Medellín, Saturday

Sat 1806 Just to note I have been aware it's a leap day, which feels oddly cool even though they're not that rare. My cheap Casio digital watch showed 1 Mar today; it tracks the month but not the year, so when I noticed this while wandering in jardin botanico I changed it to 28 Feb so it should be right again tomorrow.

Woke up earlyish, didn't sleep too badly, drowsed a bit. Shitty letter from Peabody but this isn't the time or place to go into it. Actually got up maybe 10ish but I spent an hour or two confusing the hell out of myself with Medellin travel advice re safety on the web. Conflicting info about walking up the main tourist attraction hill, I decided not to go today. In the end I left hotel about 12 with goals of a) buying a (non-personalised; MG says personalised ones are free unlike this one I had to pay 5k for and get your cheaper fares, though *even* if I stayed here the entire sub-two-month period I have left the saving would not be huge, given he lives here and saves USD60 a year - a personalised one might have been a nice souvenir but you have to go to an office and show ID and I didn't want to have to take my passport out or "hope" they'd accept my photocopy of it, and I'd also have had to pay a single Metro fare to get to one of the offices - not saying I *won't* go get a personalised one for the hell of it if I do stick around even a few days and feel like it, but decided against it today) Civica card (Oyster equivalent) b) using the Metro to go over to Universidad station c) go round jardin botanico right by it. I successfully managed all of those.

Had heard shouting in street before leaving hotel room, guessed it might be football and when I got on street it obviously was a guys around in green and white shirts. Subsequent announcements about segregated access (and an electronic readable display showing same think) clued me in there's a match between Nactional and Independiente today. More football guys in green on street (jumping ahead here) when I got back to my stop and was heading down K70 to supermarket for toothpaste, water and fruit. No real hassle with them, just noting. I've been in hotel room since maybe 4pmish and maybe an hour ago heard some really loud and mildly scary yelling, which was probably a goal. I've checked and it ended in a draw, which is probably no bad thing from my POV. I intend to go out for food and a few beers in the next hour or two, I hope it's not chaos on the street.

Metro station just a couple of short blocks from hotel. No problem buying card - though a guy asked me something as I was in the ticket queue and as I'd just been fumbling with wallet and had a 50k note in hand I felt vulnerable and said I didn't understand without really trying, in hindsight he may have wanted me to buy him a ticket if he gave me the money and *maybe* this was not a scam, but then it is also queue-jumping even if I guessed right. This left me feeling a bit edgy but didn't see the guys again. No trouble using the Metro, it's not so different from anywhere else (eg London, Santiago). Felt a bit edgy in general - I think because I'm in a new place if not a new country - but this is gradually wearing off, eg I mostly stopped worrying about muggers in JB after first half hour or so.

Metro bit warm but very clean, mildly busy (no seats) but not terrible.

JB free, very nice really. Spent a couple of hours walking round, probably saw most of it twice, spent a good while meditating by the lake and watching the ducks. Some big lizards (iguanas) in there too. Minor low spot was passing a group of US guys one of whom was telling a story about how he'd fucked some girl on his rooftop under the stars. Mixed feelings of both jealousy and crassness. :-) Had a mora juice and 7oz tinto at surprisingly reasonably priced El Vagon in the park (about 4.4k for both), toyed with beer but decided best not. Incidentally when I write stuff like mora in Spanish it's not to be pretentious, it's because I either don't know the translation or because I don't want to bake in a bad translation when I can just write the original word down. (In this case I was 90% sure - and I just checked right now on spanishdict - mora=blackberry, but it *might* have been blackcurrant and if I'd written the wrong English word down I'd just be gratuitously wrong whereas writing the Spanish down is more likely to be right. Obviously this isn't critical but when I can be correct for less effort by just writing the Spanish version down, why not?)

Had quick wander round plaza de los deseos, not much to see, went in covered area by casa de la musica but no obvious events listed for near future, may be worth keeping an eye out. Then metro back and to supermarket as already said.

Didn't go to planetarium or mostly-for-kids science museum thing right by JB because a quick poke on web while at table outside El Vagon suggests they're not free, you can get a joint ticket for IIRC 40k and it may be quieter to visit them not at weekend. So I may well go back there - I haven't been to a planetarium in ages - but if I do I'll try to do it during the week. The park (being free to get in) is probably safer at weekend (not that I've ready any advice saying this) as there will be more people around. It was busy but pleasantly so, not heaving. Early on before I got more relaxed I was in an isolated area round the Gardeners area hidden behind some huts and some sound system being set up nearby was playing some low sustained metallic bass kind of notes and it felt a bit like the soundtrack so a film where I was about to be mugged. :-)

Generally resisted temption to get camera out on street, though did snap a few photos from Metro platforms on way back. Some nice street art by Universidad metro, though on one of them someone sprayed "mata gringos y policia" over the top, which was cheering.

Did a bit of laundry while back at hotel. Don't want to go out too late as although I managed to eat at 9ish yday some half-remembered website implied eating very late is not a thing here and kitchens might only be open 7-9pmish. Bit edgy re football crowds but just have to see what happens, will give it an hour or so anyway (currently 1828 as write this). I don't plan to seek out anything special, just ideally not same place I ate yesterday, a cheap-ish restaurant and then a few beers either there or somewhere nearby on this street. Tomorrow night I will probably stay in and I will probably poke at meetup/couchsurfing for any interesting activities during the week. I may well not be out very late tonight, perhaps a pseudo-clone of last night, but that's fine.

1909 Had moderately epic shower. Some random notes:

- I now have a hotel towel after today's room cleaning.

- Naturally my meditations in JB earlier were a lot about my life/the trip in general and not *specifically* appreciating the park, but I don't feel that's really a bad thing (the overall tone was positive/helpful) and I *did* pay some generic I-don't-know-about-plants attention to what I was seeing overall.

- Maybe 30 mins ago some kind of drum-based chanting outside. It is very noisy out now, I might hope this is just general Saturday night but suspect it's augmented by football fans. To be fair as long as it's not a threatening atmosphere and I can get a seat/table in restaurant/bar it's fine.

- I saw a gardener in JB making quite aggressive efforts to shoo off a large iguana with a rake; I don't know if they do some kind of harm.

1927 Gotta be honest, it sounds pretty fucking hectic outside. Fireworks going off now.

1957 Going to have to pop out soon; it's probably busy but not as bad as it sounds, I won't push things (I'll just not eat if push comes to shove) and don't intend to stray far at all but I have to at least go see.

2008 Jesus, it is actually a small scale riot. I stood on hotel "balcony" by stairs on my floor (UK second floor, local third) and you can see police fighting with fans, the periodic bangs might be fireworks or might be smoke grenades.

Oddly a load of other guests turned up to watch (I had window area, which is open at top, to self, but by time had gone back to room for camera they had turned up so I couldn't get a good spot at open balcony - have snapped a few photos and bit of video over their heads and through glass.

There was an unpleasantly blinding flash of light from *something* going off and I decided to beat a retreat - I could easily imagine something flying over the top of the balcony, or hitting some of the glass forming the base of the balcony or floor-to-ceiling glass at sides of balcony and sending shards flying.

I have no idea exactly why there is this violence, from what I remember/can see from my tiny quantity of photos/video, it is not fan-on-fan violence between the two teams, it is green fan-v-police.

Obviously I'm not going out now. Am sitting in room with door bolted :-) (though the window looks out on corridor and would be trivially breakable were rioting to spread inside hotel, though that seems unlikely), will remain fully dressed and pop out to balcony later to see if it's maybe calmed down.

I had anticipated some "busyness" from football crowd but had no expectation of this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not standing here trembling with fear. Obviously this isn't ideal but I don't feel personally under threat right now. I'm not starving either, it wouldn't kill me to have a pseudo-fast for 24h and I can always go out for an early breakfast.

I think the biggest risk to my safety is/will be risk of accidental collateral damage from being on balcony and some form of missile hitting me/the glass. It's for this reason I am resisting the temptation to rubberneck; I will as I say go "out" for a look in an hour or so or if it seems to be quieter.

In some ways it's lucky (not that I had ever planned to do so) I hadn't gone out for the night elsewhere and was now trying to get back into my hotel from the street and blocked by riot. I suppose similarly and more plausibly it's lucky I wasn't out for an early dinner at (I don't know exactly when this kicked off) 5pm leaving me stuck in a bar down the road feeling much more exposed to the riot and yet unable to get back to the "safety" of the hotel.

2046 Not been back out yet. I've realised/decided that even if it does seem to go quiet, it would be truly foolish to wander out in quest of food (which would be nice but isn't desperately needed; I can do a 24h+ fast if need be, plus I have had a bit of fruit and just writing this remembered I still have quite a bit left) when there's a risk of getting caught up in a resurgence of the violence. Plus it may well be all the bars/restaurants nearby are shut; that seems likely, but I don't know.

2128 Just been out on balcony for another look. It's a hell of a lot quieter now, I can see people in bar/restaurant across street and people streaming along pavement, but there are a hell of a lot of police vehicles about. Noticed (as I sort of had before) the rubberneckers in hotel are wearing same strip as the rioters, obviously not all the fans are hooligans but irrationally slightly scary to notice this.

I am vaguely tempted to go out but frankly it isn't likely to be much fun, I'd be edgy, and I've gorged on the rest of the 800g bag of apples and had a banana and I'm really not hungry. (I still have a few bananas left.) It would *probably* be safe to go out but really it doesn't seem smart. Also while I suspect the graffiti earlier about "mata gringos y policia" was just some random twat, it is *possible* some rioters who might still be around would have it in for me as a gringo rather than just seeming to want to fight the police. (TBF I'm speculating wildly; while I didn't see two opposing strip colours, it is possible the fight was fan-on-fan (either between teams or even just the green-and-white fans fighting each other) and they were only fighting the police because they tried to break it up.)

Yeah, that temptation is definitely there but I think not. Normality is probably 80-90% restored but I was just going out for dinner and a few solo beers and I can have some food tomorrow (slap up early lunch, I think) and even if it's Sunday and maybe a bit dead I suspect I can go have a few beers tomorrow evening if I want, or I'll just not have any and "save up" my alcohol allowance for another night, and when I have no pressing need to go out it would be silly to take risks. I wouldn't be able to relax properly over a beer or any food and it is *possible* things will flare up again. I dunno, this feels a bit cowardly but it's probably genuinely sensible, and there's no pressing need to justify taking the risk.

I do feel slightly tired but only very slightly and I really don't want to go to bed yet. I think I'll hang on in room with YT or similar a bit, maybe pop back out to balcony in half an hour or an hour just out of interest and then maybe think about going to bed.

2138 *Without* popping out to balcony, there's some shouting/chanting now and maybe the trouble is picking up a little bit after all.

2215 Just been out to balcony; no rubberneckers except me. It does look OKish, there is a shouty chanting sort of coming from *somewhere* and there are of course a lot of guys (and girls, though mostly guys) in green and white shirts and quite a few police vehicles but it does look relatively normal. If I hadn't seen what happened earlier I wouldn't be *too* disturbed by being out and about (I'd assume the cops were there just to keep an eye on things) but I'm not going out now. I *thought* it had flared up again when the chanting got louder half an hour or so ago, maybe this was just a group of singing fans walking peacefully-ish down the street, I don't really know. Snapped a few photos anyway.

2309 Bed. Not been out since last time. Not hungry, I have larded out in fruit after all. At least quite a memorable Leap Day. :-) And to be fair it hasn't been a bad day all told.