Wed 0037 FFS. Just in bed and got e-mail for airbnb host, he wants to put the price up an extra £39.26. "Is this a problem?" You fucking bet it's a problem. Yes it was cheap but this still feels highly bait-and-switch. I'm not going to reply now, I'll sleep on it. I kind of feel the location etc is good enough and the price is still cheaper than the dorm for a (ignoring no reviews "risk" ) better room and location, but this is *precisely* what I'd think after a deliberate BAS (the "growing own legs" business, as Cialdini puts it). He can't know I haven't gone to sleep, let him fucking sweat a little bit maybe. I might well have booked at this new price up front but this sort of after-the-fact deal changing always pisses me off. But of course I don't want to decline (airbnb e-mail kind of implies he *might* have to honour the old price, but far from clear) and try to get the old price as it's likely to cause ill-feeling. Feh. As I say, sleep on it, probably deal with it after going out to collect jumper.
1214 Back at hotel. Breakfast as usual just a bit earlier, went out to pick up jumper - it wasn't ready but guy did it while I waited (maybe 10-15 mins). I am astounded at the result - I *must* be missing something, but I cannot see the repair. Will give it a day or two to find the flaw and then leave a good review on GM if I can't. Well worth 7k if it really is this good; I expected a small but mostly unnoticeable visual imperfection.
Have had a poke on airbnb re accommodation prices. My airbnb is trying to put their price up 50%, which comes in around £23.55/night, but there is *nothing* that cheap on airbnb right now, most stuff is £30+, and nothing at all that near Via 40 at similar price - OK, I tell a lie, there is one other place at £24-27ish a night (airbnb prices are needlessly confusing due to service charge). I'm a bit dubious my airbnb may be "too far north" along Via 40 - I don't know exactly where the parades enter and leave it - but although calle 84 (one of the streets with street party mentioned) is very very long, I might assume (infer from one of the MG articles) that the street party is near the intersection with Via 40 and my airbnb is as I say within probable walking distance of that intersection.
So I'm going to mull it over for 15-30 mins and then say yes, OK to the price rise. It does feel a bit shitty but it's still a fairly decent price and comparable (ignoring the fact it's a "new" listing and thus IMO should be a bit cheaper to account for the risk of it being shit - though maybe it *is* cheap because of that to be fair)/better to other stuff on offer.
1304 Yeah, fuck it, I'll say OK. I *still* have free cancellation AFAIK so this is hardly final, and it's still cheaper than the dorm and probably a better location.
1846 Just cancelled hostel dorm booking. Fucking hope the airbnb doesn't fall through. I just said "personal reasons" for cancelling in the hope that if I end up re-booking it will attract less ire.
Do vaguely plan to look at possibility of buying a parade seat on web tonight and also poke at forums to see if can find anyone to meet up with.
2301 Been pretty slack, not looked about carnival meetup shit or buying tickets. May do this tomorrow after breakfast.
Went over to cathedral this afternoon. Quite a lot of people on street, didn't generally feel at all unsafe (tho briefly on way back fancied some chap was following me, totally irrational). Warm but not intolerably so. Outside of cathedral a bit dull, but inside actually very impressive - great big open space with amazing huge modern stained glass and a gigantic asymmetrical carving (?) at the altar end coming out of the wall. Spent quite a while staring semi-meditatively (with "milago de amor" in my head, go figure). Particulalrly liked the not-quite-triangular stained glass windows at the rear, the middle one to my mind anyway looked a bit science-fictiony with a kind of planets motif. (Did also notice a small (relatively speak) ringed planet embossed on wall above the huge carving.) Very glad I saw that. Was dithering a bit about leaving cathedral, I sort of wanted to get back "home" and eat (even though it wasn't that late) and "get the walk back over" but also sort of wanted to milk the experience of being there.
I learned my lesson and retraced my steps more or less exactly (same streets) on walk home, rather than thinking "hey, it's a pseudo-grid, I can go down this parallel street to make it a circuit and see something new" , so I didn't get lost.
Occurred to me earlier tonight on hearing a dog barking I haven't noticed any street dogs on my limited peregrinations here in Barranquilla. I honestly can't remember if there were any in SM; day-to-day comments on blog would be most reliable but memory says I have seen quite a few elsewhere on this trip, probably in Cartagena but not sure.
Does feel a bit like I've wasted last few days but really I think I needed it - I was/am a little bit "ill" and need to recover, I've done a few quietly interesting things, I've cooked for myself and enjoyed having a nice-ish room etc. And this was always pretty much the plan.
Just had super-powerful hot shower. Think will go to bed, if I'm only looking at crap on YT or reading I can equally do that in bed.
I don't think cooking for myself is actually saving money compared to eating in cheap restaurants - eg I managed to eat for 13k with a 30% tip at Restaurant Medellin, today's mostly-food-for-two-days-excluding-rice-and-spices shop came to 36k - admittedly I did get 6k worth of soft drink (massively overdoing it on soft drinks, but never mind - I don't subscribe to the hysteria about their health effects and it's not as if I consume a lot of soft drinks in general) but otherwise it was mostly the food. I am not cooking for myself to save money, it's for the variety (compared to restaurant food; most of the meals I cook are samey due to limited supplies and not being able to buy a lot of different spices as I'd have to throw loads away when I move on, but I am ringing enough changes that the lack of internal variety isn't terrible for such a short period of time) and the portions are arguably larger and I am eating way more vegetables than a restaurant meal (even if I do get an undressed salad) which is probably good for me both in general and wrt very mild bowel-churning "illness" of late.
Probably said this before but when I start a block of blog text with a time that's the current time as I write, *but* I don't always put a time in - so the absence of them doesn't mean I wrote a block of text in one go. But if it's been hours since I last wrote I probably *would* always put a time in.
Anyway, bed, I think.
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