Tue 19th 0925 On minibus waiting to leave for Pereira (18k).
Didn't sleep that well. As discussed at breakfast yday the matresses are plastic coated and they make vague farting sounds as you move around - I don't think I noticed so much when it was just me but with another person in dorm I started to notice it from Marco and for myself.
Got up feeling shit about 720 and did have breakfast (with Pieter and Marco and Antonio) about 735. Incidentally Pieter apparently getting bus to Santa Rosa (halfway to Pereira) today for thermal baths, worth bearing this in mind just in case. Bumped into Pieter again at terminal actually, I said hi (kudos to Steve). He is 61 BTW. Very friendly and likeable chap though hard to talk to in "detail" in English. (Flemish speaking natively I think, and I asked and he doesn't speak much Spanish.)
Bit of trouble finding bus but asked again and didn't flip out too much. Am sitting in back row and can see main bag in boot as a result. Have daypack with me with water, no headphones as figure just a short trip. Just given 800ish (all my loose change) to some kind of beggar chap, not sure why but the impulse too me.
Slightly tempted to visit heladeria la nina on way to cable terminal but felt a bad idea and luckily they were only just opening.
Bit warm and sticky but not terrible.
Tried starling in CS on way to cable car, same as yday. Go figure.
Feel broadly OK. Not looking forward to trying to sort out trek etc but it's fine. If I make a modest effort that's all that matters, if it happens or doesn't happen that is outside my control.
1111 Sitting at terminal in Pereira (which seems quite a big town/city), paid 11.5k for bus ticket to Salento at 1140 and can see my bus (reg no on ticket) outside but no point sitting on it earlier than nec. Boarding 1130 I think.
Got here maybe 1050, had expensive small piss at 1.5k (but got interesting pack of toilet paper). Had one of those lumpy ball snacks have been seeing all over the place - 3.5k, I got a carne one, quite nice but shredded meat a tendency to fall out.
Felt slightly "sick" in bus on way over, prob just heat and/or my somewhat poor diet meaning I was feeling hungry despite having only eaten a few hours ago. Breakfast OK, sort of fried eggs with red pepper (?) and ham (? I was asked if I ate it and said yes, but didn't notice much of it) fried in, and a couple of slices of a nice purpleish juice and two slices of sweet toast and the usual two cups white coffee.
Perhaps feeling vague tension re getting to accom and sorting out this damn trek etc. Need to chill. It is what it is and it's not that big a deal. I half want to just take things super easy for the rest of the trip but I really ought to (on experience and health grounds) make a bit of an effort to do some hiking/walking, tho day hikes are fine too. Not looking forward to being in Bogota esp last day when I will prob be "homeless" but my flight isn't til super late and I'm likely at best to be heading to airport from centre about 6pm as starts to get dark and potentially at airport from 7-730 waiting for my flight which I think is after 11. But it is what it is, not the end of the world and I need to not worry about that right now.
My GP photo backup seems to have switched to "full quality" not "storage saver" and I've left it like that since I do have loads of space relative to my needs now but I suspect it's badly slowing down uploads.
1127 Yay. Just got on bus and all the seats are full, despite guy who sold me the ticket circling the "puesto 10" bit. I'm squatting on the cushiony bit next to driver. There is a free seat up front, maybe I'll get that.
1810 On hostel terrace with view over town and in theory sunset (though it is heavily overcast) and a lukewarm 473ml can Poker (3.5k at supermarket)
Sat in front of bus, quite cool. Drowsed a bit as semi-usual.
Bit whiny to self on arrival in Salento for no massively obvious reason. Route out of bus terminal towards town is a bit obscured by a few kiosks. I was also feeling a bit hacked off with the idea of trekking and was as I walked through little park by bus terminal toying with the idea of just forgetting it and enjoying myself. :-)
Snapped a couple of whiteboard for tour agencies on walk to hostel, both showing one multi-day thing (have photo, paramillo de qusomething I *think*) and lots of other 5-12h type tours that utterly don't appeal (there's something so tiring and stressful about jumping on and off a bus all day) for COP800k and it was 2/3 days.
Got to hostel which is quite nice in a run down kind of way. Checked in no fuss despite it being early, COP63k no fuss with tax etc. Room has double and a single bed and ensuite, it is rough and "gritty clean" , so to speak.
I asked about bag storage and guy checking me in took me up to speak to (perhaps) his son, who is a guide. Speaking through half an open door which felt awkward, we discoursed at length in Spanish - in hindsight while not perfect I did pretty well. (I do not know if the guide speaks English and I'd rather not ask as it would spoil things. :-) )
Long story short, we discussed the prospect of a private (no tour agency, just me) four day trek to a >5km volcano involving a glacier crossing for some time. 1000k for guide, maybe 300-500k for extras. I was genuinely torn but ultimately I felt that (after discussion) I didn't have the right layers (esp technical underwear and decent gloves and also maybe my fleece+waterproof gear is not "serious" grade) and I didn't want to be doing something this "scary" at the last minute and dashing round tomorrow spending even more money buying or hiring gear. I think the actual technicalities of the hike would have been fine, guy (who I am not naming right now out of vague and indistinct privacy concerns) showed me harness and the glacier is just an hour or two and the harness etc is in case there's a crevasse (?! grieta he said iirc), it is not a technical climbing/mountaineering deal.
Anyway, I apologised for taking up his time and he then sketched out an alternative which (long story short) I went out and meditated on over an ice cream, a "casado" (15k, very decent) and three white coffees and have taken up. 800k fee to him, 300k extra should cover my expenses and this is three days/two nights going to just under 4k at some pass or other, taking in the park and a lake (not otun, i think) and involving a circular-ish walk which doesn't double back. 21km ish first day, maybe 6km second and third, 21kmish back fourth. I gave him the 400k deposit this afternoon. We are going on Thursday, so I did another cancellable booking.com reservation here for tomorrow night - unfortunately we will get back Sat so it's nearly double the price here so have booked a cancellable dorm elsewhere for Sat. I just may stay here Sun, we will see. Need to book at least Mon/Tue in Bogota soon. Guide said there are lots of buses (and r2r says hourly), inc Sun, from Armenia (a short bus ride away) to Bogota and iirc r2r says 7hish so I can probably leave here early Sun/Mon and get to Bogota accom before dark, or if not early evening (and I may well stay outside LC).
Finger break.
1824 Salento is very touristy but in quite a nice way, and there as (as per above) some cheap and decent little restaurants (and despite some fancier coffee places, I had those - as I found out they are called - pintados at El Balcon de los Recuerdos on corner of main square made by nice chap using a scary but cool semi-antique looking coffee steam gadget for 3k pintadito and 4k pintado). A v nearby restaurant/var has a live singer at 8 so I may go there.
I got cash out at a Banco Agrario machine after coffees and WAing guide, all fine except it offered me a shit conversion to GBP in a corrupt screen with strange but readable font and no "press X to accept, Y to decline text" and a mouse pointer visible - I waited in hope some buttons would appear and it eventually just dispensed and I briefly flipped out in case it defaulted to accept but both the receipt and notification in Starling app on getting home suggest I am being charged in COP as I wanted.
Then came back, whined a bit about sorting money out, gave guide 400k (and also asked and he said I should take both my bags, second day we are returning to same finca that night so a light bag for just water and rain gear is good and he said the tap water here is drinkable - oh, he had said earlier he has a filter for the trip) and then went out to look at the cross and the view from there and the nearby mirador over valle de corcora, which does look frankly stunning, and there were some cool formations of birds flying and I saw an eagle type thing fly v close in front of me and I had a canelazo (offered choice rum, brandy or aguardiente and picked last) for 7k from a bloke with a cart up there, then came down and got two beers at a supermarket and now back here.
Gonna have a (prob cold) shower after this beer and then try to do some laundry and then pop out for a few (restrained) beers either at that restaurant/bar with the live music (which prob won't start til 9) after.
Oh, I did ask guide here about 800k price, he suggested I ask one of those agencies and I did - basically it's 800k per person with a group of four if you do two days/one night. one person three days/two nights would have been something like 1300-1500k. He did offered to put a group together if poss but a) I was inclining to my hostel guide b) I am tight on time and if a group didn't come through I'd miss out c) in some ways it is a shame to do this privately just me and a guide but it could be good spanish practice and fun and at least it is not sprung on me last minute as on Santa Marta hike, and it sounds like if I *did* get a group to hook up with, there's a fair chance it would be 2 or 3 friends plus me or something like that, rather than a biggish group of strangers all coming together, so I'm maybe not missing out on the social angle all that much in practice either.
Plan for tomorrow is to get up earlyish but not go mad (10am??), do a little shopping for trip (some weird hydrating papers the guide recommended which are suspect are bollocks but ought to buy and food for breakfast/lunch on first day - I will just get peanuts and biscuits and bananas) and vaguely amble around town in a slack-ish kind of way.
1941 Cut finger and toenails, hate doing it (esp with the really - and too - crappy clippers I brought with me, of of fear of good ones beiong confiscated) but it's done. Nearby bar sounds way busy and I wonder if there will be room for me at the other one (slightly further) with the live music but we'll see.
Did laundry, uw and tops, and going to shave now. Washed the ss red top been wearing in the evenings, don't think it was particularly minging or anything but felt like a decent opportunity.
FWIW bus Manizales-Pereira was not particularly touristy - about 7-9 ppl on it and I was prob only tourist - but Pereira-Salento was prob 90%+ tourists, it suddenly hit me when we got off in Salento.
1959 Heading out. I may be back in 5 mins. :-)
2204 OK, back. I got a table and while I wasn't super close to woman peforming (singing with maybe a ukulele - I only physically saw her briefly) I could hear OKish despite large group talking (in Spanish) at nearby table. (Heard some French but no English or German, interestingly given tourist central nature of the place.) I thought she was doing her own songs at first and maybe she was but given she did covers of La Bamba, Vasos Vacios and at least one other song I recognised but couldn't name it may all have been covers. Have photo of name, possibly Diana Forfa but that is from mem.
All national beers 6k so was drinking Club Colombia negra at 4.7%, not a bad beer.
TBH got excessively annoyed when singer stopped and I put my empty beer bottle on the centre of my chair while went for a piss, struggled to find bathroom and walked round past chair (outside, nearly all outside) to see some c* (fucking self-censorship imposed by blog site) taking it off to sit down. It had been a couple of minutes. To be fair, he *did* seem to see me at that point and vaguely gesture to ask if it was OK but I didn't feel like contesting it and eg pissing him and/or his mates off. While massively unfair and asymmetrical (speaking generally) I always feel (while it fucking pisses me off) if I lose my seat/table it is fair game while on the other hand if I sit down and someone claims (often with zero evidence) it was their table I have no choice but to give it up.
I struggled to find bog and had to go back and ask again. And then I had to go find another seat which was a bit of a struggle, a waitress did ask if "that" (where I'd been sitting) was my table but I hardly felt able to say I'd lost it so I said I was going to change. I was excessively pissed off and internally whiny about the whole business, though I think it's reasonable to say it did suck.
I did find another table round the corner and as it happens it looks like singer wasn't coming back on (or if she did she had a v long break, and as the checkin was super fuzzy and I just took the key to padlock on room door but have never been given a street door key I was always edgy about getting back to hostel too late) so it hardly mattered, and I had a third beer and while killing time on offchance singer came back and feeling shitty about losing table etc, I was doing a bit of searching for accom in Bogota pre-flight.
Gut feeling is I am gonna stay here Sun night (tho not booked anything), travelling back Mon gives me all day Tue and in practice the day Wed in Bogota so this is already a decent buffer and it's not like there's anything pressing there to see and I will be back and while it might be nice to see G/J/Bruce it is not certain enough to be worth deliberately spending extra time there for on offchance.
Long story short, one fucking place turns out be a capsule hotel which would be fine except the description doesn't mention it, only the photos and the odd review give it away. Given my 11pm flight I "need" luggage storage and lots of places don't explicitly mention it, and the more apartment-y ones smack of shitty "owner rep turns up to check you in or out" stuff. LSS I didn't book anything, even tho I was deliberately only considering free cancellation. In many ways I *really* don't want a dorm before I fly home, but I may have to compromise given that opens things up so much and makes luggage storage (and maybe even eg a sneaky shower) way more likely/reliable. The hostel I was in at start of trip has spots and is nice and I trust it, but it was dead and maybe (esp if I end up in LC rather than say Chapineiro, tho otoh if I am doing a dorm I have better non-LC options) a hostel where I can actually maybe meet people for last couple of nights would be good, but none of the cheaper options seemed to be private room in hostel. (Despite some vague memories of a private room filter, at least on mobile site booking.com will let you filter for dozens of minor wanky options but (natch) not for luggage storage or a private room.)
I don't nec mind being in LC (tho maybe going to TM around 6pm just before dark to get flight is both mildly risky and involves a massive wait at airport) but the trouble with eg the hostel I started the trip in and poss others is that they are dead dead dead at night and in LC I really can't risk going out after dark so if there's no "life" in the hostel I just sit around and kill time. If it has to be thus then so be it, but it would be a bit sucky my last couple of nights of the trip.
Meh. I'll sleep on it. Gut feeling is I may settle for a dorm, my main reluctance pre-flight is desire to pack "comfortably" but not a huge deal. If only booking.com would allow sensible filtering I could search something private yet maybe lively or with luggage storage, but fuck me I guess. Only game in town, but still, as one twat on hackernews observed, hard to blame booking.com when I continue to use them despite them being shit. I should just use vaporbooking.com instead, and I have only myself to blame. Nobber.
Still excessively annoyed about losing table, just to be honest. It's just one of this fuckeries about being somewhere solo and while I've never liked it, somehow it just has got on my tits more than usual tonight. I was TBH feeling a little BNM when I turned up but (maybe) not hearing loads of English or German kind of cheered me up and despite non-ideal positioning to listen to the music with the beer and an effort to be positive i was enjoying it and feeling reasonably good. (There was a mild "chill" in the air but I mostly forgot it and I also reminded myself how I'd felt "sick" and wondered if it was heat related earlier and attempted to enjoy it by comparison with that etc.)
If I didn't say it was 6k for the beers, so 18k total. They added a 10% tip to the bill but I was gonna give 20k anyway (and I also put 6k - would have put 5k but only had 2k notes) so not a big deal.
2227 Yawning a bit. In fact quite a lot. I was thinking of maybe watching a little YT but I'll probably just move towards bed.
Wrt accom if I didn't have the ridiculously late flight that would make things a lot easier as I wouldn't be worked up about luggage storage. Almost the same thing is that if I wasn't at end of trip but for some reason had to be in Bogota a couple of nights, a couple of nights of solitary splendour in an apartment or similar with no chance of socialising would be less annoying.
In theory I could pay for an extra night just to not have to checkout midday 11h before flight, but that would suck, *and* at lot of these cheaper places where I don't believe (even if they say they have it) their 24h reception claims, I'd be dubious about my ability to check out at (say) 7pm.
(Despite having seen the odd person around earlier, I saw no one hanging round here at hostel at sunset and possibly one solo person as I came in tonight.)
Clothes not looking super dry, I know it's early but given I did use the towel trick I have a nasty feeling the climate here is not congenial and I'm gonna end up shoving a load of damp clothes in a plastic bag during the three day trip and coming back to them all musty. Meh. Can only hope I guess, and let's see how they are in the morning. I could maybe risk leaving shutters (no glass) open all day to increase airflow.
2245 Bed. May watch some YT (on speaker - doubt anyone can hear) in bed a bit. Set alarms for 9ish.
Didn't sleep that well. As discussed at breakfast yday the matresses are plastic coated and they make vague farting sounds as you move around - I don't think I noticed so much when it was just me but with another person in dorm I started to notice it from Marco and for myself.
Got up feeling shit about 720 and did have breakfast (with Pieter and Marco and Antonio) about 735. Incidentally Pieter apparently getting bus to Santa Rosa (halfway to Pereira) today for thermal baths, worth bearing this in mind just in case. Bumped into Pieter again at terminal actually, I said hi (kudos to Steve). He is 61 BTW. Very friendly and likeable chap though hard to talk to in "detail" in English. (Flemish speaking natively I think, and I asked and he doesn't speak much Spanish.)
Bit of trouble finding bus but asked again and didn't flip out too much. Am sitting in back row and can see main bag in boot as a result. Have daypack with me with water, no headphones as figure just a short trip. Just given 800ish (all my loose change) to some kind of beggar chap, not sure why but the impulse too me.
Slightly tempted to visit heladeria la nina on way to cable terminal but felt a bad idea and luckily they were only just opening.
Bit warm and sticky but not terrible.
Tried starling in CS on way to cable car, same as yday. Go figure.
Feel broadly OK. Not looking forward to trying to sort out trek etc but it's fine. If I make a modest effort that's all that matters, if it happens or doesn't happen that is outside my control.
1111 Sitting at terminal in Pereira (which seems quite a big town/city), paid 11.5k for bus ticket to Salento at 1140 and can see my bus (reg no on ticket) outside but no point sitting on it earlier than nec. Boarding 1130 I think.
Got here maybe 1050, had expensive small piss at 1.5k (but got interesting pack of toilet paper). Had one of those lumpy ball snacks have been seeing all over the place - 3.5k, I got a carne one, quite nice but shredded meat a tendency to fall out.
Felt slightly "sick" in bus on way over, prob just heat and/or my somewhat poor diet meaning I was feeling hungry despite having only eaten a few hours ago. Breakfast OK, sort of fried eggs with red pepper (?) and ham (? I was asked if I ate it and said yes, but didn't notice much of it) fried in, and a couple of slices of a nice purpleish juice and two slices of sweet toast and the usual two cups white coffee.
Perhaps feeling vague tension re getting to accom and sorting out this damn trek etc. Need to chill. It is what it is and it's not that big a deal. I half want to just take things super easy for the rest of the trip but I really ought to (on experience and health grounds) make a bit of an effort to do some hiking/walking, tho day hikes are fine too. Not looking forward to being in Bogota esp last day when I will prob be "homeless" but my flight isn't til super late and I'm likely at best to be heading to airport from centre about 6pm as starts to get dark and potentially at airport from 7-730 waiting for my flight which I think is after 11. But it is what it is, not the end of the world and I need to not worry about that right now.
My GP photo backup seems to have switched to "full quality" not "storage saver" and I've left it like that since I do have loads of space relative to my needs now but I suspect it's badly slowing down uploads.
1127 Yay. Just got on bus and all the seats are full, despite guy who sold me the ticket circling the "puesto 10" bit. I'm squatting on the cushiony bit next to driver. There is a free seat up front, maybe I'll get that.
1810 On hostel terrace with view over town and in theory sunset (though it is heavily overcast) and a lukewarm 473ml can Poker (3.5k at supermarket)
Sat in front of bus, quite cool. Drowsed a bit as semi-usual.
Bit whiny to self on arrival in Salento for no massively obvious reason. Route out of bus terminal towards town is a bit obscured by a few kiosks. I was also feeling a bit hacked off with the idea of trekking and was as I walked through little park by bus terminal toying with the idea of just forgetting it and enjoying myself. :-)
Snapped a couple of whiteboard for tour agencies on walk to hostel, both showing one multi-day thing (have photo, paramillo de qusomething I *think*) and lots of other 5-12h type tours that utterly don't appeal (there's something so tiring and stressful about jumping on and off a bus all day) for COP800k and it was 2/3 days.
Got to hostel which is quite nice in a run down kind of way. Checked in no fuss despite it being early, COP63k no fuss with tax etc. Room has double and a single bed and ensuite, it is rough and "gritty clean" , so to speak.
I asked about bag storage and guy checking me in took me up to speak to (perhaps) his son, who is a guide. Speaking through half an open door which felt awkward, we discoursed at length in Spanish - in hindsight while not perfect I did pretty well. (I do not know if the guide speaks English and I'd rather not ask as it would spoil things. :-) )
Long story short, we discussed the prospect of a private (no tour agency, just me) four day trek to a >5km volcano involving a glacier crossing for some time. 1000k for guide, maybe 300-500k for extras. I was genuinely torn but ultimately I felt that (after discussion) I didn't have the right layers (esp technical underwear and decent gloves and also maybe my fleece+waterproof gear is not "serious" grade) and I didn't want to be doing something this "scary" at the last minute and dashing round tomorrow spending even more money buying or hiring gear. I think the actual technicalities of the hike would have been fine, guy (who I am not naming right now out of vague and indistinct privacy concerns) showed me harness and the glacier is just an hour or two and the harness etc is in case there's a crevasse (?! grieta he said iirc), it is not a technical climbing/mountaineering deal.
Anyway, I apologised for taking up his time and he then sketched out an alternative which (long story short) I went out and meditated on over an ice cream, a "casado" (15k, very decent) and three white coffees and have taken up. 800k fee to him, 300k extra should cover my expenses and this is three days/two nights going to just under 4k at some pass or other, taking in the park and a lake (not otun, i think) and involving a circular-ish walk which doesn't double back. 21km ish first day, maybe 6km second and third, 21kmish back fourth. I gave him the 400k deposit this afternoon. We are going on Thursday, so I did another cancellable booking.com reservation here for tomorrow night - unfortunately we will get back Sat so it's nearly double the price here so have booked a cancellable dorm elsewhere for Sat. I just may stay here Sun, we will see. Need to book at least Mon/Tue in Bogota soon. Guide said there are lots of buses (and r2r says hourly), inc Sun, from Armenia (a short bus ride away) to Bogota and iirc r2r says 7hish so I can probably leave here early Sun/Mon and get to Bogota accom before dark, or if not early evening (and I may well stay outside LC).
Finger break.
1824 Salento is very touristy but in quite a nice way, and there as (as per above) some cheap and decent little restaurants (and despite some fancier coffee places, I had those - as I found out they are called - pintados at El Balcon de los Recuerdos on corner of main square made by nice chap using a scary but cool semi-antique looking coffee steam gadget for 3k pintadito and 4k pintado). A v nearby restaurant/var has a live singer at 8 so I may go there.
I got cash out at a Banco Agrario machine after coffees and WAing guide, all fine except it offered me a shit conversion to GBP in a corrupt screen with strange but readable font and no "press X to accept, Y to decline text" and a mouse pointer visible - I waited in hope some buttons would appear and it eventually just dispensed and I briefly flipped out in case it defaulted to accept but both the receipt and notification in Starling app on getting home suggest I am being charged in COP as I wanted.
Then came back, whined a bit about sorting money out, gave guide 400k (and also asked and he said I should take both my bags, second day we are returning to same finca that night so a light bag for just water and rain gear is good and he said the tap water here is drinkable - oh, he had said earlier he has a filter for the trip) and then went out to look at the cross and the view from there and the nearby mirador over valle de corcora, which does look frankly stunning, and there were some cool formations of birds flying and I saw an eagle type thing fly v close in front of me and I had a canelazo (offered choice rum, brandy or aguardiente and picked last) for 7k from a bloke with a cart up there, then came down and got two beers at a supermarket and now back here.
Gonna have a (prob cold) shower after this beer and then try to do some laundry and then pop out for a few (restrained) beers either at that restaurant/bar with the live music (which prob won't start til 9) after.
Oh, I did ask guide here about 800k price, he suggested I ask one of those agencies and I did - basically it's 800k per person with a group of four if you do two days/one night. one person three days/two nights would have been something like 1300-1500k. He did offered to put a group together if poss but a) I was inclining to my hostel guide b) I am tight on time and if a group didn't come through I'd miss out c) in some ways it is a shame to do this privately just me and a guide but it could be good spanish practice and fun and at least it is not sprung on me last minute as on Santa Marta hike, and it sounds like if I *did* get a group to hook up with, there's a fair chance it would be 2 or 3 friends plus me or something like that, rather than a biggish group of strangers all coming together, so I'm maybe not missing out on the social angle all that much in practice either.
Plan for tomorrow is to get up earlyish but not go mad (10am??), do a little shopping for trip (some weird hydrating papers the guide recommended which are suspect are bollocks but ought to buy and food for breakfast/lunch on first day - I will just get peanuts and biscuits and bananas) and vaguely amble around town in a slack-ish kind of way.
1941 Cut finger and toenails, hate doing it (esp with the really - and too - crappy clippers I brought with me, of of fear of good ones beiong confiscated) but it's done. Nearby bar sounds way busy and I wonder if there will be room for me at the other one (slightly further) with the live music but we'll see.
Did laundry, uw and tops, and going to shave now. Washed the ss red top been wearing in the evenings, don't think it was particularly minging or anything but felt like a decent opportunity.
FWIW bus Manizales-Pereira was not particularly touristy - about 7-9 ppl on it and I was prob only tourist - but Pereira-Salento was prob 90%+ tourists, it suddenly hit me when we got off in Salento.
1959 Heading out. I may be back in 5 mins. :-)
2204 OK, back. I got a table and while I wasn't super close to woman peforming (singing with maybe a ukulele - I only physically saw her briefly) I could hear OKish despite large group talking (in Spanish) at nearby table. (Heard some French but no English or German, interestingly given tourist central nature of the place.) I thought she was doing her own songs at first and maybe she was but given she did covers of La Bamba, Vasos Vacios and at least one other song I recognised but couldn't name it may all have been covers. Have photo of name, possibly Diana Forfa but that is from mem.
All national beers 6k so was drinking Club Colombia negra at 4.7%, not a bad beer.
TBH got excessively annoyed when singer stopped and I put my empty beer bottle on the centre of my chair while went for a piss, struggled to find bathroom and walked round past chair (outside, nearly all outside) to see some c* (fucking self-censorship imposed by blog site) taking it off to sit down. It had been a couple of minutes. To be fair, he *did* seem to see me at that point and vaguely gesture to ask if it was OK but I didn't feel like contesting it and eg pissing him and/or his mates off. While massively unfair and asymmetrical (speaking generally) I always feel (while it fucking pisses me off) if I lose my seat/table it is fair game while on the other hand if I sit down and someone claims (often with zero evidence) it was their table I have no choice but to give it up.
I struggled to find bog and had to go back and ask again. And then I had to go find another seat which was a bit of a struggle, a waitress did ask if "that" (where I'd been sitting) was my table but I hardly felt able to say I'd lost it so I said I was going to change. I was excessively pissed off and internally whiny about the whole business, though I think it's reasonable to say it did suck.
I did find another table round the corner and as it happens it looks like singer wasn't coming back on (or if she did she had a v long break, and as the checkin was super fuzzy and I just took the key to padlock on room door but have never been given a street door key I was always edgy about getting back to hostel too late) so it hardly mattered, and I had a third beer and while killing time on offchance singer came back and feeling shitty about losing table etc, I was doing a bit of searching for accom in Bogota pre-flight.
Gut feeling is I am gonna stay here Sun night (tho not booked anything), travelling back Mon gives me all day Tue and in practice the day Wed in Bogota so this is already a decent buffer and it's not like there's anything pressing there to see and I will be back and while it might be nice to see G/J/Bruce it is not certain enough to be worth deliberately spending extra time there for on offchance.
Long story short, one fucking place turns out be a capsule hotel which would be fine except the description doesn't mention it, only the photos and the odd review give it away. Given my 11pm flight I "need" luggage storage and lots of places don't explicitly mention it, and the more apartment-y ones smack of shitty "owner rep turns up to check you in or out" stuff. LSS I didn't book anything, even tho I was deliberately only considering free cancellation. In many ways I *really* don't want a dorm before I fly home, but I may have to compromise given that opens things up so much and makes luggage storage (and maybe even eg a sneaky shower) way more likely/reliable. The hostel I was in at start of trip has spots and is nice and I trust it, but it was dead and maybe (esp if I end up in LC rather than say Chapineiro, tho otoh if I am doing a dorm I have better non-LC options) a hostel where I can actually maybe meet people for last couple of nights would be good, but none of the cheaper options seemed to be private room in hostel. (Despite some vague memories of a private room filter, at least on mobile site booking.com will let you filter for dozens of minor wanky options but (natch) not for luggage storage or a private room.)
I don't nec mind being in LC (tho maybe going to TM around 6pm just before dark to get flight is both mildly risky and involves a massive wait at airport) but the trouble with eg the hostel I started the trip in and poss others is that they are dead dead dead at night and in LC I really can't risk going out after dark so if there's no "life" in the hostel I just sit around and kill time. If it has to be thus then so be it, but it would be a bit sucky my last couple of nights of the trip.
Meh. I'll sleep on it. Gut feeling is I may settle for a dorm, my main reluctance pre-flight is desire to pack "comfortably" but not a huge deal. If only booking.com would allow sensible filtering I could search something private yet maybe lively or with luggage storage, but fuck me I guess. Only game in town, but still, as one twat on hackernews observed, hard to blame booking.com when I continue to use them despite them being shit. I should just use vaporbooking.com instead, and I have only myself to blame. Nobber.
Still excessively annoyed about losing table, just to be honest. It's just one of this fuckeries about being somewhere solo and while I've never liked it, somehow it just has got on my tits more than usual tonight. I was TBH feeling a little BNM when I turned up but (maybe) not hearing loads of English or German kind of cheered me up and despite non-ideal positioning to listen to the music with the beer and an effort to be positive i was enjoying it and feeling reasonably good. (There was a mild "chill" in the air but I mostly forgot it and I also reminded myself how I'd felt "sick" and wondered if it was heat related earlier and attempted to enjoy it by comparison with that etc.)
If I didn't say it was 6k for the beers, so 18k total. They added a 10% tip to the bill but I was gonna give 20k anyway (and I also put 6k - would have put 5k but only had 2k notes) so not a big deal.
2227 Yawning a bit. In fact quite a lot. I was thinking of maybe watching a little YT but I'll probably just move towards bed.
Wrt accom if I didn't have the ridiculously late flight that would make things a lot easier as I wouldn't be worked up about luggage storage. Almost the same thing is that if I wasn't at end of trip but for some reason had to be in Bogota a couple of nights, a couple of nights of solitary splendour in an apartment or similar with no chance of socialising would be less annoying.
In theory I could pay for an extra night just to not have to checkout midday 11h before flight, but that would suck, *and* at lot of these cheaper places where I don't believe (even if they say they have it) their 24h reception claims, I'd be dubious about my ability to check out at (say) 7pm.
(Despite having seen the odd person around earlier, I saw no one hanging round here at hostel at sunset and possibly one solo person as I came in tonight.)
Clothes not looking super dry, I know it's early but given I did use the towel trick I have a nasty feeling the climate here is not congenial and I'm gonna end up shoving a load of damp clothes in a plastic bag during the three day trip and coming back to them all musty. Meh. Can only hope I guess, and let's see how they are in the morning. I could maybe risk leaving shutters (no glass) open all day to increase airflow.
2245 Bed. May watch some YT (on speaker - doubt anyone can hear) in bed a bit. Set alarms for 9ish.
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