pharmacy on some nice little square and (in hindsight) massively overpaid at about 2.5k for a cold 600ml bottle of Cristal (not a fancy brand) sparkling water. But it did go down a treat.

I think that's all the "what I did so far today" stuff written up. On with a modest bit of abstract/pop-psychological rambling. Or maybe a shower first.

1621 I don't know, maybe I just need to get used to being a tourist again. Although it feels like I've been abroad for weeks already, this is day 4 or 5 and it's only my second (part) day in Cartagena.

I will probably head out in 10 mins or so and go have a mildly overpriced coffee at one of those places south of the hotel and maybe a beer and come back slightly after dark. I hope I don't regret this.

1914 Back. Went out maybe 1715ish, despite reading some stuff on web (eg MG) which made me worry a bit about being out in Getsemani after dark. But I just went round the corner to Plaza de la Trinidad and to Cafe de la Trinidad. Alternated 355ml cans of Aguila (5k, 4%) with espressos (3k). Had three of each; was going to go anyway but the waitress (who had seemed mildly amused at my altenating drink order) told me the outside tables were going to be for food after 7pm so my third coffee would have to be last. Menu said there'd be a 10% tip so I knew in advance (and web reading had suggested this), so paid the 24.6kish with a 50k and took all change. (I asked if could pay by card but there would have been a 3k surcharge, so I didn't. Not that it was high level stuff but at least my Spanish was up to all this.)

During first beer a group of youths sitting in square opposite shouted "Harry Potter" across at me; wasn't insulted but felt bit edgy in case they hassled me. Maybe 15 mins later they came round and did a "personalised" rap song at me; it was entertaining although I did feel mildly intimidated. I gave them 10k, they asked for more but I told them 10 or nothing and it was all cool. I subsequently saw them and some other groups doing similar things for other people; I think it's far less personalised than it seems and any white guy with glasses is deemed "Harry Potter" .

Not long before I left a couple of guys did a Michael Jackson tribute act in the square; that reminded me of being in Copenhagen and seeing that MJ tribute act while the real MJ was missing. They came round with a hat just before I left and I gave them 2k.

Was pleased to see three tables at the Solar bar opposite occupied by other Billy No Mates (2 blokes, 1 woman). TBH I don't mind being on my own a lot of the time, as long as I feel safe.

Walk back was fine (and it's like two minutes away), a lot of people on street. Feel a little bit of a sad git now I'm back in room alone but not much really. It's good to have gone out and overcome a bit of that fear about being out after dark (it would surely have been insane to get a cab back that distance).

Did note the moon was very old or very young (couldn't tell which due to it being on its side as we're practically on the equator) early on, and as the sky darkened it became more prominent and I could see the earthshine on the "dark" part of its face. I tried to use it (just as an academic exercise) to work out which way north was, but my technique relies on working out where the sun is then using that to determine north, and that sun->north technique only works in high latitudes. I will have to read up/think a bit more and see if that's a fundamental limitation or just something lacking in my mental model.

That reminds me, if I didn't already say, that in Bogota I had started to form a mental model on how to tell direction using satellite dishes. (In the UK they virtually all point to slightly east of south - 5 o'clock if you superimose a clock on a compass rose.) A bit of empirical observation and some (possibly incorrect) thought suggests that if the arm inside the dish points nearly straight up all bets are off, but if the arm is closer to horizontal it points either east or west.

During my random wanderings today I tried to keep my bearings - though I wasn't worried as it was all so touristy and I had loads of time before dark and could always check my phone in a coffee shop if necessary - but it would have been really handy to be able to tell compass direction to keep myself straight. A wrist compass would have been super useful. I don't think the sun tells you much near the equator unless it's practically dawn/dusk when you can infer it's *approximately* east/west respectively.

I didn't look at my phone too much while I was out, doing my best to pseudo-meditate instead. I followed up on some pre-going-out thoughts I'd had about "what the fuck - seriously - do I hope to get out of travelling rather than staying comfortably at home?" . I thought it would be instructive to think over the more memorable bits of the 18-19 trips. On that basis, I hope to/enjoyed:

- improve my Spanish. But I also need to realise (and this works both ways) that "speaking good Spanish" and "finding things a bit uncomfotable/unfamiliar" are mostly orthogonal. Obviously being able to speak passable Spanish takes *some* of the edge off situations, because if things get really desperate I *can* communicate with most people. But even if I were completely fluent some situations are always going to be non-life-threateningly "uncomfortable" (eg how to get served etc in Diego's the other day)

- language exchanges - in different ways the semi-regular one in Xela and the one-off in Buenos Aires were both good

- studying Spanish/sort of getting "comfortable" in one place/having some regular "social" activity in Xela

- the hikes in Guatemala - even the one day trip to Pacaya was memorable, though the others were more so

- anything else?? I suppose the occasional social/drunken evenings when I "happened" to meet people stand out, in a mixed way (I could have handled them a bit better) The live music I attended in Xela (and elsewhere?) was also good, though mixed in with the aforementioned meeting people.

So I should be on the lookout for opportunities to do similar things on this trip.

I am vaguely thinking that though I feel a bit happier with Cartagena after tonight, it would probably be good to head on to Barranquilla and then Santa Marta soon-ish. I need to look into this (and whether it's useful/interesting to go to Barranquilla or just go straight to Santa Marta) and whether it's safe/practical to go by bus. I would then probably retrace my steps and end up back in Cartagena before flying on somewhere else. The fact that I would have another stint in Cartagena after B/SM means that I probably shouldn't extend my perhaps-already-overly-long initial stay of a week - even if in a few days time I decide I love it here I can choose to stay arbitrarily long after a B/SM side trip of however many days.

I should say that when I came back this afternoon my key wasn't at reception because the cleaner had it, and they had "made" my bed. This didn't happen at all in the hotel in Bogota. I had wondered if this might happen and refrained from adding my own combination lock to the door when I went out, but I put it on tonight since the cleaner had already been in. It doesn't add much security against anyone determined, but it would stop someone trivially taking my key from where it hangs in reception and coming in.

I've also locked the padlock through one of the bits of the lock on the outside of the door before coming in tonight; this wouldn't absolutely stop someone putting another lock on there (a thin one would still fit) and locking me in, but it would make it harder. I don't seriously think anyone would do this, but I see no real downside to doing this. (Maybe someone would mistake it for the door being truly locked from outside and not check the room in the event of an emergency or think it's unoccupied and try to break in, but neither seems likely.)

I think tomorrow I might try to arrange a tour for Thursday as my main goal, and if (as it probably will) time permits go to some museum or other as a secondary goal.

I called my parents earlier and my mum reminded me that apparently someone had told me just before I left India (and I had then told her) that I should just brush off people on the street who try to get into conversation (like coffee bracelet guy today) even if it seems rude. This does seem like a probably best solution, subject to circumstances (eg if truly deserted street at night, this might make things worse).

Got a bit of music on headphones as write this. Not pissed but had enough beer that this feels right.

2015 Finished reading Agatha Christie's "Nemesis" the other day. Not bad; I did like the device of reintroducing Mr Rafiel from A Caribbean Mystery, as he was a pretty cool character.

2033 Incidentally while Aguila (brewed in Barranquilla  IIRC) was 5k at that bar tonight, Heineken was something like 12k and Corona/Negra Modelo around 13k.

Very noisy parade kind of sounds coming from outside.

2050 I am wondering if all that coffee was prudent. I feel a bit jittery, maybe it's too long after drinking the coffee for it to really be the cause but I don't know. Oh well, just keep swigging water I guess.

2216 Did get a bit worried but the feeling has passed. Intermittent procession and car honking from outside, which is (irrationally) a bit frightening, like there's some kind of riot happening. Ditto also - especially bearing in mind how hard it is to hear anything over the fan running full blast in my room - when other guests tap on the door of a room opposite and I wonder if they're tapping on my door.

2249 I'm going to go to bed. I'm lying on it reading anyway so this makes little real difference except in intent, and that I'll have the thin sheet over me which is all the bedclothes provided or necessary. I'm not really tired but I could probaby sleep. I feel mildly hungry but not badly so; I don't know if this is because I've not eaten a lot or not. Breakfast was obviously small, lunch was nice but (like IIRC many meals in Guatemala) not huge, just borderline satisfying, but then I did have a largish and presumably sugary lemonade with lunch and then four beers over the course of the day which will have calories but probably not "satisfying" ones. I have also walked quite a lot. This isn't a problem, if I maybe manage to lose a little weight that's a good thing, I don't feel terrible and I can always go and indulge myself at some point (get some snacks from a supermarket, have two lunches, go order a big portion at KFC - who are fairly reasonably priced, from peering in this morning, incidentally - if this feeling of mild hunger persists enough to be annoying).

Bogotá-Cartagena

Sun 1107 At gate 14D waiting for flight. Everything OK this morning really.

Woke up early but stayed in bed and kept drifting off, finally reluctantly got up about 0845. Hasty ablutions and packing, usual breakfast a bit after 9 - a bloke and a kid at table briefly, but apart from brief "buenos dias" he was engaged on his phone and so I copied him.

Same bloke who picked me up (Henry) drove me to airport - I paid Diana (owner) 15k before I left. I sat in front and we made acceptable smalltalk in Spanish, it's all practice. He said the weather in Bogota is very variable, it can be raining on one street and a few streets over it's sunny, also it didn't used to get over about 16C but now they are seeing 20C. He is/was an electrician and had spent six-seven months in Madrid for his business. He said there's a smaller less touristy hill next to Monserrate (name began with G IIRC) which I might check out when I'm back here in April. He also said there's a not-tourist-oriented cable car between two parts of the city which only opened about 8 months ago, which I might check out.

No real problems at airport, though auto check in machine refused to play ball right at the final step. I retried with another and it did again, so spoke to some staff (who all let me speak Spanish, I have no idea if I needed to) who checked me in. Unfortunately there was stuff about "no sharp objects" ; I asked checkin desk woman who said I should ask security and (jumping ahead) when I did get to security - relatively low-fuss, presumably as is domestic flight - the woman there said I could take my nail clippers but not my nail scissors, so I gave them to her. I could maybe have tried to sneak them through and plead ignorance but whatever. Bit annoying but not end of world. I was a bit disorganised at security, I kept my hidden belt on but it didn't upset metal detector despite having some bank cards and a small key in it, I was also scrablling to dump coins into tray at last minute - I really need to get more organised with having plastic bag to dump these contents into bag prior to security. I did remember to take my belt off and shove camera into bag and smartphones into fleece before arriving.

Biggest fuckup was that my bag went through before tray with jacket etc, and I managed to miss (or it beat me through the metal detector and I didn't realise) my bag going through, so I collected my tray (there was virtually no queue and it was fairly quiet) and was looking around for my bag to come through. Fortunately after maybe a minute I noticed it at the far end of the conveyor and no one had walked off with it.

Henry insisted on walking into the terminal and upstairs and over to the domestic checkin with me. I felt mildly out of breath walking up the stairs, will hope that's altitude. I wasn't going to tip him - it didn't really feel appropriate - but I decided I'd better so I started to pull wallet out but he shook my hand and walked off before I could pay him, so hopefully he wasn't expecting one.

There was a bit of drama about 0355 this morning, I was woken up by lots of banging and shouting in the hotel. Not entirely unreasonably I was pretty fucking worried - robbers? cops?? - but I sat tight and listened and I kept hearing a woman saying things like "querida" and "por favor mi amor" (I didn't get the bulk of the conversation) so I realised it was some kind of domestic problem rather than a direct personal threat. I was still feeling a bit nervous - I had fallen asleep with bathroom light on and it would be obvious from outside it was on, but I also didn't want to show a change of state by turning it off and indicating I was awake, nor did I want to sit there frightened in the dark.

I did wonder if I should call the police but it didn't really seem appropriate. It died away and then came back a little bit and I managed to get back to sleep maybe 0415ish.

I wan't going to say anything but the owner apologised to me at breakfast this morning, IIRC and IIUnderstoodC, someone had come back from a party with a friend and they had ended up fighting. I said it was fine, not to worry, life's like that etc. I had been planning on just not leaving a review of any kind after this scary disturbance, but I think after having that explanation I'll just forget about the disturbance and leave the (good) review I would have left if it hadn't happened. I think that's reasonably honest; it's not as if I have reason to believe this is a regular occurrence.

I must say - if only because I couldn't be sure the button on the door handle did indeed lock the door from the inside (I figured out the trick to leave the room with the door locked, but that only works when you can access the outside handle) so I was damn glad I had the Howsarlock on the door. It's obviously not going to keep anyone really determined to get in out of the room but it would certainly have stopped a casual attempt to enter or someone falling against the door from knocking it open.

I took a million pesos out at the Banco de Bogota machine on Starling card after checking in and before going through security. I tried another machine (Caja Social?? don't rely on that) but it had a max of 700k IIRC. The BdB fee was the same as when I took out 600k on arrival, so that's good; we're looking at 1.32% on the million, which isn't so bad. I've stuffed all this in my hidden belt until I get to the hotel in Cartagena and can reshuffle everything. Obviously holding a lot of cash has risks, but so does withdrawing cash, and it feels relatively secure here at the airport plus of course it's unlikely anyone is going to follow me all the way to Cartagena to rob me of the cash they saw me withdraw.

All the announcements are in Spanish only; again I would guess that's because this is the domestic terminal.

I am at this point only very mildly apprehensive about getting a crappy seat; I *have* flown on much longer flights in crappy seats before and I'm sure I'll survive.

1159 Boarding, by group, not mine yet. Looks like a fairly full flight. Just realised I forgot to proffer my dispoable razor to security and ask if I could take it, but it went through so fine. I'd rather have had the nail scissors than the razor though.

1220 Minor miracle - window seat in emergency exit row (12L). Only minor glitch is I didn't realise it was emergency exit row so took daypack out with liquids in to put under seat in front then by time stewardess told me and I put it back in main bag the compartment immediately above my row was full, so had to put it a few rows back, but not a big deal.

A320-200 FWIW. We got a bus to the plane; it looks like all the sub-gates starting with 14 don't have air bridges. Not a problem, just a bit of colour to this exciting report.

1754 Back at hotel after a brief (maybe 60 mins plus to be fair, I'm not really sure). To be frank I'm not very happy. Let's back up.

Flight fine, maybe 30 mins late but didn't matter. I was about last off plane as had to wait for constant flow of people getting off to abate before I could get back one row to get my bag, though not a huge deal. As I wasn't waiting for checked baggage I just breezed out of the airport, which feels super-tropical with the open-to-the-air corridors from the "gate" (walk down steps off plane past a couple of garden into open air corridor). It was hot but not unbearable, and I was wearing fleece.

Got taxi no trouble, a bit harried but there was no queue and really people were super efficient at showing/shoving me into a cab. Moderately nice views of surf on crowded beach on drive in. I and taxi driver both missed the hotel on first pass but he took me back round (all one way streets) and we found it. Nominal fare was 13.9k, I would have probably made it 15 anyway but as I was grateful he hadn't made a fuss about going back round I decided to give him 20. He did appear to not be remotely inclined to offer me any change from the 20 which makes me incline to think he planned to stiff me into paying 20 anyway, but still. Was super pleased to be at hotel.

Check in no trouble. Room is very cell-like but it is cheap and it's fine. Does have private bathroom - shower (had one before going out for walk etc as will describe shortly) is a cold water pipe with no nozzle sticking out of the wall, but it's so hot here that really isn't an issue.

Hotel presumably owner says no problems with security walking round here.

Anyway, so after shower+shuffling my valuables around and partly getting chaned I went out in quest of food and  bottle of water. I'll cut to the chase - the place is (insofar as I can perceive it through the fog of my bad mood) beautiful but it feels like an absolute tourist trap. Like Antigua but even more so. By sheer luck I stumbled across Diego Broaster near hotel which had massive pictures of food on the wall with prices like 10k. It had a few people in (it's not a huge place) so also a good sign. So down at heel it's far from clear they have waiters. I did manage eventually to order pechuga a la planca (for 10k) and after a longish (but OK) wait it turned up. Place doesn't seem to run to knives and forks. I saw some people eating fried chicken wearing disposable plastic gloves (which explains why waitress offered me "guantes" when I asked for a "tenedor" at the chicken place I went to in Bogota). To be fair the portion of chicken and chips was fairly generous. I just picked the chicken breast up in a napkin and ate it with fingers. I was supposed to get a small soft drink with it but no one ever asked me what I wanted or gave me one and I didn't really get a chance to ask. When it came to pay I just instinctively knew I'd never get change so I had to hand over some valuable-ish small bills, I paid 11k. I would have made it 12 but since I never got my drink I think 11 was generous.

I then went for a bit of a walk, keeping an eye out for somewhere to buy water and maybe some bananas. I'm guessing it's because I am in the centro historico, but just about eerything is a boutique restaurant or tour office or something. I think the cheapest I saw coffee for (and I had to go in and peer at the menu sneakily; most places don't seem to show prices because hey, the rich tourists will pay whatever, YOLO right?) was about 3k and that would then be plus tip. This is not in absolute terms terrible but still. I wasn't exactly in mood for beer but cheapest I saw was 5k and *none* of the beer prices I've seen bothered to tell you how much you got for your money, so it's probably a 20cl bottle or something.

To my credit I did walk quite a lot and I did manage to walk round without getting lost or using Google Maps. I did spot one or two small shops and eventually (just before coming back to hotel now) spotted one on corner opposite hotel. I got two 1.5l bottles of water - no prices shown, natch - for 7k. I feel bad because I'm clearly in a bit of a foul mood because at till some bloke offered to get me some cold bottles and then he started saying something I didn't understand and I just said it didn't matter, he went off to get the cold ones anyway but his coworker stopped him. They offered me a bag and I said "cuesta mucho?" because I thought between the ecofascists and the tourist trapness the bag might be 1k, but I think it was free. I wasn't *rude* as such, but I feel bad about this - they seemed perfectly pleasant people and trying to be helpful.

I saw a few (all very small?) cats on street during my walk and there was a kitten (which did let me stroke it, and I took a picture) on hotel desk when I came back.

I had vaguely intended to come back here, drink some of the water (one bottle was cold-ish) and go aross the road to a bar I'd seen there for a beer, but when I got back into the room I dithered and kind of felt sufficiently pissed off that it seemed like a bad idea to go and have a drink in this mood.

Breakfast is included here but is from 730-9 which isn't great, but I can and probably will get up. And I suspect I'll be eating at Diego's most days unless I can find somewhere else which isn't insanely expensive. It's not that I absolutely can't afford anything fancier, but I don't even *like* fancy restaurants.

It feels a bit of a shame to just stay in all night - I am assuming it *is* safe to be out at night, certainly I scarcely worried about safety during my walk earlier, perhaps because I was too busy being pissed off at the absence of somewhere to buy a cheap big bottle of water and/or somewhere to sit and have a non-insanely priced coffee (most places simply don't *show* any prices). There are *so* many other tourists around I do feel I blend in, and since I'm not flaunting massive wealth by e.g. walking around with a fruit juice from a street stall, I guess I'm a less attractive target than most of my fellow tourists.

But it's not as if this is my only night here, as I already said I am in a bit of a bad mood (for all that it's mildly abating as I write this). I am also yawning. I think the thing to do is to have a quiet night in (watch a bit of YT, etc), go to bed earlyish (the room does have a fan which is running full blast as I write this), have breakfast and then maybe go out tomorrow in a better mood and with "more time" to quarter the area and try to see if there are any safe-but-not-absolute-tourist-ground-zero parts where I can dine and (later tomorrow or another day) have a few meditative beers.

I have also been trying not to drink too much, I haven't had a beer since the flights out if I remember correctly, which is another small reason not to drink tonight.

My fellow tourists don't all appear to be American from superficial appearances, there seem to be quite a few Latin American-ish looking people giving off tourist vibe too.

Yawning again.

Just wrt prices while these are maybe extreme saw several restaurants with single courses at the 30-50k mark

2238 Bed I think. It's noisy, car horns and music from street, and intermittently it gets *very* loud as though a procession is going past. No window in room so don't know. Minor horrible visions of someone locking me in (the door is just padlocked from outside to secure it) but meh, be OK.

Don't feel too bad. Hearing all this stuff outside makes me feel a little bit lonely, which is perhaps irrational especially so early in the trip. It kind of feels like I've been away for ages already.

I will say that when I was walking round earlier there was a bit of a "yeah, this feels a little bit more exotic and lively and 'on holiday'" compared to the rather quiet (but not without minor interest, in hindsight) time in the suburbs of Bogota.

No idea if I will make it up in time for breakfast but we'll see. Plan for tomorrow is just to explore and not put any real pressure on myself.

Oh, wifi dropped out and I ended up burning some precious data on local SIM on YT without realising it. Luckily I had a tight-ish limit on data usage set which has kept the damage down; must be super paranoid about that if YTing it up in room in future.

Bogotá, Saturday

Sat 1642 Been back at hotel maybe 10 mins. It's pissing it down; was intermittently very sunny and pleasantly-verging-on-too warm earlier, with a mildly pleasant cool breeze when sun when it. I seem to have two remarkably sharply delineated sunburnt strips of skin on my hands, which sucks but just one of those things. Seems a bit odd as IIRC I haven't had this before and virtually never apply sunblock to my hands.

Mixed feelings about things right now TBH. Going to slack off and watch some crap on YT for a bit before writing the day up.

1802 Wifi has started playing up. I will need to go speak to someone about arranging transport to airport soon; I may end up paying mildly over the odds but it will be OK.

I feel a bit damp and cold - I'm not damp enough to really want to use up a clean change of clothes. It's OK but not great. I suspect I should "enjoy" the relatively cold feeling as I anticipate feeling hot as hell in Cartagena until I've had a week or two to acclimatise.

So I slept really well and woke up feeling pretty relaxed at what was probably 8amish, though I didn't like to check time. I had nagging doubts the alarms hadn't gone off and it was actually gone 9 or 10, but as I say I didn't check, so drifted mostly enjoyably in and out of sleep with this nagging doubt (but I had no huge plans for today) I'd overslept. The alarms did go off and I eventually got up a bit unwillingly about 950. Went out and owner cooked me breakfast about 1015; same as yesterday. Came back to room, shaved, faffed around (eg sunblock), looked at Google Maps to see where to go. There's an aviation museum at airport but really wasn't in mood to trog over there again. Decided I'd go over to Atahualpa park (in part bearing in mind it's a weekend and thus more likely to be people about for safety, and GM comments did seem to imply it was safe). Left hotel maybe 1100-1115, but not too sure.

Diverting from today's story, I find myself wondering if I'm going to like Cartagena. I mean, I kind of expect to like it, but I'm wondering if it might be a bit like Antigua - beautiful but massively tourist-oriented and thus feeling a little "artificial" and perhaps excessively expensive. On the other hand, as today's story maybe shows, I am not currently feeling super comfortable being a tourist here as I perceive I'm quite a rare animal right here and thus I feel like I am marked out as a potential victim, whereas at least in Cartagena I can mingle with the herd of other tourists for safety. ;-)

1832 I tried the Movistar app over breakfast this morning and it just worked, so maybe I was too harsh on it. It looks like I have 1.3GB data, 60 mins of international calls, 650MB for WhatsApp and a virtually infinite number of local minutes and texts. (Having local call ability may be handy tomorrow if I have trouble getting into hotel.) I just made an 11 min voice calls on WhatsApp using the mobile data and my usage numbers haven't changed - I was hoping to see if this came out of the WhatsApp or normal allowance - but maybe 11 mins of voice uses next to no data or it takes a while to update. Not a problem, just making some notes. (Phone shows total WhatsApp use - which won't just be this call, but might be mostly it - on mobile data of 3.41MB. Small enough that it might not register on the 1.27GB remaining balance of my "general" mobile data. Or for all I know the "650MB" WhatsApp allowance is actually infinite and you never use any of it up, it just happens to show as "650MB" all the time.)

So I walked over to the park, getting moderately lost on the way and feeling a bit vulnerable (probably irrationally) at times. I did eventually make it (I followed my "no Google Maps on the street" rule all day), park wasn't as big as I expected and the centre was occupied with a running track and some football pitches, but I did a circuit of the raised track around the centre and then sat on a seat nearish the entrance half-watching some families playing basketball etc, there were also some late teen-ish youths skateboarding a bit off. I was probably sitting around for about half an hour, meditating mildly and not feeling too bad; sun kept coming in and out.

To start with there was a family sitting just off to my right, which made me feel a bit safer. An old woman came over at one point and spoke to them for ages, when they left she (I think) came over to me and started (fairly nicely) telling me about God and evil and the parable of the loaves and fishes and so forth, and I mostly managed to understand her and decided if it had come up I was already C of E but not all that devout in practice, but it didn't.

While she was talking to me (only a few mins) a youth who had been sitting over somewhere in the distance came over and sat on the seat nearish to me on my right where the family had been. I don't know if this was truly suspicious or my paranoia is on a hair-trigger, but I didn't like the look of that. There were a fair number of people about but I don't think you can expect help from them or for it to actually put off a robber. Of course he may just have preferred the view or sun/shade there compared to where he was sitting, or at worst he may have fancied begging some money off me. Anyway, I stood up and thanked the woman for talking me to and sort of jogged off, so as to get away with minimal fuss. Whether I avoided anything or was just being paranoid I don't know, I looked behind a bit to see if he was following me (and might have gone into a small restauranty place opposite the park if he was). The way I understand it is you're not supposed to resist or run away from someone once you're being robbed, but I don't see that you're not supposed to take steps if possible to change a possible robbery into a near miss.

Anyway, that put me a bit on edge although nothing happened on the walk back down to good old Carrera 100. I did get suspicious a mid-teens youth was coming deliberately towards me at one point but he didn't do anything. I also saw a black cat sat in a doorway at one point and was vaguely tempted to see if I could coax it over for a stroke but didn't really like to.

1857 Interpersing some more general commentary with the blow-by-blow account, I *think* (I haven't gone back to read old blog entries at this point) I had similar feelings eg when I first arrival in Guatemala. It's probably normal for me to feel like this at first.

I should say my feet (especially one of my little toes, or thereabouts) were killing me at times. I had done a bit of walking in these shoes before and this surprises me a bit but just have to see how it goes.

Anyway, I got (slightly) lost but went to that little coffee shop I was in yesterday afternoon and got a coffee and a long thin slice of some kind of cake and then (eventually) another coffee. With impeccable timing I left just as a few intermittent but pretty "heavy" drops of rain started to come down, and within a few minutes there was a respectable downpour going on. I had planned to force myself to walk round for another 30-60 mins - oh, it was maybe 3/4pm-ish when I left coffee shop - despite feeling a bit on edge because at least one beggar had come right inside the shop to ask me for money while I was in there, and another (with a tiny kid) had sort of tried to "remotely beg" from the street - before going for a meal and then back to hotel before sunset but with the increasingly heavy rain I was forced to dive into a slightly odd but large cafeteriay kind of place. I asked for the churrasco advertised on the wall (with no price shown for anything), but they didn't have it, so I got two pretty large and pretty decent empanadas (with some spicy sauce on the side which was very watery but with lots of stuff floating in it which I quite liked) and a bottle of water. I was feeling super uncomfortable and I was imagining the waitress resented me a bit (probably irrationally) but it was all OK really. At least the empanadas are sort of "regional" food rather than eating something a bit more "boring". I went up to counter to pay, it was 6k and I left a 1k note on counter as tip, fuck knows if this is OK but it's well over 10%. 6k feels a reasonable price for what I had anyway, and in absolute terms it's not a lot at all.

So I came back to hotel (rain had mostly stopped by this point but I was still damp from earlier and there were lots of puddles) and that about completes the story of today's touristing. I *did* at least accomplish my goal of going to Atahualpa park and I am doing my best to fight against this feeling of paranoia and vulnerability.

I can't help thinking that to some extent the right attitude to robbery might be "there is a small but non-zero chance of it happening, I should not worry about it, it's out of my control and if it happens it happens and it's not the end of the world and I shouldn't let it [ignoring the ease or otherwise of actually "not letting it", of course] prey on my mind all the time" . But then again (excuse random spaces, phone insists on putting them in and I'm not fighting it) there is also the "am I doing stupid things which increase my risk?" aspect. This gets fuzzy. Was it silly to go sit in the park? Should I avoid walking round on my own? But what the fuck am I supposed to do? I *am* here on my own, I'm not doing this at night, I have taken some local advice (from Nicolas, first night here) about safety, and ultimately doing anything except sitting in my room involves at least a tiny bit of risk of something happening. 

1957 I am *not* going to check in online for tomorrow's flight. The "itinerary" from expedia says I can check in at the airport, I plan to get there with plenty of time to spare and if I do check-in online they might expect me to print my own boarding pass, which I can't do.

2031 Couldn't find owner in person but have arranged breakfast for 9 and taxi to get to airport "about 10" tomorrow.

2235 Intermittently "packing" /preparing for tomorrow. Tiny bit nervy. As previously mentioned haven't paid to choose seat on flight so stretching comfort zone a smidge there. Will probably be fine but am feeling mainly apprehensive about taxi to hotel and checking in OK.

Forgot to say that during breakfast this morning got a photo via WhatsApp on new Colombian SIM with some sort of identification numbers on paper. Ignored it, paranoid thoughts occurred but had vaguely read about this before due to recycling of phone numbers. Got another text WA message from same contact while sitting having coffee and I decided to reply, to get rid of this nuisance. A little back and forth and I think they accepted I wasn't who they expected.

Somehow feel I "should" be having more fun, or at least be feeling more confident, but I guess that's just musturbation really. It's very early days, I deliberately chose this handy-for-airport hotel to give myself a couple of days to try to "bed in" and there's lots of time left to do fun and interesting things of course.

I am feeling mildly tired, yawning a bit. Except for the fact I have walked a lot this doesn't really make sense, given I had "as much" sleep as I wanted and then a bit more and it's not exactly late. This isn't a big deal but just noting it.

Did also occur to me earlier (prob not first time) that my brain is probably informally trying to determine the likelihood of being mugged by "how many days I have been in this new place before it happens?" and perhaps this makes me especially fearful now because a mugging doesn't just represent a mugging, it represents evidence that this is very likely to occur repeatedly ("I've only been here two days and it's happened already, so I can expect it to occur about that often"). I don't say this is rational, I just think this might be how my brain is working.

2305 Shower then bed I think. Not that tired but a bit, need to be up for breakfast at 9 and also ideally to do last minute packing/check round before breakfast in case things are rushed after. I am arguably asking to get to airport too early but do want to withdraw cash and want to allow for any fuckups to be resolved.