Barranquilla, Tuesday

Tue 1212 https://www.stuartoswald.com/2018/12/how-to-register-and-unblock-your-phone.html?m=1 seems to imply my phone will work with my UK Three sim in roaming mode post block.

the link movistar guy gave me is just to search list of approved devices. and (I have a screenshot) the one a9s *is* approved for all four frequency bands. so fuck knows. if (I doubt it) I can find a. email address I may send a mail on offchance. I can only assume either a) incompetence b) my phone is a different sub-midel (but about phone dialog shows no model number beyond one a9s anyway). if I can switch movistar and three sims when block hits that is a fairly good resolution, tho of course it may not work.

OK imei.info says mine is a 2pwd200 and the 2pwd100 is the approved one. crock o'shite. I can't possibly jump thru the hoops as it needs a photo of phone or phone box showing imei and I don't have this (and back cover not removable so info not on phone itself in physical form). just poss someone else will jump thru hoops first tho suspect chances microscopic for such an oldish unpopular phone, but can't be helped. fingers crossed the UK roaming SIM trick will be a workaround - rather not expose UK SIM to theft but it is payg and tolerable.

bit headachey and some looseish but not too bad semi urgent shits this am.

1648 Back on Priv, much better.

Woke up 7-8am ish feeling borderline OK but not great (had dream about Jaffa being dead, for some reason), went back to sleep, drowsed a bit fitfully, got up in time for breakfast. Asked about coffee, was a self-service pumpy thing so hung around after breakfast nearly an hour (til nearly 11) drinking coffee and half thinking this would give cleaner a free run. Anyway, got back to room and cleaner wanted to come in so went back out and sat by pool looking at phone for a bit longer.

Think this was mostly just slacking off but maybe did tiny bit of productive stuff. Oh yeah, signed up for Meetup (sure I had an account but seems not) in thought there would be one for Barranquilla and/or carnival but there wasn't. Still, there is some group in Medellin so account may be useful.

A few loose-but-not-diarrhea rather urgent needs to shit during the morning. Also then developed a bit of a headache and got a little bit paranoid was seriously ill but fought that down. Went out with torn jumper in quest of a repair. First place on GM seemed not to exist, second place very dismissive, third just took it, said no problem, told me 7k when I asked and told me to come back at 8 tomorrow. (I will go after breakfast.) Got no receipt so bit edgy but I need to be more trusting, it's hardly likely the business is really just a front to steal damaged clothing. Also while the jumper was sort of wearable I'd have been a bit nervous about it (if nothing else in case it came to pieces leaving me haklf naked in the street one day) so if I *don't* get it back I haven't lost too much. Fingers crossed. I don't expect an invisible repair but if it's broadly decent and solid I'll be happy.

Came back via supermarket on corner from first day and got some water and another of those double bottles of diet manzana-and-Colombiana soft drinks.

Feeling relatively OK health terms by this point.

Had a Spanish lesson, then just for the sake of going out a bit went over to Torito practically next door and had a tinto (espresso, more or less - very small cup) in there - tried to break a 50k but they asked if I had anything smaller so seeing machine I said I'd pay by card. Not sure I need to break a 50k really, do have modest collection of smaller bills, but getting bit edgy re carnival.

Just got back here after nursing that tinto. I didn't need to go out but feels a bit better than just staying in hotel all afternoon. Prob not going out again but it's OK, I may do a bit more casual poking on web re carnival and hopefully bash out VdN stuff later, and to some extent given I feel mildly weak it's a good thing to just relax, enjoy the comfortable room with private  bathroom and try to recuperate. Will cook some rice+veg+tuna in a bit, which may also be good for me.

I just hope this mildly iffy bowel feeling goes before a) carnival b) having to be in a dorm (with no reasonably priced options to escape to a private room due to carnival) for five nights.

Tomorrow I may try walking over to cathedral for a bit of a look after picking up the hopefully repaired jumper/T-shirt/whatever to call it.

2116 Mostly slack evening, running out of stuff to watch on YT for better or worse. Cooked, felt very salty despite salt only coming from chicken stock cube and the tuna, but perhaps not a bad thing. Quite satisfying all the same.

Let's waffle about day 4 of VdN tour. Not really that much to say. Towards the afternoon we passed by (not through; apparently not allowed) an indigenous village and met a party of youngish (6? 8? yo) girls all in (dirty) white robes. Guide divided some packets of crackers up for them, halving them with his machete (cutting, not slashing) as the girls held them, which wasn't *really* scary but made me a bit edgy all the same. Some more turned up shortly after and last girl got a chocolate bar instead as he'd run out of crackers. He said they probably didn't speak much Spanish at that age.

Later we saw a few adult people from same group, including a guy who I think was their nurse on a horse with an astoundingly white set of clothes. I guess being on a horse helps though. Guide spoke a bit with some of them, not all.

I wasn't feeling terribly ill after a few hours but it was still a long walk even with the bags on the horse and although there were some cool views I struggled to enjoy them as eg we walked up seemingly interminable winding uphill path.

Suddenly the guide told me we were 98% of way there; I thought I must have misheard him but indeed maybe 10?? mins later we arrived at a cluster of shops and houses. We went to a small restaurant-cum-shop (with a mildly disturbing group of apparently 16yo-ish looking soldiers there eating ice lollies and chatting) and guide bought me an apple energy rehydrating drink thing, and after waiting a bit we were served a pretty decent meal (chicken in tolerable sauce and the usual extras) though my stomach felt a bit iffy and I deliberately didn't force myself to eat too much (did eat all the chicken though). Woman at restaurant also brought me a cup of yerbabuena tea (very nice, aniseedy) which she swore would help my stomach. Used toilet there as well out of paranoia though didn't really get anything out.

Guide went off leave horse somewhere and came back with bike, which had apparently been moved by someone from where we'd left it. We had a short ride to another shop where he'd said I could get wifi access while he went off to sort something out. I did (3k for 12h was cheapest, but well worth it to get in touch with parents and find no nasty shit had happened while I was incommunicado rather than wait til I got into town/to hostel - I had been getting a bit edgy about this earlier in the day, esp on top of illness - I suspect anything truly terrible they'd have got word to me via agency but there could eg have been nastygrams from HMRC - suspect am repeating older posts but never mind) and bought some water to have back at hostel too, tho I already had 2l left there.

We rode to Minca (I didn't feel sick, bit of a strain holding on and the guide seemed determine to "race" a little with some other bikes we met, but OK really) and went to a small cafe and I gave the guide a 100k tip and he seemed pleased-ish, he asked for my WhatsApp but he hasn't hassled me (tho he did make polite enquiries after my health next morning). He bought us both a small juice and then (at my partial insistence) we moved off on the final leg as I had hoped to avoid being on bike in dark. This didn't happen as it was 6ish at this point and it was dark by time we stopped in SM but the ride was OK. He pulled over at side of road not long after we left - getting but not yet dark - and pointed out the view of the lights of SM.

When we got to SM I thought for a second some random dude at wherever we stopped was loudmouth and felt edgy, but it wasn't him. Guide got me a taxi and - I made super sure to confirm this with driver - arranged a price to take me to hotel (a small bonus for me, tho negligible difference in distance compared to insisting on taking me to the office) and paid the driver and waved me off in the cab on my own. Was a bit of a journey but the driver was fine and I said he could drop me fifty metres or so away.

Got to hostel and horde of staff on desk greeted me surprisingly warmly. No one ever knew where Ñymejan was, even if I pronounced it correctly, when I replied to questions about where had been. Finally got up to room, legs killing me, think I did lie on bed and read and try to relax for a couple of hours, also started to find those two types of ticks/mites on body. I did have a shower at some point, I may also have gone to sit up on terrace with water for a bit but I can't remember.

So I think that's the broad outline complete. I may - today or another day - write additional little details as they occur to me.

2237 Right, after poking and dithering a bit I've booked a room "10 mins walk from Via 40" on airbnb for a hair under 78 quid for the five nights - this is a private room (with aircon) compared to around 168 quid for a dorm bed at the other hostel. This *is* a new airbnb listing so am taking a bit of a punt perhaps but probably be OK. Yes in theory the hostel might be more sociable, but reviews didn't really seem to indicate that. Also this airbnb is plausibly within walking distance of calle 84 and the street party mentioned on MG. The location in general feels a bit more convenient (if not perfect) and that in turn may encourage me to try to meet up with other people (yes meetup.com didn't work but eg Lonely Planet forums may have something).

I have *not* cancelled the hostel yet (I have til 2359 tomorrow night to do so for free), am going to sleep on it and also see if I get weird messages from host tomorrow. I have free cancellation on airbnb til the 20th.

It's one thing to stay in a dorm to save money, but since the potentially more comfortable option here is also cheaper it seems a better bet.

Having two phones was helpful here as I could eg look on airbnb on one while looking at carnival website on other with less (ultra laggy) switching back and forth and trying to remember things.

Incidentally there is (I had noticed it before but not quite realised connection) a card next to bed advertising "Torito", it even has a three digit extension number as if it's on the hotel phone system and it says they will deliver to my room at no additional cost. I don't intend to do this but wonder if it is effectively owned by hotel or merely has an arrangement with them.

Not hit by crippling regrets/doubts re this accommodation change yet.

Incidentally while aircon is nice I think I am borderline acclimatised enough it's not essential. (Just saying, I *think* dorm was aircon anyway, but not checked.) It was set to 24C in room when I got here and I've left it on that, and I intermittently feel a little cold and turn it off. It is pretty shady in here though. I mean, it was a smidge warm in room in SM where I just had a fan, but I wasn't dying of heat and being unable to sleep etc.

Did bit of laundry earlier - water going almost disturbingly brown. May go to bed soon-ish, breakfast finishes half an hour earlier tomorrow as one of hotel staff has died and this is to allow most staff to go to funeral, which is a bit depressing but there you go. Also while not feeling too bad sleep probably a good thing re improving my health; not being in dorm (and prob sharing a bathroom but with one or two perm residents of airbnb) takes edge of feeling a bit iffy but obviously if I am going to be out and about and maybe eating street food and drinking the odd beer I want to be in good shape to start with.

I feel very mildly bad for taking advantage (or rather, planning to - not done it yet) of the free cancellation, but it *is* explicitly offered and so I guess it's fair enough for me to use it - it's not like I'm exploiting a loophole.

While it's hard to judge, airbnb did have other half-decently priced stuff (in worse locations, AFAICS) so if I somehow get left in the lurch I should be able to get *something* else. I suppose if push really came to shove - and I don't expect this to happen - there should be seats free on buses *out* to SM and accommodation free there during carnival, so I could always flee BQ altogether.

Wed 0022 Bed. Finally shaved too (kept meaning to do it after breakfast but always put suncream on before thinking to shave). Brief exchange with airbnb host, he manages it but actually his parents live there, but that's fine by me. He says there's a bell to ring when I get there (I asked) so probably all be fine, I said would confirm arrival time later (he didn't ask me to say anything about this) but prob be 1pmish. Checkout here is 1 but prob won't hang on too late, better to get over there and then I can scout round the area in daylight once I check in. (Will use easytaxi again though frankly given it's daylight hours I could probably just take a cab off street and get no worse ripped off, but at least with easytaxi I get to type the precise address into the app - as it's a private residence and I don't currently know what the street entrance looks like this would be a bit awkward in a cab hailed from street as I can't say "drop me here" or "the hostel is called XXX" . (On which note, places with English-y names suck in this regard. They're usually only English-y so even a fluent English speaker might not "get" them when said out loud, and a Spanish-only speaker is not likely to recognise the written form of the English name when I pronounce it correctly.))

Anyway, bed. Minor bowel rumblings earlier but generally feel OKish.