Barranquilla, Wednesday

Wed 1508 Been a bit slack but it's OK. Need to start having a poke at flights to Medellin really.

Woke up fairly earlyish, drifted back off to sleep. Got up about 10, packed slowly, no one was at home for me to leave the key with and explain about the shower rail having fallen off last night. This kind of worked in my favour as checkout was nominally 11am and new hotel check in 1330, so I got to hang around in the airconditioned airbnb room til about 12 when host got back. No trouble about the shower rail, all very amicable. Got an EasyTaxi over here (worked fairly well; to be fair I think the price ticked up a couple of hundred pesos between the driver showing it to me and me getting charged but not worrying about it), checked in a bit early with no fuss and was able to pay on card. First (UK terminology) floor room with balcony, bit of traffic noise but it's OK.

Went out looking for cheap restaurant, seemed to struggle a bit but came across Mataleña on calle 79 a few blocks north of hotel. Felt oddly intimidated on first going in but relaxed after a bit, was also feeling hot despite aircon but that gradually improved. Had fairly decent carne a la plancha with undressed salad and a full-fat coke I didn't order but which went down very well. Bill 12.5 so made it 15 with tip. Came back via a Justo y Bueno supermarket (with very odd/poor selection of goods) I had found on GM before heading out, got some water and some crisp-ish snack things - bit lardy really. Have had two of the smaller snacks already; packet of "Extrucitos" spicy flavour maize nuggets - nice enough - and nice and slightly odd Snacky brand "caramelo" maize snacks, which are indeed lightly caramel flavoured.

Right. Let's have a quick poke at flight prices and hope I don't get sticker shock. OK, it's not too bad. Annoyingly the few direct flights all leave really early or really late, but there is eg a LATAM flight via Bogota 1217-1601 for £59. Actually the exact same outbound flight is available with a 33m connection in Bogota arriving Medellin 1514, at the same price, but TBH I'd probably feel safer with the slightly longer connection.

1631 Have booked that 1217 flight. Bit edgy about doing it but I've been planning to go to Medellin for a while and there's nothing here on the north coast I want to do right now; I am sure I'll be back and there is lots of potential stuff here, but I've done enough for this trip. Had a quick poke re accom earlier and some cheapish options available but going to slack off a little bit after booking flight before I do anything else. EasyTaxi suggests it would be about 30k for a taxi to airport when I checked an hour ago; it may be more at 9amish but it looks like the price is not horrific and certainly not horrific enough for me to start faffing with public transport to the airport (as per my "be extra cautious when in transit" rule).

It is not clear if I need to print the itinerary which forms my e-ticket or if having it on my phone is good enough. I suspect I don't need it printed, but (I plan to just bum around in hotel room tonight; I've been reasonably active during last few days and a rest won't hurt) tomorrow I will try to "do something" touristy (if only wander round the city a bit; it is interesting that I've now stayed in three different places, although first hotel is walkable from here, and I can see from GM that places I've starred are near-ish, but it sort of feels like I've visited three different places) and I will check for an internet cafe before I leave home and see if I can get a printout for peace of mind.

As with previous flight I'm going hand baggage only and stretching my comfort zone slightly (the flights are very short, especially Bogota-Medellin) by not paying to choose a seat. It's annoying not to have been able to get a direct flight, but I really didn't want to be flying ultra early or ultra late. Maybe if I'd booked further in advance there'd have been direct flights in middle of day, but maybe not, and in any case I think this minor inconvenience of a longer non-direct flight pair is a decent trade off for having the flexibility of not needing to commit to a specific flight date a week or two in advance.

Oh, saw on news as checking in that coronavirus has arrived in South America. TBH I thought there had already been a few cases in Colombia, but anyway, that's what the headline said (sound was off). Mildly worrying but ultimately there's nothing I can do about it of course.

Happened to see some stuff about retirement visas and the like on MG site while taking quick poke re areas and accommodation. Certainly a possibility later in life, although I'd be a bit worried about tax issues and the like. Ultimately not anything I have to worry about right now, for the moment I *may* possibly end up "travelling" and staying in a single city abroad for 3 or just maybe even 6 months as a kind of pseudo-expat in the near-ish future, but while it doesn't hurt to pick up information on actually becoming a proper expat as and when I come across it, I'm not ready (in all sorts of ways) to make the transition to being a true expat at this point.

1853 Booked hotel in Medellin a bit ago, 5 nights at a hair under 40k a night for a double room with private bathroom in what looks to be a decent-ish location seems almost too good to be true but reviews seem OK and give it a go. (No aircon, but there is a fan, and I think it's a bit cooler in Medellin anyway - and if I managed without aircon in Cartagena and Santa Marta I think I can manage in Medellin. (I'm not going to give Medellín its accent most of the time for ease of typing, but I will try to include it on post titles.)

Thu 0024 Did a bit of laundry earlier, been pretty damn slack really but there you go. Bed anyway.