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.