Medellín, Thursday

Thu 2120 Remarkably reluctant to write this up somehow.

Mildly hungover this morning, felt like it had been a bit foolish to arrange tour last night but wasn't serious and I did get up and get over to Alpujarra metro on time. Bit surprised they wanted to see the actual booking e-mail on my phone rather than just checking my name off on a list but not a problem.

As e-mail said to bring a raincoat or umbrella and the forecast said 50% chance of thunderstorms I had to hastily unpack my daypack and shove mildly bulky jacket into it along with (since I had to take daypack for jacket) bottle of water. Naturally it was warm verging on too damn hot, I didn't need the jacket and having the daypack was a minor hassle a) as it made me sweat more b) at one point guide advised us to wear our packs on our fronts which was uncomfortable and felt a bit stupid. Not a huge problem but annoying; then again given forecast I couldn't really avoid this. Even if I had a more lightweight "anorak" thickness rain jacket I'd still have needed the daypack. I hardly drank any water to avoid needing bog (tho there was a 20 min toilet+street food break anyway) and I could have managed without my bottle of water (and bought some during the break from an ambulant bendor), or could have taken a much smaller bottle.

2157 Got distracted with chores. To continue...

Tour was pretty good really, putting aside discomfort due to heat+daypack. Won't describe it in great detail but roughly we went from metro to old train station (where guide sat us down and talked to us a lot about history of town/country etc) then on to a park with bamboo forest and concrete light pole forest then on to (you know I'm not sure I'm remembering everything or in right order) the church (second oldest in city) where the prostitutes meet their clients nowadays then the toilet (I didn't go) and street food break then into a big shopping centre which had been some govt building until sold off as crumbling due to troubles then Plaza Botero then to oldest church, briefly inside it, down street next to it with market stalls selling misc tat, fake bibles (I genuinely wondered what exactly constitutes a "fake" bible, but didn't ask) and hardcore pornography (TBH yes there were a few stalls selling this, but it wasn't as many as I'd expected when guide had told us about it before we went down), then to the mostly deserted and apparently quite sketchy even in day (I wonder how/why this one square can be so much harder to police than everywhere else round there, but I didn't ask) with the damaged-and-replacement bird sculptures in. Ended up at San Antonio metro, I hadn't realised until that point there is a tram line there tho guide said you would take that tram to get to museum of memory so I will prob take it at some point.

I paid 35k, Doug had told us on Mon at "lang exchange" you should tip at least 20k, I had been planning 30k but as cash came out of my wallet I realised I'd got an extra 5k and decided to roll with that. Quite nice system (though open to abuse) where instead of handing cash to guide you drop it into his backpack wrapped in a slip of paper.

Right, let's have a bit of a break from writing this and do a few small chores.

2229 I got a WhatsApp from Alex (guy from Monday night who had gone to comuna 13 yday and invited me) during tour and briefly replied. After I got back to hotel and dumped bag we exchanged some more messages and he suggested meeting up but we hadn't picked a time. I had planned to go over to Naan Laureles for a late Indian lunch but I decided I didn't want to maybe be stuck out of the way when he got back to me or be reeking of curry and not have time to clean my teeth, so I will do that another day (maybe tomorrow) and compromised on a super cheap if not huge portion of arroz 4 carnes at a shop just down road from hotel (5k, no tip as you order at counter and guy gives you the plate). As I finished eating got another WA and he said they (I didn't know at the time but inferred correctly this was Melrose, also from Mon night - they are probably a couple but I don't *know* that and ultimately none of my business) were going to hang out in Plaza Botero, so I suggested we meet by the dog statue and indeed we did. They cycle everywhere but I went on Metro of course. I got there first and felt a tiny bit edgy hanging around on my own but of course it was fine.

Alex had brough a beer which we shared, bit of chat, we wandered round a bit, saw on two separate occasions some "street theatre" with a big crowd watching cops deal with people (on the latter occasion, several locals were kind enough to offer us unsolicited clarification - in Spanish, which I *mostly* understood but do wish I were better - on what was happening) and we also wandered down past the "prostitute and client" church and somewhere nearby saw a bloke arguing with a big group of prostitutes (bad client? pimp?? fuck knows), it never got ultra violent but there was some scuffling which intruded on an adjacent restaurant, the bloke somehow did a runner into one of the buildings. Sort of interesting but I did feel both a bit guilty and a bit vulnerable watching this, though on both scores being with those two helped.

We also tried (when I remembered guide telling my group; they are going same tour tomorrow) to go up onto the terrace (free) of the chequerboard-ish government building that looks like a church but isn't, but you can't go up after 1630 so we were politely turned away.

They both had to get home and teach (digital nomad types, teaching I think English via Skype to people in other timezones) and it was getting dark so we split up about 6ish/630ish and I got Metro back home. Bit of a police scuffle by PB metro but no real fuss.

Oh, as I walked off Melrose called out I was walking too fast and it looked suspicious/nervous. Have had this though before IIRC. I don't primarily walk fast out of nervousness, I do it because it feels right and I want to get where I'm going and I do it back in UK too, and it feels painful to walk slower, but there may be something in this of course. Not sure if this looks nervous in the UK but maybe here it makes me more obviously a tourist (or attracts unwanted attention because I'm moving fast and then the "oh, a tourist" recognition can occur). Meh. Just noting it.

Wasn't going to drink tonight but having had approx a bottle worth (we shared a large bottle) with Alex (M didn't drink for whatever reason) and feeling hot and sort of pleased with the way the day had gone I couldn't resist stopping in at La Fonda de la Colombiana (sp) for a couple (turned out to be 3) of solo Aguilas. This is not particularly excessive in itself but I have been drinking a lot lately so not ideal, if not a huge concern at this point.

Fri 0024 Bed shortly. Forgot to mention that due to tour guide mentioning it during street food bit I finally got to try a buñuelo - I got a 500 peso normal one, which wasn't remotely cheesy and very pleasant but doughnut like. Had one of the "extra cheesy" ones with A+M tonight (1000 pesos) - again perfectly nice and the centre was a nice enough melted cheese. Had seen these in small shop windows etc since arriving in country but had never nerved myself to ask for one at a sit-down place in case it was foul, whereas with street food I had the option to just toss it.