Thu 1214 Sitting by pool at hotel; with brief exception of short trip back to room (currently being cleaned) been here since breakfast at 930ish. Coffee pot got replenished about 945 and I drank most of it over the next hour or so.
A carnival meet up group has appeared on both meetup.com and couchsurfing. The CS one seemed smaller so I've created a CS profile and joined that one. No idea what if anything is happening, there's no comments within the group, but hey, I've done something.
Feeling a bit "guilty" for just sitting here at hotel but in some ways this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Also reminded (as have been on other occasions when it maybe fit better) of the sketch with the horse in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency where it makes plans and then has the pleasure of completely ignoring them.
On a random note, while I was never hugely tempted, I noted first morning here pool rules require use of bathing cap (tho not *sure* this is honoured in practice) and thus I am not able to use it so no need to wrestle with any personal demons and/or safety issues there.
1228 Had a poke on tubeoleta.com site for carnival tickets linked from MG. Oddly the minipalcos booking page has a broken line. The palcos page shows a dozen different categories (and what they mean is totally unclear), most show as "finalizado" (=sold out, I am 99% sure) but a few say "comprar" , however when I click on them it tells me they are sold out. Highly confusing. Wondering if I should post to the CS group asking for advice but *no one* has posted any comments yet and I'm reluctant to be the first. Assuming there's an element of "ticket is for seating area X if not a specific seat in area X" , it may be bad from a going-with-group perspective to buy a ticket now and end up in the wrong aream Maybe I should post to the CS group anyway, how much of an idiot can I make of myself? It may well be we will meet up tomorrow afternoon/evening and discuss this in person and it may well be the local host knows a good place to stand for free or we will all go buy tickets on the day together.
Fuck it, I posted a comment. Brave or what? :-)
1348 Hanging round hotel, got bottle of chilled water from my fridge and sitting by pool/at table in dining area (quite a few other people). Feel I'm killing time a bit but it's sort of enjoyable. Quick poke at OGB and GM suggests modern art museum is just round corner and opens at 3pm so will prob hang around here til then and go out to see that then.
In a way it's good to be enjoying the loitering here; I will prob not want to be hanging around at my airbnb excessively.
Noticed some bites round my ankles other night; I really need to be more rigorous about applying repellent there. It's just that I'm generally so un-hassled by mosquitos it's easy to forget to apply any.
1611 Back at hotel. Didn't think I was feeling caffeinated from post-breakfast 4-5 cups but maybe I was. Shortly before heading out about 1515 I started to feel a bit edgy for no obvious reason, as though something was about to go wrong. Got to modern art museum (MAMB) no problem, 5k to get in tho one of those bizarre glitches with the language on entry, a woman said something to me I didn't catch and I was completely unable to persuade her to repeate it, she summoned over another woman who spoke some English who said "hi" to me and then stood there expecting me to say something, so I explained the other woman had said something but I didn't understand it. Felt a bit embarassed, perhaps aided by whatever-was-making-me-feel-a-bit-weird. Anyway. Museum very small but oddly taken with Santiago Cárdenas' "Espejo verde No 44" and spent quite a while looking at it. It's "just" a painting of a mirror propped up in the corner of a room, but somehow (maybe I'm in a funny mood) it really appealed to me, a sort of optical illusion quality, and I kept noticing the little details like the penumbral shadows and the green edge of the mirror. Painted 1974 according to plaque; it's older than I am.
Popped into small pharmacy opposite when I left (tempted to milk EV44 some more but was feeling a bit "jittery" and had been looking at it quite a while, plus I took some photos) in hope of buying some Dioralyte-equivalent as I used my whole supply (3 sachets) on VdN tour, but they had no powdered salt-replacement things on shelf, only actual bottles of drink (the same as guide bought me in shop-restaurant at end of tour). I don't need any now and this isn't critical but be good to replace it before I need it.
I went into El Torito (partly just to extend my time out) on way back, I had toyed with getting a tinto but decided I was probably prudent to stay off caffeine so got a jugo de lulo en leche (5k+small tip): this was very nice anyway, don't know if this is a milkshake as such but perhaps similar.
So now back at hotel, will probably cook soon as do feel a bit hungry. Perhaps at a slightly loose end but it's OK.
1954 Done three small loads of laundry - underwear, tops (both just 2 sets) and one pair trousers. Have wrung out in travel towel so hopefully be dry enough to pack tomorrow. This should give me max clean clothes for carnival while I'm in the airbnb with probably shared bathroom (and no washer).
Will have last two small beers in a bit. Finishing off second or third bottle over time here of Columbiana; noticed this evening the small print says "sabor a kola" , not sure if this is same as English "cola" , I find it hard to describe the taste and maybe the reddish colour put me off but (probably just the power of suggestion) there is maybe a hint of cola flavour about it, seems slightly fruity though.
I remember that during day 4 of VdN tour in morning while feeling ropy I slipped during a water crossing and ended up knee deep (perhaps only due to not being upright) in water. Not a huge deal and IIRC I wasn't terribly upset about it (luckily phone and camera didn't get wet). I do remember the guide saying "fuck" on my behalf as a kind of joke, as we'd been talking afternoon of day 3 about people's attitudes and he had said there was a word the English speakers said when things went wrong but he didn't know what it was and I said "fuck?" and he said yes, that's it. (Prob already said, he didn't speak English - I asked - perhaps just the odd word, but the agency have English speaking guides. I guess they either didn't think or thought I'd be fine with a Spanish-speaking guide. Guide incidentally was not indigenous and didn't speak whatever local indigenous language is.)
2105 Also remember that on day 1 of tour guide told me about some wild raspberries we were passing but I didn't eat any (probably as he didn't precisely offer), but on day 4 he did pick quite a few and give them to me (while semi-sneakily photographing me, I think) and they were pretty nice.
airbnb host got in touch few mins ago to ask when I'll be arriving. I said about 1; checkout here is 1, but don't want to hang on to last moment (as prob said other day, want to allow time for fuckups and so I can go buy a big bottle of water and poke around area in daylight after checking in) but also don't want to be having to rush off sharpish, this way I should be able to pack after breakfast+minor free coffee binge without feeling too pressured, maybe checkout 1215-1230ish and hang around in reception and use ET app to order a cab and wait half an hour for it to turn up "in 2 mins" . Not an ET fan but seems best option really, and good to "practice" with it as may want/need to use it during carnival.
2330 Another random thought re tour. Guide taught me the word "chevere" (sp), which seems to be v Colombian word meaning roughly nice/cool/comfortable. Wonder if it plays perhaps a vaguely similar role to Dutch "lekker" .
2356 Bed. Not exactly tired but doesn't seem much point staying up.
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