Fri 12th 1848 Actually in bed. Slightly saggy and pillow plastic-crinkly but not big deal.
Sat 13th 1723 Got back to hostel few mins ago. I feel vaguely dissatisfied but I think on the whole it's been a borderline productive and fun-ish day.
I didn't fall asleep as soon as got into bed. I think I drifted off about 1915 but I woke up a bit 8-9ish with lots of mid-distance crowd noise from somewhere and (most gratingly) what sounded like someone repeatedly hammering on or slamming a metal door. I wasn't deeply concerned but visions of fire or people trying to break into the hostel floated round the back of my mind. I did eventually fall asleep and (bearing in mind checking time requires checking phone when I'm in bed watch-less) IIRC I woke up maybe 6ish and sort of vaguely and semi-luxuriously drowsed in bed on and off until perhaps 1030ish.
I dicked around booking a hostel in VdL - the cheapest/best rated one yday had no dorm beds any more, which of course made me regret not booking it, but I booked another which had good reviews for something like USD9/night. I could - maybe somewhere else, maybe there - have had a private for about USD20/night but for reasons which aren't entirely financial I couldn't bring myself to do it. USD20/night is fine but if I can experiment and maybe socialise more and keep costs down with the odd (not near-constant as turned out to be the case in CT) dorm that's all to the good.
I sent them a message asking for a lower bunk and went out for coffee in common area before heading out. Jumping ahead I had an e-mail from them when I got back saying they will try to reserve me a lower bunk (which is fine; I don't *insist* and some places are very regimented about this and it doesn't hurt to ask). What feels odd is the message twice mentions the room will be shared and points out this is what I booked. I mean, WTF? Putting aside the fact the booking description was something like "single bed in 4 bed dorm" ("single" might in theory mean it isn't a bunk, but I don't think this is always the case), doesn't the fact I'm asking if I can have a lower bunk show I'm blatantly aware of the fact the room will be shared? I suppose it's no big deal but this feels a bit weird.
While in room after getting up and doing that booking, I also looked at some online bus company timetables for buses to VdL. Long story short, it looked a bit shitty with no services middle of day and it also seemed that I ought to be going from terminal del norte and not the "La Terminal" in the centre. I did find one company which obviously started from the centre terminal and passed through terminal del norte, but on noticing that (notwithstanding the distance) TdN is on the TM whereas La Terminal is a "short" 1km (thanks, guidebook) walk with half a dozen changes of direction from a TM stuff, I felt TdN was probably a more reassuring option when walking with my backpack anyway.
So I walked down to Museo de Oro TM and got on and despite the signage and the route maps and everything being confusing as hell, as I wasn't in a rush and didn't have my bag with me today, I got to TdN without too much fuss - maybe 1.5h.
Interestingly IIRC three different guys addressed the passengers at length during the long few-stops stretch - one seemed to be selling headphones (possibly with a dash of hard luck story), another was telling a hard luck story and another was talking about alternative medicine and gastritis. No one paid much attention to them, or I'm pleased to say to me.
TdN didn't seem too much of a bear pit. I spoke to staff at a few of the cubbyholes in the semicircular ticket office area. It's 39-40k direct to VdL and no one - despite having just checked and the company website I saw this morning which starts in centre and passes through TdN and which I'm 90% sure whose ticket window I visited advertising one - seems to have a midday-ish service - it's (and this is taking the best times I was told from multiple companies, memory permitting) 10am or 2pm.
This sucks. I think it's about a 4h bus. Yes direct is nice, but a 10am bus combined with probable rush-hour ish bus crowding and heavy road traffic and the fact it took 1.5hish today means I'd be having to leave here about 8am and even at that I'd still be stressing about missing the bus. While 2pm means getting in around sunset, maybe after dark. I suspect VdL is fine after dark (especially early evening) but there's still finding the way and being in an unknown place with all my belongings etc.
Anyway, I asked at various other windows and there are loads of buses to Tunja - one company told me every 15m and another one an hour. I asked - leading question, but maybe I got a straight answer - and the bus from Tunja to VdL goes from the same terminal in Tunja. The Tunja bus costs 35k from Bogota.
I suspect it will cost the same or slightly more to do B-T and then T-VdL, *but* that's what I'm going to do. I deliberately did *not* buy a ticket to Tunja for Monday - ie I left terminal fairly happily empty-handed - because with so many and such frequent buses, I am pretty confident I can just leave the hostel about 9am-ish on Monday, take however long it takes to get to TdN on TM and buy a ticket for whatever bus is next. If we say I'm leaving TdN about 11am I should be in Tunja 2pm-ish, which probably sees me arriving in VdL no later than 4pm. I think the extra stress and uncertainty of having to get a second bus in Tunja is a good trade off for not racing up to TdN against the clock with a pre-bought ticket to VdL and arriving after dark or travelling at rush hour in Bogota that morning.
Arguably it was a waste of time going up there - perhaps a "real" traveller or a tourist using their time wisely would have just gone up to TdN once, the day they needed to travel, and would have just assumed they could get a ticket or would have bought online. But fuck those imaginary gits. I semi-enjoyed my little TM excursion/adventure and it gives me more confidence about doing it on Monday "for real" .
When I got back it was about 3pm and I went for late lunch at "la tinaja de la abuela" - i can never remember that t word as I don't know it, but I think that's right and having now looked it up it means jar/jug so probably plausible - and paid 16k+2k tip (again, given no tip jar and paying at cash desk not sure tip is expected, but I left a 2k note and hurried off anyway) for pretty decent rice(+bit of chicken?) soup, pollo a la placha, chips and an undressed (as requested, go me) salad. Waitress for some reason went off to bring me the menu to show me the *price* in digits when I asked for pollo a la plancha and checked it didn't have sauce, but whatever. And a juice, possibly mango. Portion not huge but not too bad and I can't quibble at the price.
Oh no, when I got off TM at museo del oro before going for lunch I saw a WOM shop and went in on serendipitous grounds. MoS perfectly nice but said he didn't have prepaid chips and to try an Oxxo. I went into an Oxxo - and incidentally I had good memories of Oxxo from past, but all 4-5ish I've been in round here seem vaguely skanky, not dirty as such but just a bit shit, some stuff not priced on shelf, poor selection, hard to describe - and the guy said he hadn't got any, maybe he didn't understand me. So then I went off to tdla for lunch.
I then decided I'd go up to the WOM shop I'd seen on K7. I did and waited ages (patiently; I had little expectation of them having anything, and I was in no rush, and they played Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here) and finally a youngish woman I didn't take to at all spoke to me and said I could have a prepaid SIM for 21k with 12GB for 30 days. I dithered - this felt shit value compared to Movistar's 30GB, and the WOM website was full of triple data offers when I looked yday - but I figured the absolute price and the 30 days for "more than enough" data was the thing and said yes. In the end she couldn't sell it me because the copy of my passport I had wasn't good enough ID. So she told me to go over to the tiny kiosk opposite and buy one there. (So what the fuck's the ID deal??)
I did and chap there said 4k for a WOM SIM with some data for 3 days, then I could add a packet or something but he didn't sell them and only had the vaguest idea of prices and said something like 22k for 30 days and I could see this coming out more than the Movistar 30k so I said I'd go look into that and come back.
At this point let me interject a background mental theme which kept playing for the rest of today's phone saga. Even in the UK I feel there's something borderline stressful and sketchy about buying PAYG bulk deals and I had even less confidence here. Eg "oh, you topped up 10, but you accidentally called a number and that's used 35p credit, and now you don't have enough to buy the packet for 10". Or - more likely - navigating some audio menu on phone in Spanish trying to top up only for it to demand I enter my Colombian national ID number using the phone keypad. So even if it *is* cheaper in theory, all else being equal I'd rather not faff with anything involving a top up, so I can at least get my initial 30 days with no fuss.
I asked at quite a number of small phone shops and kiosks - of which there are a plethora - and they were all shit. I don't *think* this is my poor Spanish or them trying to rip me off as a tourist. Loads of them told me nothing better than 70k/month. Several had official looking promotional stickers - which I did check the small print of an they all expired like Oct or Dec 23, but I'd expect these kind of offers to roll over - for different networks suggesting 21k for 30 days of "plenty" of GB was a thing, but even when I asked about this kind of thing none of these small places would offer me anything better than 70k.
TBH I struggled with the numbers a bit, despite it being repeated 70k seemed so high I always struggled to believe I'd heard correctly. But I'm 99% sure (it kept being said) it was 70.
So I might go back and take the Movistar shop next door up on their 30k for 30 days for 30GB offer. (I may not even be in Colombia for 30 days right now if the boat happens, but it's probably better to have a local SIM anyway.) They were shut earlier but I didn't overly care as I don't see any point buying before tomorrow - I vaguely intend (need to actually go ask - maybe will do that now) to do Monserrate "free" hike tomorrow and if I do take phone no point having a 30k SIM stolen with it.
I may also hold off and look into buying a SIM in VdL. Or just possibly not buying, but we'll see.
Fuck it, let me go ask about 7am "free" hike tomorrow.
OK, FFS. I just asked and the guy at the desk scrolled through some messages from them and said they send him a message every day saying what tours they are doing. So he said/I volunteered (bit of a mix) to be at the desk at 6am tomorrow morning to see if it's on. This isn't a huge huge deal - I doubt getting up at 6 will be an utter mare given time zones and fact am prob going to be early just out of boredom - but it's also kind of wank that no one can have any clarity 13h before the early-morning start time. Anyway, I asked, and if it doesn't happen not the end of the world. (Vague energy and mostly altitude concerns re this hike, but fuck it.)
I also went in various Oxxo stores looking for water but they tended not to bother showing a price or restocking the brand I knew price of. In the end I asked clerk at the one near hostel and was lucky enough to get a bit-over-3l bottle (chilled too) for 4.1k, which is way better than I paid yday.
So I've been sitting here drinking some of that slightly chilled bottle and free sugary black coffee while writing this.
I did do a moderate amount of wandering round the area looking for random phone kiosks to try and places that might sell water with a decent price. I think I am starting to feel a smidge less concerned about personal safety during the day on the busy-ish streets. (It is a shame I can't bring myself to take photos, but not end of world.)
So was this a "good" day? I dunno. It's sure as hell not some high water mark of tourist joy. On the other hand, I exercised my Spanish a bit, had a little long-distance excursion (and I didn't spot a lot of obvious tourists either, FWIW) on the TM and with that plus walking round have maybe been chipping away at that fresh-off-the-boat edginess.
Been wearing just RS top all day, toyed with going back for fleece when left hostel 1204 as it was mildly grey and chilly, but sun popped in and out and at worst I felt slightly cold and at best very comfortable. I think I could and will wear fleece when going to TdN to get to VdL as it reduces bulk of bag and probably lowers my tourist quotient accordingly, plus increases chances of me being allowed to take it on bus as hand luggage and makes it more manageable on TM.
1849 Just had longish (30m) call with parents. I know they like to hear from me and given I am solo and they are there I do like the kind of security of checking in with them most days so someone would notice if I disappeared etc, but this - and this is a general point, not specific to today - sometimes feels a bit like I'm tethering myself to home. I also am *trying* to make it sound positive and so forth to them, but (probably just a family dynamic thing) it is quite difficult not to end up being a bit negative.
A different MoS came over during call and said the tour will be on tomorrow at 7am and that did I want to confirm and they will let me know the meeting point once they've confirmed, so I said yes. I want to do it and my only security concern is whether to risk taking my phone in case of being robbed on street on way to/from MS base point - which would never have even crossed my mind had some random and possibly outdated or inaccurate website mentioned it when I was hunting for general security info the other day post-arrival. Still, undeniably nice of them to confirm this and at least I know where I stand now. It lasts about three hours and I just pay to go into some random museum tomorrow after the tour, otherwise time is going to maybe hang a bit heavy.
As I was I think saying earlier, today was hardly a dynamite day of tourism or excitement. But taking the long view and my style of tourism and my long-ish trip, I can't help feel it was a quiet success on my own terms, building up confidence and getting a little off the beaten track etc. (Maybe I'm just crap at spotting them, but even walking the streets in LC I am not seeing huge numbers of obvious foreign tourists, though there obviously are some, and I didn't see any in La Tinaja or on the TM outside the central bit today.)
I probably need to be doing a bit of reading up on boats and thinking about it. I just may force myself to do that tonight (eg what does non-sailing cost, do I have a choice of reputable companies, can I avoid needing to take a wodge of cash to pay with, how late can I leave booking) or I may slack off and do it tomorrow night.
I will probably do a small bit of laundry tonight - just the two tops and sets of uw, but at least that won't be too much to do or hang in the v small room and there's a fair chance they will be dry by Monday morning. Will likely do that and have shower just before earlyish bed, given it just hasn't been that hot and sweaty here today I didn't feel the need to adopt my scheme of showering and changing when I get back to the hostel after the day out.
I will say the MoS on reception when I asked this morning about TdN and if it was safe and if I could get there on TM wasn't sure if it was on the TM and offered to call me a taxi or suggested I look at the map on the TM stop. He wasn't rude and I'm not complaining, but I was a bit surprised he didn't know - I actually did know (but station name a bit confusing and I had to make a plausible and as it turned out correct assumption, so wanted to check) as it was on the TdN website.
Meant to note yesterday that about 5% of people here seem to wear masks out in public. At first I thought it might just be at the airport, but it's not. It's not a "staff forced to" thing AFAICS, some staff do while other staff in same places don't, and a lot of the people wearing them are just members of public on street. *Perhaps* a tendency for them to be old-ish, but I am not sure and there are certainly some youngish people wearing them. It's not like they're anything like a majority - as I say, I'd estimate 5% - but they're common enough that it feels a bit odd (and slightly distressing) compared to London where it's not exactly unusual to see someone wearing a mask but also not that common (maybe 1% or less??).
Some places do still have "mask compulsory" type signs and there are occasional "keep 2m apart" type signs, but this appears to be part of that "can't be arsed to take them down, even though we expect you to obey them when they are actually 'in force'" situations rather than an actual current rule/expectation - eg I've seen businesses with compulsory mask signs where the staff are not wearing them. I would say these kind of signs are not ultra rare but not that common - what really strikes me are the people wearing masks, not these kind of signs.
TM has "TfL-ish" propaganda-y signs about "women moving forward" (*probably* showcasing female TM staff, as there's no other significant text I noticed) and sexual abuse and random gratuitous mentions of "discrimination" in signs asking you to treat TM staff with respect/as you would wish to be treated. Perhaps the intensity is lower than London, but this stuff is still there. Not that I'm terribly surprised, based on eg the "Bogota para tod@s" signs I remember seeing in that suburb near the airport in 2020. I am just noting this for colour.
1909 OK, guy just told me/showed me in writing meeting point is in centre (I think) of Parque de los Periodistas between 6:50 and 7am. Looking it up, this is about three blocks east of Museo de Oro TM stop and two blocks south of Las Aguas TM and all the probably-IIRC-maybe iffy streets around Universidad de Los Andes and the base of the Monserrate path are east of there and thus (unless they let us go at the base of the path/funicular, but since they will want to collect the tips they probably won't) we probably transit that maybe iffy area in a group, I will probably take my phone, but I'll chew it over.
I hope I can manage this. Although Christmas and swimming have eroded my jogging/walking time a bit lately, I don't have huge personal fitness concerns, but it is already high enough here (and I just arrived so haven't had time to acclimatise) that I feel a very occasional and slight "strain" (hard to describe - a sort of feeling that I'm not *quite* getting top quality breath) when walking around and this is uphill walking. But it will probably be OK.
I hope it's not too lonely on the streets walking over there (I'll probably go via K7 and MdO even though it's slightly further that way - it isn't that far anyway) at 630am-ish but fingers crossed.
But let's not be negative. I did/do want to walk up Monserrate (quick web search failing to find tour reviews suggests it is Monserrate not Montserrate but not sure and I suspect I keep flip-flopping in this blog) and was mildly excited about it before leaving home and while it might be in some ways nicer to do it solo, this could be good and I will try not to be too aloof, plus if this goes well I could perhaps see myself doing the walk solo - perhaps with, perhaps without, phone, as I will have taken photos tomorrow probably - in the last day or two of the trip) and this could be a pretty cool thing to do, and maybe set me up for a bit of gentle hiking round VdL.
R2r roughly agrees there are a lot of buses Bogota-Tunja. It doesn't show any bus service Tunja-VdL, but I am hopeful it's not right there, and it does say a taxi costs about USD6-9 so modulo safety concerns re booking one, it is not necessarily a major fuckfest if there is no bus. And of course if there's space I rather suspect eg the 2pm-ish bus from Bogota direct to VdL will call in at Tunja and I could probably get on that as a somewhat last resort.
FWIW the two out-and-about photos I took today were on the footbridge at Terminal del Norte on my way back to the TM to come back into town. They didn't get GPS tagged (I am not sure if the GPS is working reliably, I never have phone out etc which may not help).
1957 Incidentally when I booked VdL hostel this morning there were "only 4 beds left" in the 4 bed dorm. I suspect there will be other people there - this is supposed to be peak season (March is mid-season IIRC) and the range of cheap accomodation is not gigantic (IIRC booking has maybe 4-5 places with dorm beds) but who knows? I may get the room to myself after all. :-)
I feel broadly OK. Not ecstatic or anything, but accepting the reality that it's still very early days and I'm finding my feet etc etc and I can't force excitement/social interaction/etc and also that I'm hopefully accomplishing the main "fun" goal I had set for myself in Bogota tomorrow morning and that I have at least got some way to resolving the local SIM goal too I really can't complain. I oscillate a bit but I'm mostly maintaining a positive-ish attitude. (I semi-self-consciously muttered some negative stuff on leaving the WOM shop where I didn't take to the young woman or the silly business with the copy of my ID, but it wasn't major involuntary bitterness or anything like that.) I'm acutely aware of the flaws in my Spanish but I guess things might improve gradually.
Hitting the free sugary black coffee quite heavily FWIW. Gut feeling is I'll head back to my room in 30-60m and do laundry and prep for tomorrow etc and probably be in bed 30-60m after that.
Quick poke at guide book reveals just the already-seen page or so about the sailboat option from Cartagena and makes no mention at all of the motor option. So I guess I will have to rely on web.
2016 Just suddenly remembered a minor highlight of the day. During my late afternoon (4pm-ish) wander for water/SIM, I found a smallish shopping centre (multi-level with a sort of serpentine trail up the middle) which was about 95% small presumably independent opticians (I think I saw one small coffee shop). Oddly cool.
FWIW I also saw a different little shopping centre which had a toilet advertised at COP1k "excluding toilet paper" . FFS! I didn't need to go and I have a tiny bit in my back pocket, but it feels a bit out of order charging for entry and not providing any.
Also FWIW (no photos) La Tinaja... is in some old-ish maybe colonial style house - the ceiling above the "main" dining room has some quite elegant plaster swirly stuff, although with big chunks of it missing.
2050 OK, sitting here fiddling with phone a bit and musing a bit. Will finish this coffee and go back to room and do "chores" before bed.
2211 OK, finished doing chores - surprisingly long time, but I guess it's not as I had a lot else to do. Done laundry, had shave and shower, going to go to bed now. Probably will take phone tomorrow, going to wear fleece and take a bottle of water and keep it in inside fleece pocket, not taking daypack as it just invites snatch-and-grab I guess.
Sat 13th 1723 Got back to hostel few mins ago. I feel vaguely dissatisfied but I think on the whole it's been a borderline productive and fun-ish day.
I didn't fall asleep as soon as got into bed. I think I drifted off about 1915 but I woke up a bit 8-9ish with lots of mid-distance crowd noise from somewhere and (most gratingly) what sounded like someone repeatedly hammering on or slamming a metal door. I wasn't deeply concerned but visions of fire or people trying to break into the hostel floated round the back of my mind. I did eventually fall asleep and (bearing in mind checking time requires checking phone when I'm in bed watch-less) IIRC I woke up maybe 6ish and sort of vaguely and semi-luxuriously drowsed in bed on and off until perhaps 1030ish.
I dicked around booking a hostel in VdL - the cheapest/best rated one yday had no dorm beds any more, which of course made me regret not booking it, but I booked another which had good reviews for something like USD9/night. I could - maybe somewhere else, maybe there - have had a private for about USD20/night but for reasons which aren't entirely financial I couldn't bring myself to do it. USD20/night is fine but if I can experiment and maybe socialise more and keep costs down with the odd (not near-constant as turned out to be the case in CT) dorm that's all to the good.
I sent them a message asking for a lower bunk and went out for coffee in common area before heading out. Jumping ahead I had an e-mail from them when I got back saying they will try to reserve me a lower bunk (which is fine; I don't *insist* and some places are very regimented about this and it doesn't hurt to ask). What feels odd is the message twice mentions the room will be shared and points out this is what I booked. I mean, WTF? Putting aside the fact the booking description was something like "single bed in 4 bed dorm" ("single" might in theory mean it isn't a bunk, but I don't think this is always the case), doesn't the fact I'm asking if I can have a lower bunk show I'm blatantly aware of the fact the room will be shared? I suppose it's no big deal but this feels a bit weird.
While in room after getting up and doing that booking, I also looked at some online bus company timetables for buses to VdL. Long story short, it looked a bit shitty with no services middle of day and it also seemed that I ought to be going from terminal del norte and not the "La Terminal" in the centre. I did find one company which obviously started from the centre terminal and passed through terminal del norte, but on noticing that (notwithstanding the distance) TdN is on the TM whereas La Terminal is a "short" 1km (thanks, guidebook) walk with half a dozen changes of direction from a TM stuff, I felt TdN was probably a more reassuring option when walking with my backpack anyway.
So I walked down to Museo de Oro TM and got on and despite the signage and the route maps and everything being confusing as hell, as I wasn't in a rush and didn't have my bag with me today, I got to TdN without too much fuss - maybe 1.5h.
Interestingly IIRC three different guys addressed the passengers at length during the long few-stops stretch - one seemed to be selling headphones (possibly with a dash of hard luck story), another was telling a hard luck story and another was talking about alternative medicine and gastritis. No one paid much attention to them, or I'm pleased to say to me.
TdN didn't seem too much of a bear pit. I spoke to staff at a few of the cubbyholes in the semicircular ticket office area. It's 39-40k direct to VdL and no one - despite having just checked and the company website I saw this morning which starts in centre and passes through TdN and which I'm 90% sure whose ticket window I visited advertising one - seems to have a midday-ish service - it's (and this is taking the best times I was told from multiple companies, memory permitting) 10am or 2pm.
This sucks. I think it's about a 4h bus. Yes direct is nice, but a 10am bus combined with probable rush-hour ish bus crowding and heavy road traffic and the fact it took 1.5hish today means I'd be having to leave here about 8am and even at that I'd still be stressing about missing the bus. While 2pm means getting in around sunset, maybe after dark. I suspect VdL is fine after dark (especially early evening) but there's still finding the way and being in an unknown place with all my belongings etc.
Anyway, I asked at various other windows and there are loads of buses to Tunja - one company told me every 15m and another one an hour. I asked - leading question, but maybe I got a straight answer - and the bus from Tunja to VdL goes from the same terminal in Tunja. The Tunja bus costs 35k from Bogota.
I suspect it will cost the same or slightly more to do B-T and then T-VdL, *but* that's what I'm going to do. I deliberately did *not* buy a ticket to Tunja for Monday - ie I left terminal fairly happily empty-handed - because with so many and such frequent buses, I am pretty confident I can just leave the hostel about 9am-ish on Monday, take however long it takes to get to TdN on TM and buy a ticket for whatever bus is next. If we say I'm leaving TdN about 11am I should be in Tunja 2pm-ish, which probably sees me arriving in VdL no later than 4pm. I think the extra stress and uncertainty of having to get a second bus in Tunja is a good trade off for not racing up to TdN against the clock with a pre-bought ticket to VdL and arriving after dark or travelling at rush hour in Bogota that morning.
Arguably it was a waste of time going up there - perhaps a "real" traveller or a tourist using their time wisely would have just gone up to TdN once, the day they needed to travel, and would have just assumed they could get a ticket or would have bought online. But fuck those imaginary gits. I semi-enjoyed my little TM excursion/adventure and it gives me more confidence about doing it on Monday "for real" .
When I got back it was about 3pm and I went for late lunch at "la tinaja de la abuela" - i can never remember that t word as I don't know it, but I think that's right and having now looked it up it means jar/jug so probably plausible - and paid 16k+2k tip (again, given no tip jar and paying at cash desk not sure tip is expected, but I left a 2k note and hurried off anyway) for pretty decent rice(+bit of chicken?) soup, pollo a la placha, chips and an undressed (as requested, go me) salad. Waitress for some reason went off to bring me the menu to show me the *price* in digits when I asked for pollo a la plancha and checked it didn't have sauce, but whatever. And a juice, possibly mango. Portion not huge but not too bad and I can't quibble at the price.
Oh no, when I got off TM at museo del oro before going for lunch I saw a WOM shop and went in on serendipitous grounds. MoS perfectly nice but said he didn't have prepaid chips and to try an Oxxo. I went into an Oxxo - and incidentally I had good memories of Oxxo from past, but all 4-5ish I've been in round here seem vaguely skanky, not dirty as such but just a bit shit, some stuff not priced on shelf, poor selection, hard to describe - and the guy said he hadn't got any, maybe he didn't understand me. So then I went off to tdla for lunch.
I then decided I'd go up to the WOM shop I'd seen on K7. I did and waited ages (patiently; I had little expectation of them having anything, and I was in no rush, and they played Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here) and finally a youngish woman I didn't take to at all spoke to me and said I could have a prepaid SIM for 21k with 12GB for 30 days. I dithered - this felt shit value compared to Movistar's 30GB, and the WOM website was full of triple data offers when I looked yday - but I figured the absolute price and the 30 days for "more than enough" data was the thing and said yes. In the end she couldn't sell it me because the copy of my passport I had wasn't good enough ID. So she told me to go over to the tiny kiosk opposite and buy one there. (So what the fuck's the ID deal??)
I did and chap there said 4k for a WOM SIM with some data for 3 days, then I could add a packet or something but he didn't sell them and only had the vaguest idea of prices and said something like 22k for 30 days and I could see this coming out more than the Movistar 30k so I said I'd go look into that and come back.
At this point let me interject a background mental theme which kept playing for the rest of today's phone saga. Even in the UK I feel there's something borderline stressful and sketchy about buying PAYG bulk deals and I had even less confidence here. Eg "oh, you topped up 10, but you accidentally called a number and that's used 35p credit, and now you don't have enough to buy the packet for 10". Or - more likely - navigating some audio menu on phone in Spanish trying to top up only for it to demand I enter my Colombian national ID number using the phone keypad. So even if it *is* cheaper in theory, all else being equal I'd rather not faff with anything involving a top up, so I can at least get my initial 30 days with no fuss.
I asked at quite a number of small phone shops and kiosks - of which there are a plethora - and they were all shit. I don't *think* this is my poor Spanish or them trying to rip me off as a tourist. Loads of them told me nothing better than 70k/month. Several had official looking promotional stickers - which I did check the small print of an they all expired like Oct or Dec 23, but I'd expect these kind of offers to roll over - for different networks suggesting 21k for 30 days of "plenty" of GB was a thing, but even when I asked about this kind of thing none of these small places would offer me anything better than 70k.
TBH I struggled with the numbers a bit, despite it being repeated 70k seemed so high I always struggled to believe I'd heard correctly. But I'm 99% sure (it kept being said) it was 70.
So I might go back and take the Movistar shop next door up on their 30k for 30 days for 30GB offer. (I may not even be in Colombia for 30 days right now if the boat happens, but it's probably better to have a local SIM anyway.) They were shut earlier but I didn't overly care as I don't see any point buying before tomorrow - I vaguely intend (need to actually go ask - maybe will do that now) to do Monserrate "free" hike tomorrow and if I do take phone no point having a 30k SIM stolen with it.
I may also hold off and look into buying a SIM in VdL. Or just possibly not buying, but we'll see.
Fuck it, let me go ask about 7am "free" hike tomorrow.
OK, FFS. I just asked and the guy at the desk scrolled through some messages from them and said they send him a message every day saying what tours they are doing. So he said/I volunteered (bit of a mix) to be at the desk at 6am tomorrow morning to see if it's on. This isn't a huge huge deal - I doubt getting up at 6 will be an utter mare given time zones and fact am prob going to be early just out of boredom - but it's also kind of wank that no one can have any clarity 13h before the early-morning start time. Anyway, I asked, and if it doesn't happen not the end of the world. (Vague energy and mostly altitude concerns re this hike, but fuck it.)
I also went in various Oxxo stores looking for water but they tended not to bother showing a price or restocking the brand I knew price of. In the end I asked clerk at the one near hostel and was lucky enough to get a bit-over-3l bottle (chilled too) for 4.1k, which is way better than I paid yday.
So I've been sitting here drinking some of that slightly chilled bottle and free sugary black coffee while writing this.
I did do a moderate amount of wandering round the area looking for random phone kiosks to try and places that might sell water with a decent price. I think I am starting to feel a smidge less concerned about personal safety during the day on the busy-ish streets. (It is a shame I can't bring myself to take photos, but not end of world.)
So was this a "good" day? I dunno. It's sure as hell not some high water mark of tourist joy. On the other hand, I exercised my Spanish a bit, had a little long-distance excursion (and I didn't spot a lot of obvious tourists either, FWIW) on the TM and with that plus walking round have maybe been chipping away at that fresh-off-the-boat edginess.
Been wearing just RS top all day, toyed with going back for fleece when left hostel 1204 as it was mildly grey and chilly, but sun popped in and out and at worst I felt slightly cold and at best very comfortable. I think I could and will wear fleece when going to TdN to get to VdL as it reduces bulk of bag and probably lowers my tourist quotient accordingly, plus increases chances of me being allowed to take it on bus as hand luggage and makes it more manageable on TM.
1849 Just had longish (30m) call with parents. I know they like to hear from me and given I am solo and they are there I do like the kind of security of checking in with them most days so someone would notice if I disappeared etc, but this - and this is a general point, not specific to today - sometimes feels a bit like I'm tethering myself to home. I also am *trying* to make it sound positive and so forth to them, but (probably just a family dynamic thing) it is quite difficult not to end up being a bit negative.
A different MoS came over during call and said the tour will be on tomorrow at 7am and that did I want to confirm and they will let me know the meeting point once they've confirmed, so I said yes. I want to do it and my only security concern is whether to risk taking my phone in case of being robbed on street on way to/from MS base point - which would never have even crossed my mind had some random and possibly outdated or inaccurate website mentioned it when I was hunting for general security info the other day post-arrival. Still, undeniably nice of them to confirm this and at least I know where I stand now. It lasts about three hours and I just pay to go into some random museum tomorrow after the tour, otherwise time is going to maybe hang a bit heavy.
As I was I think saying earlier, today was hardly a dynamite day of tourism or excitement. But taking the long view and my style of tourism and my long-ish trip, I can't help feel it was a quiet success on my own terms, building up confidence and getting a little off the beaten track etc. (Maybe I'm just crap at spotting them, but even walking the streets in LC I am not seeing huge numbers of obvious foreign tourists, though there obviously are some, and I didn't see any in La Tinaja or on the TM outside the central bit today.)
I probably need to be doing a bit of reading up on boats and thinking about it. I just may force myself to do that tonight (eg what does non-sailing cost, do I have a choice of reputable companies, can I avoid needing to take a wodge of cash to pay with, how late can I leave booking) or I may slack off and do it tomorrow night.
I will probably do a small bit of laundry tonight - just the two tops and sets of uw, but at least that won't be too much to do or hang in the v small room and there's a fair chance they will be dry by Monday morning. Will likely do that and have shower just before earlyish bed, given it just hasn't been that hot and sweaty here today I didn't feel the need to adopt my scheme of showering and changing when I get back to the hostel after the day out.
I will say the MoS on reception when I asked this morning about TdN and if it was safe and if I could get there on TM wasn't sure if it was on the TM and offered to call me a taxi or suggested I look at the map on the TM stop. He wasn't rude and I'm not complaining, but I was a bit surprised he didn't know - I actually did know (but station name a bit confusing and I had to make a plausible and as it turned out correct assumption, so wanted to check) as it was on the TdN website.
Meant to note yesterday that about 5% of people here seem to wear masks out in public. At first I thought it might just be at the airport, but it's not. It's not a "staff forced to" thing AFAICS, some staff do while other staff in same places don't, and a lot of the people wearing them are just members of public on street. *Perhaps* a tendency for them to be old-ish, but I am not sure and there are certainly some youngish people wearing them. It's not like they're anything like a majority - as I say, I'd estimate 5% - but they're common enough that it feels a bit odd (and slightly distressing) compared to London where it's not exactly unusual to see someone wearing a mask but also not that common (maybe 1% or less??).
Some places do still have "mask compulsory" type signs and there are occasional "keep 2m apart" type signs, but this appears to be part of that "can't be arsed to take them down, even though we expect you to obey them when they are actually 'in force'" situations rather than an actual current rule/expectation - eg I've seen businesses with compulsory mask signs where the staff are not wearing them. I would say these kind of signs are not ultra rare but not that common - what really strikes me are the people wearing masks, not these kind of signs.
TM has "TfL-ish" propaganda-y signs about "women moving forward" (*probably* showcasing female TM staff, as there's no other significant text I noticed) and sexual abuse and random gratuitous mentions of "discrimination" in signs asking you to treat TM staff with respect/as you would wish to be treated. Perhaps the intensity is lower than London, but this stuff is still there. Not that I'm terribly surprised, based on eg the "Bogota para tod@s" signs I remember seeing in that suburb near the airport in 2020. I am just noting this for colour.
1909 OK, guy just told me/showed me in writing meeting point is in centre (I think) of Parque de los Periodistas between 6:50 and 7am. Looking it up, this is about three blocks east of Museo de Oro TM stop and two blocks south of Las Aguas TM and all the probably-IIRC-maybe iffy streets around Universidad de Los Andes and the base of the Monserrate path are east of there and thus (unless they let us go at the base of the path/funicular, but since they will want to collect the tips they probably won't) we probably transit that maybe iffy area in a group, I will probably take my phone, but I'll chew it over.
I hope I can manage this. Although Christmas and swimming have eroded my jogging/walking time a bit lately, I don't have huge personal fitness concerns, but it is already high enough here (and I just arrived so haven't had time to acclimatise) that I feel a very occasional and slight "strain" (hard to describe - a sort of feeling that I'm not *quite* getting top quality breath) when walking around and this is uphill walking. But it will probably be OK.
I hope it's not too lonely on the streets walking over there (I'll probably go via K7 and MdO even though it's slightly further that way - it isn't that far anyway) at 630am-ish but fingers crossed.
But let's not be negative. I did/do want to walk up Monserrate (quick web search failing to find tour reviews suggests it is Monserrate not Montserrate but not sure and I suspect I keep flip-flopping in this blog) and was mildly excited about it before leaving home and while it might be in some ways nicer to do it solo, this could be good and I will try not to be too aloof, plus if this goes well I could perhaps see myself doing the walk solo - perhaps with, perhaps without, phone, as I will have taken photos tomorrow probably - in the last day or two of the trip) and this could be a pretty cool thing to do, and maybe set me up for a bit of gentle hiking round VdL.
R2r roughly agrees there are a lot of buses Bogota-Tunja. It doesn't show any bus service Tunja-VdL, but I am hopeful it's not right there, and it does say a taxi costs about USD6-9 so modulo safety concerns re booking one, it is not necessarily a major fuckfest if there is no bus. And of course if there's space I rather suspect eg the 2pm-ish bus from Bogota direct to VdL will call in at Tunja and I could probably get on that as a somewhat last resort.
FWIW the two out-and-about photos I took today were on the footbridge at Terminal del Norte on my way back to the TM to come back into town. They didn't get GPS tagged (I am not sure if the GPS is working reliably, I never have phone out etc which may not help).
1957 Incidentally when I booked VdL hostel this morning there were "only 4 beds left" in the 4 bed dorm. I suspect there will be other people there - this is supposed to be peak season (March is mid-season IIRC) and the range of cheap accomodation is not gigantic (IIRC booking has maybe 4-5 places with dorm beds) but who knows? I may get the room to myself after all. :-)
I feel broadly OK. Not ecstatic or anything, but accepting the reality that it's still very early days and I'm finding my feet etc etc and I can't force excitement/social interaction/etc and also that I'm hopefully accomplishing the main "fun" goal I had set for myself in Bogota tomorrow morning and that I have at least got some way to resolving the local SIM goal too I really can't complain. I oscillate a bit but I'm mostly maintaining a positive-ish attitude. (I semi-self-consciously muttered some negative stuff on leaving the WOM shop where I didn't take to the young woman or the silly business with the copy of my ID, but it wasn't major involuntary bitterness or anything like that.) I'm acutely aware of the flaws in my Spanish but I guess things might improve gradually.
Hitting the free sugary black coffee quite heavily FWIW. Gut feeling is I'll head back to my room in 30-60m and do laundry and prep for tomorrow etc and probably be in bed 30-60m after that.
Quick poke at guide book reveals just the already-seen page or so about the sailboat option from Cartagena and makes no mention at all of the motor option. So I guess I will have to rely on web.
2016 Just suddenly remembered a minor highlight of the day. During my late afternoon (4pm-ish) wander for water/SIM, I found a smallish shopping centre (multi-level with a sort of serpentine trail up the middle) which was about 95% small presumably independent opticians (I think I saw one small coffee shop). Oddly cool.
FWIW I also saw a different little shopping centre which had a toilet advertised at COP1k "excluding toilet paper" . FFS! I didn't need to go and I have a tiny bit in my back pocket, but it feels a bit out of order charging for entry and not providing any.
Also FWIW (no photos) La Tinaja... is in some old-ish maybe colonial style house - the ceiling above the "main" dining room has some quite elegant plaster swirly stuff, although with big chunks of it missing.
2050 OK, sitting here fiddling with phone a bit and musing a bit. Will finish this coffee and go back to room and do "chores" before bed.
2211 OK, finished doing chores - surprisingly long time, but I guess it's not as I had a lot else to do. Done laundry, had shave and shower, going to go to bed now. Probably will take phone tomorrow, going to wear fleece and take a bottle of water and keep it in inside fleece pocket, not taking daypack as it just invites snatch-and-grab I guess.
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