Mon 0041 About to go to bed. But - although it took a minute or two to kick in - the hot water in the shower is indeed almost painfully hot. The weather is such that I haven't deeply missed being able to have a hot shower, but it was still pretty refreshing. And just possibly the hot water will help remove lingering ticks from the tour - I found some more this evening, I think I've found a few every night since I got back. Fuck knows what horrible diseases I might have picked up; I take mild comfort from the fact that the OGB (and indeed everything else I read) doesn't mention horrible tick-borne diseases when writing about CP trip, and while I didn't go there I was in vaguely the same region I guess. (Guide did show me some he'd found on his body on day 3 during our talk at hostel, BTW - at the time I hadn't noticed any on me. But he didn't seem overly worried about them from a health POV IIRC.)
(I initially tried not to kill the ticks/mites which hitched a ride back on me - there seem to be two predominate kinds, a really tiny red one and a couple-of-mm flat black one - but after finding half a dozen upwards I decided that was futile. The little red ones are really hard to squash, I ended up having to kind of bisect them with a fingernail and even then I didn't always manage it first go. I think it's the black ones which are more "burrowed into" the skin; I am trying to pull them out cleanly, I used nail clippers as badly-improvised tweezers on one but must admit I am just using fingers on the ones I found this evening.)
Mon 2150 Mixed sort of day. Was going to go to bed as I had three small (269ml) cans of Aguila this evening while slacking off watching YT and *presumably* due to them was feeling I was falling asleep. So I did the mandatory pre-bed chores and had a (must say it is amazing) hot shower and I naturally now feel less sleepy. May not write whole day up but let's do a bit.
Got up in time for breakfast - didn't sleep amazingly IIRC but not terrible. Breakfast is down by pool, "feels" quite luxurious. Waiter perhaps mildly obsequious but not really. Breakfast was some chunks of fruit then scrambled eggs with tomato+onion, ham+cheese or sausage (I chose latter) and an arepa and glass of fruit juice. I suspect I accidentally passed up chance to get coffee as well, see what happens tomorrow.
I went back to room and was doing something minor (can't quite remember) when there was a knock on door and I eventually answered it and a woman wanted to come in and do cleaning, change sheets, etc. So I said yes and hastily applied sunblock as thought I might just go out but I changed my mind and went and poked at web re carnival on phone. On way out I had presence of mind to ask her to throw the rubbish I'd left on side out, so that solved that. (And I told her not to throw the other food items out.)
Poking on MG and official site re carnaval it may be that there is some kind of cheap-ish ticket you can buy, and you may be able to buy one on the day and the guy will offer to walk you in to prove it's genuine. I had a quick poke re locations etc - incidentally the one I saw yesterday by sheer chance due to location of this hotel was Desfile del Carnaval de Los Niños - and none look particularly handy for here and even worse for actual hostel. Of course there's cabs and I can also maybe walk.
I decided after coming back to room (cleaner had gone) to do a sort of circuit up to Via 40 where many parades happen and walk along it a bit and come back down via a different street further along. Felt like a hell of a walk but probably down to heat and nerves, though no one even tried to hassle me and I think - having looked on MG - most of the north of the city is fairly safe. I saw workers putting up the banked seats along Via 40 (which seemed v industrial and a tiny bit grim and deserted, but no one hassled me). At one point on V40 I was looking at my phone to locate the N-S street I had planned to come back down and a smartly dressed woman addressed me and because I had my phone out I felt extra vulnerable even though (stereotypes) she didn't really look threatening. She was just asking me if I knew something about buses, but I said sorry, I'm a tourist, I don't know much about anything. Given I'm always conscious (rightly or wrongly) of looking like a tourist I always find it odd and somehow reassuring when people address me in Spanish. But I guess she was at least a non-BQ resident herself.
Oh, forgot to say there is a big Movistar office a block from hotel so went in there before doubling back up to V40. Spoke to a couple of staff, usual "glass in the way and holes at inconveniently low or high heights and lots of bg noise" issues with second person spoke to. I didn't understand everything he said but didn't (esp w bg noise) like to query too much, but I think the issue is with the *model* of my phone, and he - which was quite decent of him - went off and came back with the address of a web page where I can apparently request approval. I should have done this tonight, but didn't - will try tomorrow. Gut feeling based on that other web page I read is it's going to ask me for a trillion documents I don't have, but I will at least look. I did ask the chap if it was a form intended for ordinary customers not mobile phone companies and he said it was. I'm still working on the assumption it is going to get blocked in 45 days, not that there's much I can do except "be aware it will happen" and not get caught short.
Oh yes, I think early in the V40 circuit I noticed there's a hole (size of 5p? 10p?) in the upper left shoulder of my dark grey wool T-shirt. I don't know if this is shitty quality or damage from the hike or wash damage or what. The other one is OK. I kept an eye out on offchance of spotting a clothing repair shop (not that I'd strip it off and have it repaired on the spot) but didn't see one; having had a look at GM this evening I see there are a few alterations places nearish so I may go chat some of those up tomorrow morning. Although I sort of need to "think" about carnival a bit (eg alternate accom via airbnb? possibly look on web for other solo travellers to meet up with??) I don't otherwise have big plans pre-carnival and in some ways the kind of stuff I did today and going to a couple of alterations places is sort of quietly cool and "experiencing the place" and forcing me to walk round a bit and practice Spanish etc.
Went into Jumbo supermarket at end of V40 circuit and got some hot dog buns and some tins of veg and a 6-pack of those small beers (plus a single of Aguila Limon Fusion, which I tried tonight with two of those ordinary Aguilas - quite nice, not *amazing* but maybe I wasn't in right mood as none of the beers really satisfied) and a 1.75l of sugary (but wanted to try it, so meh) Quatro Toronja - had some tonight, quite nice but not astoundingly so.
Bowels feel a bit churny at times, had a loose-ish shit but also had a couple of half decent ones, fuck knows.
Loitered in flat an hour or two, watched a bit of YT, then - I had seen IIRC guide on VdN tour had a Decathlon backpack, so I thought they might have a presence here in Colombia - decided I'd walk over to Decathlon at Viva shopping centre and see if I could buy a replacement for the wool T-shirt, as that's where I bought it. They didn't have any, or indeed any long-sleeved tops for warm climates, but I did buy a cheap short-sleeved synthetic T-shirt for 22k which will a) serve as a pseudo-replacement for the wool T-shirt, even if I feel more obviously touristy in short sleeves (close up makes little difference, and locals do wear short sleeves a lot, but I think there's a kind of sliding scale here and from a distance I think it's more obvious I'm white and thus more likely to be a tourist with short sleeves) b) serve as an item of clothing I'm not too worried about getting ruined during carnival. (I did note Jumbo had some clothes, including some synthetic short-sleeved T-shirts at 30-40k ish.)
A chap spoke to me in Spanish as he and I were looking at some cheap T-shirts. I didn't get quite what he said but I said something about the red being a very strong colour (it was mildly eye-searingly so; I'm maybe extra paranoid about attracting attention with my clothing here though) and that seemed to pass muster.
So came back here, got lost - I had found the way out without consulting GM, but the way the streets seem to sort of twist round and/or fork subtly screws with the grid layout and I got lost on way back, had to resort to GM a few times but really lots of people do have their phones out in street and I didn't go nuts.
I had had 4 hot dogs during the lunchtime loiter in hotel and in the midst of YTing it up this evening I had the other 2. Also got some discount (can't see anything wrong with it - 5198 for six apples, which is OK if not astounding, and 1202 for five bananas, which seems insanely cheap) fruit at Jumbo and have eaten a bit of that tonight two.
I really should have forced myself to do this write up and/or VdN this evening but I didn't want to. :-) I did do a bit of laundry at least, the sink here is rock solidly mounted in some marble or vaguely marble look stuff which helps.
Right, nearly done. I think the emotional flavour to add to this factual stew is that a) I haven't felt *bad* - if not great - today about carnival and shit in general b) (was thinking this when back in hotel around lunch IIRC) I just really need to take the emotional pressure off about carnival. I think if it wasn't so fucking expensive/uncomfortable (overpriced dorm in moderately inconvenient location) to be here for carnival I would naturally be more relaxed. As it is it feels like I've blown a lot of money to be here during it so I need to "do whatever is necessary" (eg pay 360kish for a pass to the reserved seating) to make it "fun" so as not to waste the money I've already invested in being here.
TBH, fuck it. Not "being here" , but getting so worked up. It is not really the sort of thing that massively appeals to me anyway, so I'm naturally going to be less excited. I am here and I'm going to take things as they come (I mean, yes, maybe a bit of prep as mentioned above, but not getting worked up and if I don't do it I don't do it, worse case is I stay in the dorm place and just wing it every day) and try not to worry about it. FFS, the marginal cost of the shitty dorm over this decent non-carnival accommodation is about fifteen quid a day - so under a hundred quid all in. That alone is not make or break money, so not worth fucking with my head over.
And there's definitely an element of "wow, party, everyone is so friendly" which gives me a nasty feeling I'm in one of those "there's a party and I'm the only person not invited" situations. But again, fuck it. I'm here on my own so naturally at a disadvantage even before my social skills or lack thereof and my advanced age come into play. Not just socially, but also in terms of "security" , especially after dark. As I say, I might poke on web to see if any other solo tourists are trying to arrange to meet up. But really, fuck the pressure. I'm here and I'm "giving it a go" , I vaguely hope to be pleasantly surprised and enjoy myself (solo or otherwise) and get caught up in the atmosphere, but if that doesn't happen it's really not an enormous fucking deal, it doesn't mean the trip is a failure, it doesn't mean I'm a failure, it doesn't even mean "coming to BQ" is a failure, because so far it's borderline nice and interesting enough and spending about a week here is hardly a big waste of time, I'm deliberately in no rush, I don't intend to pack the entire country into this one trip, I have no other "must see" places, blah blah.
TL;DR: I'm doing myself no favours by piling the pressure on, it doesn't help and it probably makes it less likely I will enjoy myself. I just need to go with the flow, wander round a bit, etc.
It's 2231. Just had an urgent-feeling but half decent shit. Fuck knows what's going on there. It's not terrible but just wish things would settle down. I no longer feel as tired/sleepy as I did earlier but think will go to bed now anyway.
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