Mon 1455 indoor people having brain-dead debate outside my room on the balcony about US tax policy, the more you earn the less you pay, anyway, fuck em. As it happens I've come in to count my money because I wonder if I need to get some cash out to go home with. I have approximately two hundred dollars in my open stash, plus, um, fifty and one hiding place, twenty and another, so call that 270. I think I have about a hundred and eighty in my belt, so that's 270 plus 180, so call that 350, is that right? Let me stop talking.
Yeah I think that's right I also have about 55 in my pocket of spending money I've already paid for tonight and tomorrow night's accommodation I will need to pay $30 for the taxi to the airport and I will need obviously a bit of spending money for tonight and tomorrow let me check my notes and see what I came out with.
To be honest, it's super unclear, but my notes seem to suggest I had $222, $222 on the way out. To be honest, while I don't like being exposed to cash, my gut feeling is that I might... There's a Ippotocario machine which is supposedly fee-free right next to the hostel. I might withdraw $100 or $200 tomorrow, but I guess I don't need to rush. I'm here all day tomorrow. And I'm probably going to go home slightly cash positive, even if I don't do anything. I got some, I'll write this up later, I wrote, so I got some coke at Pepsi at that little mini market with the fierce air conditioning earlier. Put them in the fridge. I don't desperately want to drink during the day, but I may not drink much tonight. And I still got this bottle of Aguadiente from the first part of the trip in El Salvador. So, I'm going to go down and have some coke and Aguadiente in the terrors. I just went down there before when I got back and cut up some plastic bottles to make some more mending things for my sandals, some of those plastic washers. Anyway, let's have a quick crap and go down with the Aguadiente and just sit and mull.
1534 so I went for breakfast at pu chi can after brief chat in dorm with the british couple (not too smooth but not great and I was waiting for my turn in bathroom). Oh I skept badly again due to the fan and eg dug my fleece out and tried to use it to keep warmer but in an odd way I kept smiling to myself about this fenuine annoyance.
Had a cafe helado at La neveria and got a bus after 50 mins wait (a 192) over to el zonte. Brief look round, saw the Satoshi statue and did some CC exercises at the adjacent open air gym and walked along the beach. Could find an obviously afforsable coffee but had a 1.25ksh litre shlufwr grape soda at a table out front of a smallish grocery sgore. Toyed with going into Hope House but couldn't see it, despite going where GM said it was.
Was going tk get the bus but a pickup with a 4 seat car pulled up and I wasn't sure if the driver was just picking up the European tourist woman also waiting a bus stop bit basically she asked if I wanted to go and we both paid a dollar and I sat in the back earwigging as best I could (very mechanically noisy) on their fairly fluid Spanish conversation as he had an 80s 90s playlist (self control and big in japan) on which was modulated by both the left and right speakers intermittently disconnecting. Oddly memorable ride.
Walked back via small shop where I got the Pepsi and now here.
1553 second ag and coke.
Hostel activities tonight are seeing sunset together 530 and board games at 8. I will probably try to join both but not super excited, although tbh they could be good and except for a slight "I would almost rather go out and have a few beers" feeling, it isn't as if I really have much else I want or need to do.
I may go out and see if I can find any crappy souvenirs after this drink.
1558 just had quick chat with british woman from dorm. I think they might be Alan and Liv but not sure.
Tue 1257 I need to write up everything that's happened on the whole, it's been pretty good with sort of an unpleasant night but just to say I've just checked in online I may go out and print it now and I'm going to see if I can arrange the taxi and then that'll be sorted and I need to get some food before the shop's shop. There's plenty of time but that way I don't have to panic at the last minute. I'm feeling a bit ropey but not too bad. I got an aisle seat on the first flight anyway so that's a minor bonus especially if I am feeling a bit edgy although I don't know I think I'm basically fine and I also realised that the flight is I don't quote this from memory but it's like I'm actually in Bogota from like 4 to 11 pm or something so it actually wouldn't be that good for going out into the city anyway I pretty much decided I wasn't going to but I did have a chat with LLM to see if I'd forgotten any options but I was thinking it was more in the day and it's only a seven hour 25 minute or something layover which obviously sucks but I'd been saying to myself and telling everyone it's nine hours so the fact that it's seven hours and a bit is actually quite a nice little little bonus now I mean the whole thing is 20 hours something you know from one flight taking off to the first flight taking off to the last flight landing which is a lot but not too bad right anyway it is what it is I'm not going to type all this up now because my voice typing in the dorm and the on-screen key was crappy but I might write something up later or failing that I don't think I'm going to forget what's happened and of course I have some photos to also back things up to some extent I have I can always write it up during the layover for example but I may write it up later anyway I'm going to stop talking
1636 gutted. I've been repacking and as far as I can tell I have lost the wireless transmitter Bluetooth that I never actually used But obviously that might have been nice to have for the flight back and I've lost 128 gig USB stick with all my photos on and the USB on the go cable it was attached to. I've been through the stuff twice I cannot find it. It's vaguely possible. It's hiding. I Mean fingers crossed. I haven't actually lost any photos because they are all I think on the SD card in the A06 and I haven't deleted anything except photos off the p7 so You know the photos should I deleted to free up space should have been uploaded to the micro server But nonetheless, this is I'm still gutted It's like I can't rule out the possibilities with some obscure files Although to be fair most things would probably be a copy as long as I get both phones home intact and get the files off It's probably fine, but I am gutted. I have no idea how it happened It must have had something to do with the repacks before and after the the volcano trip where I use the main bag and Maybe something fell on the floor in that room in the hostel in La union or something. I mean I cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that they're buried somewhere But I suspect not having me into things twice. I can't go through stuff again I say I probably haven't lost any photos, but I'm still gutted It's probably about 30 or 40 50 quid's worth of stuff not to mention. I don't like losing things anyway It's not a good sign and obviously that bloody USB stick the whole point of that was that it was extremely precious It is vaguely possible. It's lurking somewhere. I don't feel terrible, but I'm not 100% But I can't find it
1649 I did mostly go through everything again I can't find it I am gutted I say probably I've still got all the photos and everything I probably haven't actually lost any information but I'm obviously a lot more exposed to things like one of the phones getting broken or stolen or tits up before I can copy stuff off or the micro server going down not much I can do about it I put a message out on the hostel WhatsApp group here but I don't think anyone's stolen it and to be honest I don't think it got lost here it's all just been such a whirl these last few days I've been running around like crazy ever since Leon basically I would probably be a note in the blog about me doing some photocopying at some point maybe I just left it on a table then I've also lost that USB the Bluetooth transmitter so maybe there's no connection I don't know I say I've been through stuff pretty carefully there's nothing I can do about it just maybe this stuff will miraculously turn up at home I can get through the flight without the Bluetooth transmitter I didn't use it on the flight out and this is a night flight and I've still got the headphones to have noise cancelling and listen to some music on my phone if I want and I wasn't even sure I was allowed to use it last time it's obviously it's annoying because it was 10 or 15 pounds I think maybe and never actually used it and the USB on the go cable I've had that that was working well I've had that USB stick for ages and obviously just generally losing stuff never feels good especially not stuff which is the crown jewels almost you know that USB stick I'm supposed to have taken really good care of I don't know where I lost it if it's lost it probably is it probably got lost a hostel or two back but I mean yeah we could perhaps do some forensics with the blog and work out when I last mentioned it and I might be able to tax my memory but anyway it is what it is I'm not happy but as I say fingers crossed I probably haven't actually lost any photos or any other files it's just a layer of backup has gone obviously I can't do anything about it now
Wed 0836 so, I'm voice typing this in the food court landside at San Salvador Airport, I got here about 10 minutes ago. Everything's fine, everything's fine. I don't feel amazing, but I don't feel too bad. I had most of my remaining brothers toast after I got up at 6.30 this morning. There was a bit of disoriented stuff at 3, 4 in the morning, like where the hell am I with some visions of me being on some sort of weird island or pseudo-zopiloti thing where I had to hike or wade or swim out. Not quite swimming, I mean, maybe there's a hint of the kite surfing in there. I mean, anyway, everything's fine. I did see Alan brief this morning, he was awake, I sort both of them, but said morning to him. I had some toast, taxi turned up a couple of minutes after 7.30, driver didn't really talk, no problem. Deliberately didn't wear my seatbelt in the back, even though there actually was one. Sometimes there is one, but there's no way to plug it in because it's disappeared. But I thought, fuck it, last trip here, so not going to do it. I feel a bit discombobulated, I just don't, it's like, should I go through to the airside, but then it's a bit early, the flight is at least showing on time. I'm going to spend hours airside. I could eat something here, but should I? I mean, you know, with the stomach issues, I should perhaps at least have my last two slices of bread that I brought with me. I left a little bit of aguadiente and a nearly full bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, in the hostel, I sent a message on the WhatsApp group telling people to help themselves. Nothing's wrong, I don't feel too bad, I feel a tiny bit sad to be leaving, but also it will theoretically be nice to be back home and see everyone and stuff like that. I'm just a tiny bit weird feeling.
In the back of the taxi I had both of my phones in my left pocket and without really anything feeling forced the zip just suddenly went so I don't think I can mend it on the fly, it's a bit annoying but at least the pair of trousers very nearly lasted the entire trip, it just means that pocket which is rather gapey when it's not zipped up is sort of out of commission which is slightly inconvenient for the flights but hardly the end of the world, erm, yeah.
0842 getting a cafe frozen for 2 50 at Claudius, saw it on a screen, might not be smart but it will use some change up and these vaguely frappe style things have been a new to me and frequentish thing during trip so this feels vaguely like a decent send off if it doesnt fuck my stomach over, plus it is calories.
0913 okay, so I just finished the frappe thing, the frozen as it's called. That was quite nice, I don't feel particularly sick, bit shivery actually, but I think that's just not, just in a low temperature way, because I'm in an air con and I've had that. It still feels too early to go airside, but now that I've eaten, there isn't really any reason not to be airside, it's like I'm not going to go out for some fresh air at this point. Am I saying that I suddenly get worried about it, but no I'm not. And it's like I might as well get through the security and it makes sure that my boarding pass electronically is working to be maximum time to try and sort something out that really shouldn't be any problem. I'm just always a bit nervous about going airside unnecessarily early, but it's fine. As I say, now that I've eaten what I've had this coffee, even if I didn't have any stomach concerns, I don't really want Burger King or pizza or Pollo Camparo at this time in the morning. So if I am going to be spending on airport food, it's going to be airside, most likely in Bogota anyway. I really don't want the restaurant facilities here, landside, that may not exist airside. So, especially now I've had this coffee, coffee pay thing, there's no real reason not to go.
0951 so I wandered out the front, just for the hell of it, as it happened to be 9.35 so I noticed that because it's like, I think 23 hours to the minutes in some time due to landing in London. Nice and warm out, check the weather forecast in London, says it's like field seven is nine or something very vaguely like that, when I get there that is, that's fine, just a bit of a contrast. I came in, went through security and a checkpoint, all very polite, no force, I took all my stuff off and put it in the bag first, except after they scanned my bag twice, they said they were doing it and didn't do anything second time round, it's fine, they even called me back and asked if I'd left something on the counter, which was a coat that wasn't mine, but fingers crossed I haven't lost anything, I'm a bit edgy, I always am and having had lost that USB stick doesn't help, but my bag is fairly full which is in part because I've picked up stuff on the way, for instance I'm carrying a nearly full pack of 48 Huggies because I didn't see any point throwing them out, if I could bring them back with me, they might offer me some comfort in a toilet washing up, cleaning myself up a bit in Bogota or something if I feel sweaty or whatever and you know I've got quite a bit of food for the flight and stuff if I can get it through for Bogota, so anyway my bag isn't really that, I mean I picked up the stuff from the event in El Salvador to start the trip and there's the t-shirt from the volcano boarding if that's survived, anyway it's all fine, I'm now at airside just after security talking to myself like a loon and I'm gonna go through, I feel basically okay, did have a crap between before I came through airside as well, first one in a day or two actually, not too bad actually, fairly solid, it's exciting stuff isn't it, alright well that'll do.
Anyway my point is that the bag is fairly big so in some sense I can't have forgotten too much. I haven't counted my clothes or anything before I left but I had a very good check round in the dorm so if I had lost anything I'm pretty sure I lost it earlier and I'm fairly sure I got everything. Yeah, anyway.
0959 okay, so there actually seems to be a drinking water fountain between the 12-13 to 19 and 1-12 blocks of gates next to the coffee cup. So I filled up my small bottle, 600ml. I necked the 600ml before I came through security and I tipped the 1 litre I'd brought with me down the sink in the toilet. I've got both bottles with me and I've just filled up the 600ml. The litre one is, I mean there should be refills at Bogota, but the litre one is just keep saying more. Just so I can use it for measuring out to disinfect if I really need to./
1001 flight's delayed to 13.05. There's no announcement, I just saw it on screen. I'm feeling a bit gutted but at the same time obviously it really doesn't matter as long as nothing else goes wrong. With a seven hour layover it just spreads the time a bit differently and perhaps better. There's a kind of vaguely bossa nova version of that Morrissey Smith song, Why Do You Come Here, Why Do You Come, when you know it makes it hard for me, which is kind of weird and cool. I wish I could remember the title but I'd rather get the lyrics down and I know which song it is.
1010 the airport feels quite a lot larger than I expected, obviously I didn't see this when I arrived. Anyway, there's a little art gallery here, not too bad, don't really like the theme as such. Well, no, no, it's kind of interesting, but slightly smug, but then that's what these posters are always about, the tech site. Anyway, it's abstractly modern, but whatever you might say about that, I don't find them displeasing, they're quite pleasing, so anyway, that's irrelevant. I probably ought to start writing stuff up and talking to myself like a loom, I guess people just think I'm on a phone call or something, so I'm wandering around a bit. Anyway, before we get into the general background, I'm still in the art gallery, before we get into the writing up the mist stuff, let me just waffle a bit, like I've been already saying, it's all repetitive, I'm a bit sad to be leaving, I've got all sorts of mixed feelings, like I'm not dreading this flight, I feel fingers crossed, relatively healthy, it'd be nice to see mum and dad and Jaffa, and to some extent, although that's a couple of weeks away, because I'll probably be visiting family for the next couple of weeks, I need to be careful not to put on too much weight and stuff, you know, the stuff to look forward to, even getting back into swimming, and I want to do some personal projects and stuff, and I can come back and borrow more or less, I'm not too worried about money and stuff, and there could be another trip later, or I might do some kitesurfing in Egypt, money permitting, it's fine, I'm sad to be leaving, last night could have been better but under the circumstances, I didn't do too badly, and it's like, you know, the trip as a whole, certainly and it's ups and downs, but there've been some, some definitely good bits, and some, some pretty raw bits, you know, it's just me getting over worked up, but raw all the same, and it feels like forever, I mean that's probably a good thing in terms of subjective life extension and stuff, it feels like absolutely forever since I left in January, I mean, nine weeks, not quite nine weeks, isn't nothing but man, it just feels like an eternity, which is good, don't know, I'm not saying the time, it's just like, you know, lots of stuff happened, lots of change, so yeah, anyway, I'm gonna stop talking and wander around a bit more, and then I'll maybe write some more, not type, some more, voice type, some.
Yeah, there's another water point down towards Gate 1 and 7 something like that. There's obviously quite a few of them. I'm just talking to myself like an idiot Yeah, I mean obviously all the usual sort of stuff all travel and is it worth it and how real is it and why am I doing this? But yeah, it's fine. I did enjoy myself and Not that I have any specific travel goal But although I didn't speak as much Spanish as I might have liked I did speak some I'm thinking I did meet some locals you know there were those nights down at the especially that quiet night down at the gas station in Santa Ana and You know I've met some of the people and to some extent I've done some stereotypical Hostily touristy stuff and I've it's not go so far say I've made friends although I think other people just use that term so lightly I probably could get away with it But you know, it's it's been okay, right? It's been okay. I Am sad to be going home Yeah, I mean at the same time. Maybe it's just me. It's like yesterday obviously with the illness, but It is kind of wearing at the same time to be somewhere. That's just so hot all the time It's not always hot like Santa Ana was fine. You know you do get the cool evenings and I guess I was feeling worse yesterday because I was I'm still under the weather, but It's like every time I don't go wrong. It's not like I've been suffering non-stop But it's like it will also be nice to be somewhere where you know you just go out in the day And it's cool or cold even or in the summer where it's mostly warm in it, but not stifling of course all the stuff about being at home and just having my toothbrush right there by the sink and not by oh I left my towel in the bag when I've already gotten dressed So now I need to get dressed again so I can go out the bathroom into the dorm to get the towel to come back into The bathroom to have a shower all those kind of little irritations where you make little balls of for the whole dorm Situation or shared bathroom even if you've got a private those little irritations You know things like not having to eat in restaurants all the time You know because even in these cheap restaurants that I do like and with the pupusas and everything it's still It's still a tiny bit more sort of stressful than just cooking what you want at home and eating it when you want in whatever quantity you want and You know obviously it's the swings and roundabouts. I'm not saying it's good. I'm just waffling and this is all try other is true Anyway, I'm gonna let this type dictate whatever
I mean, the voice typing's crap, but it's not too bad. Hopefully future me can piece it together. Let's just bash out what's happened the last couple of days. So, I'm not scrolled back to check, but I think, let's see, it's Wednesday today, Tuesday was the day I was under the weather and the last day. So, Monday, oh, I'm going to stop and scroll back. Oh, yeah, what the hell? I just don't like scrolling back, because with this dodgy screen, if it starts going invisible monkey on me, it'll just delete random bits of text. run the bits of text, but that doesn't happen very often, I'll take it back up first.
Okay, yeah, so it was Monday and I'd had a couple of Agua Deentes and Pepsies, I don't get the terminology right, on the hostile terrorists, those people talking upstairs, and then there were supposedly those activities, and the board games got cancelled officially, not that it was a problem, just saying, because there was this live music at 7.30. And, long story short, I mean, I did get told about the live music, but there was also a certain amount of talking over my head about it or what felt like it when I was there having the rum and cokes or something, and then the volunteer who was in my dorm. I'm not sure she was in my dorm, she seemed to be using one of the bunks as a massive storage area, but I don't think she was sleeping there, because she wasn't there this morning, and the bunk was still covered in junk, like she couldn't possibly have slept in it. Anyway, it doesn't matter, she'd told me about it, but I was feeling a bit sort of pissed off and stuff, and it was like, oh yeah, now I'm being told in an official capacity, because she has to. That is a bit stupid, but, so I did go to that, and I couldn't really, I can't remember exactly how it felt, I was feeling kind of shitty, it's like, it wasn't, oh, I went down to see the sunset, which was supposed to be a together thing, yeah, that's about right, and I bumped into some of the people, including that British couple, and the annoying, might have been German, actually, maybe she was just a fluent German speaker, that's slightly annoying, probably okay, actually, I spoke to her last night, loud, very little, loud American woman, and the party kind of guy who I'll talk about, and there's a few other people, and it's not that I hadn't, I hadn't tried hard to join them, but I was hanging around there, and feeling very much on the fringe, and just standing near them, this was as I was about to go back to the hostel after watching the sunset, but, and I could have maybe tried to flag in a bit more, but I didn't, anyway, so I went back to the hostel, and I might have hung around a bit, I can't quite remember, I perhaps had a shower, and then I thought, oh well, I ended up going to the live music place on my own, sitting at the bar, and they did turn up later, and it's like, they sort of split up, and it was a bit weird, but, I felt really, sort of, billy no mates, and like, well technically there's something happening here, and yet I somehow just don't seem to be able to join in, and it was all really weird, to be honest, while they were quite good about organizing the events, I think the people, hostel actually in general, were quite nice to some extent, there was this element of, oh it's, we say it's such and such time, but actually people aren't going to head over for another hour or two later, or they'll miss the start and turn up later, or whatever, maybe because the volunteers have done these things several times, or they're busy chatting, or whatever, anyway, so I went over on my own, and I was feeling pretty down, and I was sitting at the bar, the music was pretty good, but I felt a bit awkward, so let me let the voice type and catch up with all this wandering.
So I'm actually feeling surprisingly chilled, all things considered. I mean, maybe the sort of lounge music helps. I'm actually recording this accidentally as I'm recording a sample of it. There's a version of Fly Me To The Moon, kind of Bossa Nova-y. Let me stop the recording.
So anyway I stayed until the live music ended it was quite good and I was not feeling absolutely awful but I was sort of debating things in my head and stuff and anyway I went back to the hostel and I think that's where I bumped into I forgotten am I the the Danish guy I'd met I did get his name right correctly but I've not looked it up just now because of the massive difficulty of looking anything up he came running over sounds a bit eager but he came up to me as I was going up the stairs to my room I think I was gonna have a shower or something or I'd just come out the shower and he goes oh hi and you know so I got his name right and we chatted a little bit and it was really nice to see him actually it's like we were super close but it was nice of him to come over and everything and I said oh I'm just gonna go to the bar across the road and he didn't want to come but I mean I just arrived that day anyway blah blah but that was nice and then I went to the bar across the road and I sat outside and I scraped acquaintance with this chap and then I'd been hearing some music the chap was a sort of he said he was first language is English but he seemed to keep dropping into Spanish in a very strange way I think he might have been very drunk or perhaps even on something mildly illegal nothing major I don't know but he's in a nice enough chap and we talked a little bit and I think he was American but I don't know I mean I didn't want to probe it's fine you live in there a few months and anyway and we'd been hearing some music so I went upstairs there was a couple of guys doing live music it was very quiet there was like another table and I think some of the guys from the hostel would in and out and like the party guy turned up with a bottle of rum that's been doing them so last day or two and he gave me a bit of rum or something and then they went out and I stayed there and I listened to live music and I had a couple more beers and I wasn't feeling too bad at this point I because I think I said that I did a leg lift exercise at the open air gym in Elzante maybe that had done some small thing to my muscles I didn't use them like for ages maybe coincidence but my stomach was feeling just slightly funny and I actually left a little last beer.
So this is about midnight and I walked into the hostel and it's all dark and the sort of main lower terrace which is on the first floor by my standards because there's becker virtually nothing on the ground floor and It's just calm and muse. I might as well say now. I've left if it's not obvious already and there's maybe about 10 people sitting around in the dark and some of them call out to me Possibly it was the British couple or possibly it was the party guys and they and I've just made some sort of quip about how Are you all really attractive sitting there in the dark? And I I went over and sat down and I felt kind of like alright and People drifted off and basically I ended up playing Jenga with like stupid ...questions and very minor forfeits on the blocks and stuff like that, and it got down to basically five of us, like me, the British couple, the party guy, and there was an Australian chap who left about 130. I think I saw him the next day, but to be honest, I never quite got to pin down which of several people he was, because I just didn't see him enough, and I did feel kind of included, and it felt kind of natural and friendly, and that was really good, you know, really stereotypical hostel. And then I left at two, and I think they went to bed about ten past, twenty past two, the Jenga was very much ancillary to the conversation, I was just sort of carrying the conversation along. I didn't drink during this time, I had a bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, because I bought the two bottles and the Aguadiente, I offered those round, I don't think anyone was interested, but you know, I think it was appreciated. I went under the bridge, got rid of a bit of straight coke, I just drank the coke, so I did not, I'd had a few beers over the night, you know, maybe three, four, I took photos of them, because they were craft beers at the live music, and I'd had the Aguadientes and cokes in the afternoon, and those would probably mostly be metabolised, and then I probably had, let's say, three at the bar, me chaler, the pirate bar, MI space, CH, ELA, nearly opposite the hostel, with live music and stuff. So I wasn't particularly drunk, and I was on the coke for two hours, and I had this slight pain in the stomach all the time, but I was ignoring it, because I'm not writing this off, and then in the night, basically, I can't believe I've already written this, but I've probably been discussing the symptoms of an LLM or something, like three, four times in the night, it was like, I wasn't totally surprised at where I've been feeling when I went to bed, it's like, I had to get up and puke and vomit, and it's like, it was all black coming, I think it was basically Pepsi, but, and it's like, and I was sweating a bit, and there's I had an echo in the dorm, but not in the toilet, even so, the way I was sweating was a bit too much, and I'm feeling like, oh shit, oh shit, I mean, at least I didn't have to fly the next day, the next morning I felt a bit fragile, I kept nicely and semi-jokingly saying, oh I hope I didn't wake you up, no one apparently noticed, I guess most of the people had had a few beers, not everyone in that dorm was out that night, but I guess they had their own beers or whatever, and I didn't speak to the others. So, it was fine, but three or four times that happened, I woke up in the morning feeling a bit rough, but definitely better, you know, the third or fourth time when I went in the night, and at least the dorm had a private bathroom, and no one else was in it, so I was able to sort of lie on the floor, on the crouch on the floor and everything, and it's like, I was feeling rough in the morning, but better, and I'm thinking, oh, okay, I'm probably going to get, this probably isn't like the Bocas del Toro thing, or the, you know, and fingers crossed, it's been okay so let me just let the voice typing catch up
So Friday, I mean, it was already going to be, not Friday, sorry, Tuesday, it was already going to be the last full day and I knew I had to do some kind of prep and I was feeling rough, it's a shame I didn't get to have any last pupusas or anything, or any beers, but I did chat a bit to people in the dorm that morning and there was a couple of women who were talking about going to El Zonti and I told them where the bus was, I jumped in the conversation briefly while I was still in bed and I had a shower before I got up and I went, er, got a beer. Got a bit of bread and some, there's no big supermarkets in El Tonco, so I couldn't really get great supplies and I got some snacks for the flight in case the shop shut and I didn't feel well later and you know I did the online check-in and that was fine even though I didn't get any emails about it but I did it and fortunately I didn't have to type my passport number or anything I guess because I already booked, gave them that for the outbound flight and it was fine and it turned out I got an ILC on the short flight, I'm about to take it in an hour or two now uh not that that's a huge deal but it's nice I suppose and I seem to have the ALC I paid for on the other flights fingers crossed and you know I went for a little bit of a wander and the heat was a bit more oppressive I asked someone, Hyun guy and he was like no I don't think he's any hotter than it was yesterday but maybe it was just getting to me a bit more uh and I sat around on the terrace a bit and had some dry toast because I got some bread if I didn't already say and a bit of water oh and I had some rehydration fluid just the one sachet which I drank very slowly um I only had I maybe should have had more of them but they all got packed away because what would repack oh and I repacked my bag in the afternoon which is when I discovered that the bloody transmitter and the USB stick had gone missing and then I did ask people a bit in the hostel there was supposed to be some other live music at my paleo, MOP, ELIA and that was the thing and I just speak to people like some volunteer chap and I asked him and like I did I went to that on my own and I drank ginger ale which went down surprisingly well I sat in at the bar it was a bit busy and I wasn't it was all that last night feeling and I've not really got the party vibe on what with the illness and having to go and everything I was there on my own but it didn't feel too bad it's more like well I don't actually see her and I was here and I wasn't really in with the big crowd at the hostel oh I should say that that morning when they were leaving the dorm both the British couple independently invited me to join them on to hike to the lakes but I think they actually didn't do it because some guy they were going to be charged eight dollars for a guide because someone got got killed a month so I go so they've tightened things up but it was really nice of them to ask and maybe that would have got me in a little bit more with the so-called annoying woman and the American guy the party guy and well maybe it would have been a bit fifth wheel but anyway I didn't go and I wouldn't even have been feeling well I might not have done but I was feeling rough enough just my stomach a little bit raw walking down the street to get some supplies so I'm glad I didn't go it was a shame to get invited and not be able to but you know at least the invitation was there and I'm just rambling all over the place so I went to the live music on my own but it was quite busy and there's a lot of people milling around and coming to the bar and trying to get drinks anyway they hadn't been the last night so I had that two gin drills and I went back to the hostel I had a brief chat with that hyun guy before I'm completely mangling his name on I but I did get it right before and it is in the blog correctly uh and he was going off to smoke weed I think I probably said that to someone uh already and then I went back to the hostel so it was probably about half eight and I bumped into the British couple and the party guy and the annoying woman I shouldn't call her that but what else can I say I don't know a name uh outside on the outside on the terrace outside my dorm on the top floor and uh I talked to them a bit and they sort of invited me along and so I thought we were going to go to karaoke but basically we went back to the live music and I was a bit fifth wheelie there but then I wasn't trying to force my way in and then like party guys offering shots of rum to people and I turned it down because it's like I can't really be drinking today and I felt a bit of a party pooper like you know I didn't want to go for poosers later and I said good night to them when that was what they went off to do but you know I had my reasons I wasn't just being an arse I felt a bit of a fifth wheel at the thing but let's say I was stone cold sober and I couldn't really join in the party and I didn't know the group as a whole that well and I could have made more an effort but without trying to without trying to force myself onto them I did have a bit of a half decent chat with the British couple and we looked at some ants and we talked about shit and I think it was quite a nice conversation and then we were going to go back to the karaoke but they wanted to get poosers first and then the place they wanted to go was this was probably getting on for about 10 half 10 it was shut off had no no no stuff so the nice old woman running it was talking to them a bit but they were going to go off and get some poosers somewhere else I couldn't risk eating poosers last night and I said goodbye to that point I didn't actually get to say goodbye to the annoying woman but I did say goodbye to the others and then I walked past my trailer where the karaoke's on they actually had like a screen on the outside so there were people in the street singing and a couple of and probably upstairs as well and a couple of police watching and it was quite a nice looking atmosphere but if I hadn't been feeling sick and you know I might have gone on my own and then they'd have turned up or I would have gone with them or but if it wasn't the last day and the feeling sick so it wasn't it wasn't happening right but it did look quite a nice atmosphere the annoying woman feel quite bad corner that had been like trying to persuade me to sing karaoke earlier but like well what's the worst that can happen you're ever going to see any of these people again and you know I will sing with you if it's a good sign so she was nice don't get me wrong I'm being unfair corner annoying it's just that was one of my initial perceptions so I don't have a name so she was quite nice I guess but anyway it's like she wasn't annoying the same way as the annoying Dutch girl she was a bit older as well I think but anyway but I hope this fucking voice talks because I'm just going on and on and on time so then I went into the hostel and I had four slices of toast and there's maybe one guy sitting around and I just nodded at him and then I went to bed and there was a couple of other people I think a couple of girls in the dorm asleep and I went and had a shower and cleaned my teeth and then I I went to bed let's job typing
So yeah, I mean while we were talking like the rich couple Adam and Liv, sorry not Adam, Alan, they're 26, 27 by the way, they're looking to buy a house when they go back, they do this sort of thing a couple of times a year but, sorry a couple of months a year I think, because I think I already said like he's a freelance carpenter and she does, she's an NHS nurse so she gets to do this bank thing where she can work like crazy and take time off. They showed me a video of them of people like heading down on the Akatunango hike and while I'm probably rose-tinting a bit and there were quite a lot of people up there when I was there it felt pretty, it looked like Piccoli Circus and they were saying like yeah you can't just, he was saying I like to walk down quickly and you just can't because there's just the path and there's people going really slow and it did look really busy. I suspect it was busier than I remember in my head when I was doing it, like our group going up was probably about 20 or 30, maybe not that, I don't know, maybe 20, I don't know, I was probably in the old blog and there were other groups at the top and so when we're actually climbing up we are going up but like I remember distinctly running down parts of the upper bit from the sunrise bit and feeling a bit reckless and enjoying it at the same time and I don't know, just a note, you know everything's going downhill in it but that's just the increased travel. Some funeral parlour adverts, cremation parlour adverts in the regular rotation on the screens here which is mildly depressing, they all are vaguely inspirational quotes on about oh I remember my grandmother telling me stories and it will live in my heart forever. Anyway, like last night, even ignoring any social issues I might have, also as I said the British couple were 26, 27, I don't know about the other woman, I might guess she was mid-30s, the annoying woman and the party guy, he did say because it came up during the Jenga thing the night before, he was probably in his mid-30s but I'm not sure, I mean I was way the oldest but didn't seem to bother anyone overly much I guess but even ignoring any questions of my social skills, my age, whatever, the previous trajectory of the interactions and how well I knew people like last night, even ignoring all that kind of stuff which may or may not have been an issue anyway, I was like I'm glad I made an effort to go out and it was nice of than to try and encourage me to go with them, especially the annoying woman who hardly knew me like and it's like I had my eye on, I had one, you know my stomach, I feel a lot better today, I'm not saying I'm completely over it, I feel a lot better today, at that point you know my stomach's still feeling a little bit rough and I've got one eye on packing and one eye on getting to bed and I can't drink and I can't really eat anything either because I don't want to take any chances because I've got the flight tomorrow, it's not like oh I'll gamble and if I feel shit tomorrow it's not the end of the world, I had the early taxi and the flight and it's like the whole thing, I just had one eye on the clock so to speak so it was a shame but it was never going to be amazing and in a way it's a shame because this group did have kind of a real party sort of drinking and staying out late kind of vibe that would have been really nice to get involved with at other points, that hasn't always been present in other hostels, probably not even for other people I've seen whether I was invited to join or not, so just the way things go until it varies but it wasn't happening, it was logistically it would have been fucking stupid to do it under all those sort of constraints, anyway so I think I'm probably actually more or less caught up now, it's a really bad explanation, I'm not trying to sit here and think what to say and then dictating it and then doing the next bit, maybe I should do that but also the fact that you have to wait while the dictation transcribes, if I was typing this into a virtual voice recorder and then going to transcribe it afterwards maybe that would work anyway it is what it is, it's crap, I think it's probably just about going to be intelligible especially for future me where it maybe augments my faded but not totally dead memories, if some total strangers reading this on the web and after all it is my blog even though there's no real point in it being a blog, that's going to be harder but I hope it is broadly comprehensible, as I keep saying over and over again the main point is just to try and bash stuff out while it's still fresh in my memory rather than looking at things back with the rose tinted or confused or mixed up view afterwards, look let's transcribe this.
So I'm pretty sure some of this Boston Overtime covers playing and stuff. I've heard myself on some YouTube playlists. It's quite cool, I'm just saying. I'm sitting at Gate 5, by the way, because there's no flight from here and it's like, there's quite a bit of space. If anyone is listening, obviously, technically I'm posting this on the web anyway, but not that they are. Anyway, overall, I must admit, although it wasn't for me, El Tunco was a lot better than I thought. I mean, not saying there weren't certainly rough moments, but the hostel did work out pretty nicely. Both at that hostel and in general, I perhaps wish I'd spent a bit more time sitting around in hostels. Maybe I did more, I've just forgotten. It's like, thinking back to, although there was a slight Southern quality about it, when I was sitting there with that Aguadientian coke on the Saturday, Monday afternoon before I was sick, you know, before the night that turned out to go quite well in the end until I got sick. It was kind of nice and the terrace was warm, but not uncomfortable and it felt nice. Like, not every hostel has an environment where even ignoring any social dynamics, it actually feels super nice to sit. It's like, yeah, you could sit here, but do I really want to, even if I'm not, even if I am feeling comfortable? But I don't, anyway, just to note that maybe that is a legit thing to do. I've kind of already evolved to that point of view, but I sometimes feel bad about it or there's social concerns stopping me doing it. Yeah, a little bit more of judicious, no, I'm going to spend an hour or two or this afternoon sitting around at the hostel and just reading or having a drink or whatever might have been nice. It's like, you know, for instance, Rick's courtyard was OK and, you know, if you were chatting to someone, it was fine. But it wasn't somewhere that I think, even if I had no social considerations whatsoever, it was not somewhere that was so inherently nice. I would really want to sit there for hours. But anyway, just saying, Rick's was the Santa Ana hostel, by the way, I probably already said. But I did generally like El Tunco more than I expected. It's small. It was this weird pseudo island feeling with the relative isolation and the lack of decent shops. And I guess the water somehow gives an irrational island feeling. There was definitely a preponderance, not preponderance, a distinct subpopulation of surfer dudes, the kind of people Lucas had mentioned. But there were some older people. I mean, of course, it skews young among the foreigner crowd, but not exclusively young, young, you know. And they say the locals, presumably locals, because it could be like Spanish speaking tourists. I think mostly locals, local visitors, probably local tourists or whatever, they go to all ages and there's a familyish kind of quality to that. So it's quite a nice mix, actually. And I didn't feel monstrously out of place in that sense. I mean, the hostel, obviously, it's a bit different. But even then, you know, at least there were these 30ish people and there were, in fact, a few, probably 50, 60ish people who wandered around the hostel a bit. I never really spoke to, but because they either looked on their own or they were with people or I was in a bad mood or they looked sort of like they didn't want to talk and they didn't look that friendly. But anyway, you know, El Tunco, I mean, I don't know whether I'd ever come back because at some point I probably am going to want to try and take surf lessons for two or three weeks. But apparently it's quite expensive in El Tunco and I don't know that it would necessarily be the best place if you were making a free choice from, say, all of Central and Latin America. If I was going to go somewhere for two or three weeks, I'd have an eye on price and quality and busyness and so forth. But I could imagine going back. I thought I would absolutely hate it. And it was on the whole not perfect. I just wish there'd been a big supermarket or something, you know, but it was nice and compact, actually, and there was some element of nightlife. I mean, yeah, I felt a bit lonely at points, but that's not really down to the place. And to some extent, I did get a bit better with the hostel and if I'd made a bit more effort or been a bit less in end of trip mode, if nothing else, which does obviously have some sort of effect. I mean, overall, yeah, it was much better than I expected.
Just on a more general note, it's like I never used the Bluetooth keyboard, I probably should stop bringing it with me. I mean like in theory fingers crossed it's not going to happen. If the screen on the P7 had got even worse, being able to maybe manage to turn Bluetooth on and use that keyboard to type the password into unlock, it might have got me out of a hole. But I don't think that's generally something that's worth lugging the keyboard around for. In theory it's still a good idea because I hate the on-screen keyboard and the voice typing in different ways. I mean it turns the blog, I mean the blog wasn't interesting before but at least it felt fairly literate and writing is different than typing. I mean yeah the on-screen keyboard does still have the writing quality that's fair but the voice typing does not, it's different. With the writing you're forced to at least be semi-coherent. But I mean of course the on-screen keyboard is perhaps not as bad as I make out but particularly on this trip since the screen started playing up while it is usable and sometimes surprisingly so it also goes wrong intermittently and it makes it extra frustrating and the fact that you type some correct but strange word or name of a place or foreign word and it auto-corrects it and if you're not careful it just gets missed. It's super annoying. I mean I really do wish I could have a hardware keyboard on the phone but you can't have it can you? So even so the carrying the Bluetooth keyboard is in theory a good idea but in practice and it isn't just that I've been lazy obviously now I've got the very vocals and not that I even tried it would be the inconvenience of sitting and using it would be less than when I had to dig my reading glasses out. In practice the chances of having the time and inclination to use it and somewhere where you have a chair and a table at sort of laptop-y kind of height is fairly slim then like yes obviously there are a fair number of digital nomads and just other travelers around with laptops so that sort of thing certainly exists like there were people using laptops on the terrace at Carmemieux but it's also it's not something that's been super common especially in my rooms even when I've had privates where you know it might be I'm not doing much tonight let's sit and type the blog up and even maybe I'm just lazy but digging the keyboard out doesn't generally feel super inviting but as a general rule the limiting factor has been the time and inclination to write something up at that point combined with having somewhere to sit and use the phone plus Bluetooth keyboard like a laptop it is a good idea in theory and I will consider it but I am kind of thinking that for another trip it's not worth bringing the Bluetooth keyboard as I say I don't think I've used it once and I didn't do that to prove a point it's anyway
Nothing new, but I should probably also be strict with myself about not hanging on to every random receipt and shoving them in my blue folder and lugging them around for ages. I'm never going to do anything with them, even in theory, if I was going to do a scrapbook, which I'm normally too lazy to do. Those don't really be needed. It's like there's nothing wrong with keeping the odd paper or a ticket or a wristband. It's not really necessary, but at least those are vaguely low-grade souvenirs that might go in a scrapbook. But I mean, although the odd supermarket receipt might be interesting, I end up carrying so many. They're probably adding some significant weight on that note, although it's not exactly a bad thing and they probably don't weigh very much. I've accumulated so many carrier bags that I don't dare throw away, and it's kind of nice to have them. But there's quite a lot, to be fair. Maybe I ought to weigh them when I unpack the bag. I mean, and I still haven't had enough small plastic bags, you know, litre size, smaller ones, the freezer bags, ones that you might put a key or a few coins in, ones that you might use a packet of peanuts in after you've eaten half of it. Zip lock with the press. I just never have enough. I just cannot get that right. And it's like maybe there's some in the bag that I can't find. I don't think so. It's just really weird. Anyway, just noting some things for future trips. The power bank got loads of use, both phones did. For what it's worth, the A06, the screen is obviously technically fine. It works perfectly. But because it is a low grade phone, and I've maybe got too much stuff on it, although I don't think I've gone absolutely crazy. It's super fucking laggy. And it's like, in many ways, like you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to the home screen or get a list of apps. I actually can't remember how it works, but it's semi-intuitive when you're doing it. It doesn't work. It feels a bit like the P7 with its broken screen does, but the A06 is just really laggy. But on the whole, it's done what I need it to. It's added the comfort of a second phone. It's let me put a local sim in it without putting that in the P7. So both phones have had connectivity because the P7's got its travel sim. It's given me Uber access without any worries because it's stock Android. Although I haven't been generally worried about getting mugged or things getting broken or lost, it has let me have a cheaper phone around and I can have WhatsApp on it with no faffing. The WhatsApp via the web on the P7 has in practice worked okay when I've needed it to. But it's not nice to have to rely on that. It's still not ideal to have it on the P7 at all. So on the whole, the A06 has worked pretty well. And despite the initial confusion, it has given me decent signal on at least the networks I managed to use. I was forced onto in both El Salvador and Nicaragua, so while it's laggy as hell and I'm just making the observation that it feels like using the P7 with the broken screen a lot of the time, it has done its job pretty well. And I kind of, it has been good to have the stock Google Android even if it's snoopy as hell. For travel purposes, I can mostly accept that.
1131 just wandered to gate 2 where my flight is showing, still 1305 delayed. But it is getting closer to the original departure time and I irrationally dont like to be too far away.
There is some vague tension to buy a snack or perhaps a coffee but I'm not particularly desperate even if you assume there's absolutely no bodily health issues which probably aren't to be fair at this point but it's like it's not something I need I'm gonna still be killing a lot of time in Bogota I may get a coffee on the plane I'm not desperate I probably won't I mean I have a few dollars cash but that's not an issue of course I probably I suppose I use cash coins to buy that frozen earlier so that was free by my rules almost because I like to incentivize myself to spend coins I have I haven't counted them I've put them in my bag somewhere I have probably about a dollar twenty and small change and no dollar coins and I have some dollar notes obviously I can pay on a credit card which is what I'll do in Bogota because I have no Colombian cash and even if I brought some with me which I probably should have done in case I had wanted to go into town although maybe I thought more clearly about the timing when I was back home probably I didn't just look I should maybe but I wouldn't want to pick up a load of Colombian coins when I'm in the country for five hours and then you're never going to bring them back so I'll be using credit card at the airport as I did on the way out so I could buy on a credit card here but it's like it's just overindulgent and I don't need it and I'm not going to do it but there it and I could have a snack out of my bag as well I'm not really I just had two slices of bread that finished off the stuff that I squashed in because I didn't want to force it down or leave it anyone when it was so small. I'm just rambling like crazy aren't I?
So I've just put my fleece on. I wasn't exactly cold but, you know, I'm wearing the black long sleeve rs top, which would have probably had me sweltering, mildly, in, you know, El Tonco or wherever, but with the air con here, it was just a smidge on the cool side and it's like putting the fleece on. Gives me extra pockets if I want them and it'll come in handy for the flight and it debulks my bag slightly for getting on the plane. I've come back to gate 5, by the way, it's just around the corner and I just want to keep checking in on gate 2. Just some general rambling, it's like, during the trip I've probably watched about, I don't know, an hour and a half of YouTube oh so it's over precise but something like that it's not like I've been super productive indeed obviously to some extent there's been some personal project stuff I wish I could do but can't do because semi deliberately I'm on holiday without a laptop and I'm not supposed to be doing that kind of thing but it's not like I've been super productive but at the same time when I'm at home I will just relax by watching some maybe mildly semi useful but mostly fluff YouTube or something I haven't done anything I have nearly nine weeks right so just an observation that maybe I should try to keep that down a bit over time of course when you're at home it's different the whole the whole pattern of the day is different but you know maybe a lesson there I've been checking in on my handful of social media follows a bit too often but I haven't massively bloated it so that hasn't really got too out of control maybe checking in more than I should but probably no more than I was before I left I keep thinking I mean I wish my Spanish was better to be honest even even without the comprehensible input hypothesis which I have kind of been trying to work on the basis of even without that as a hypothesis it does feel like it would be a huge jump up if even if my spoken Spanish was still a bit clunky and hesitating if I could just understand maybe let's let's rule out super local chat among three or four locals with lots of slang straight away but like if I could be watching you know just normal Spanish everyday Spanish like some when there's a soap opera on the TV or something you know in a hostel as an example or you know some more casual I mean I do do a bit of this of course but you know some some random video content aimed at Spanish speakers of course there's still an attempt to speak clearly mostly it really would be good to just get some more practicing with that sort of thing and improve my vocabulary and so forth because even if I speak clunkily maybe my I should really work harder and I keep saying this and I always say this and I'm too lazy I never get around to it if I could just work harder towards basically unless you're doing something super local and super fast I understand you even if I can't speak very well probably based on the comprehensible input hypothesis I would start to speak a lot better if I could do that but it's like I really do nearly mostly kind of understand everything but there's just that vocabulary or whatever and it's like so I can follow stuff but it's not quite perfect and anyway just just some ramblings and vague inspirational aspirational stuff
Electronic pan pipes version of pachelbels canon playing.
I kind of wish I'd been a bit more chilled in general during the trip, on the other hand to be fair, I've probably not done too badly in that sort of sense a lot of the time, definitely not always, I should maybe just try not to fucking worry too much about socialising and whether I'm doing it right and whether I'm in the right place, I should just go with it, I'd probably get as good results, maybe even better without worrying about it, but it's difficult. I mean, I wish I'd done this sort of stuff when I was 25 or whatever, but didn't. Lots of reasons it wasn't happening right and you know the best thing you can do is what you can with what you have and blah blah blah
I do on the whole, I mean I'm not saying I'm ultra super, I do feel pretty relaxed right now, I'm much better than I was expecting And at least with this delay, if it doesn't get crazy, it does spread the delay out into two different gaps, a bit more evenly so Fingers crossed, I'm obviously not looking forward to getting that tube all the way home and everything and then going to the station tomorrow But it will also be nice to see people, you know, and see their nephew and niece at Easter and stuff like that So I'm just rambling now to fill the time I mean I think we've kind of got the basic gist of the semi-valid aspirational stuff down that I might have learned from the trip I can always say more later I mean it's, I mean all the time mean and like, what can you do, voice isn't writing It's like, it's, I don't think it's just me, it's like You've got, it's, I know we already know this, I think I've probably even said it before, but for what it's worth it's like The time just goes in strange ways, it's like, as I think F3W says, like stuff like just doing your laundry or whatever And you're having to decide where to eat every day and going out to eat and stuff And it eats up the time in a not bad way, but in a very different way than at home You're not literally, I mean, technically you are touristy 24-7 when you're abroad and you're a tourist But you're not actively tourist-ing all the time, you know You might do 2, 3, 4 hours a day of some kind of vaguely explicitly touristy activity Doing a hike, going somewhere, that little side trip to Ozzonti for example But the rest of the time, and it's not even for other people, I think it's not all partying or socialising either It's like, you want to hang around a bit and just do nothing And I guess that kind of happens when you're at home, but because you're at home you It's just easy to sit there and watch YouTube, or if you're a bit more dynamic, work on some personal projects and stuff And that doesn't happen here, and it's just It's a very strange and just different life dynamic in some way I mean, this is not novel or anything, I'm just kind of making the observation And I think to some extent you've got to kind of accept that, although maybe I am being a little bit lazy Life works differently when you are moving around every few days and not at home It's like I've not been great about keeping my exercises up, I've done a tiny bit But I've been doing a lot of walking, and I do think I might have actually lost some weight, but we'll see I certainly don't think I've put tonnes on, but again the scales might prove me a liar.
This is just random waffling and it's probably a bit pretentious and a bit wanky but it's like Both with the trip and when I'm back home, I perhaps need to try and future trips I should probably say I probably need to try not to make things such a fucking chore It's like, you know when I'm going for my swimming in back at home I need to not think oh fuck or I need to not get too worked up about whether I'm making progress or whether it's doing any God or what it's maybe a waste of time. I just need to sort of not think about it so much. I mean take it seriously And think it a bit but not get overworked up. I don't know.
1204 so I think the flight that I'm the inbound version of my flight has just arrived I think I even saw the plane taxi along the runway outside where I'm sitting so that does at least suggest that they'll turn it around and we'll probably will take off more or less at the delayed 13.05 and it's not going to just grow indefinitely so I guess the flight inbound was just delayed for whatever reason so I have plenty of margin in hand and there's fingers crossed it's going to be fine I'm having some salted peanuts that I paid a dollar 25 for at small marketing not to unco late last night they're probably between going home on my own from the live music and then getting back to the hostel and meeting those people again 125 is a bit insane I'm sure I would have got a much bigger bag for not much more money in a supermarket big supermarket but there aren't any you know and it is what it is just saying I don't I'm not starving but I thought I would eat them it'd be something to do and that way if I lose them I get confiscated somewhere like it's immigration or transit through to the air side when I get to Columbia at least I've had something
1209 just seen an ad for "eau so intense" perfume and after the penny dropped I did chuckle at the name.
Music now OK but far more bland.
Gonna go sit at gate 2 now I don't need to voice type so much and now we are getting closer to touch wood departure.
1218 wtaf? We have to go through a second security scanner here at the gate?
1225 ffs. The scan was not big deal but since my passport is in my trouser pkxket with my phone I forgot about my hidden waist belt and it was inside my trousers after I took my waist belt off and I noticed it only when it slid down the inside of my leg after passing throgubhe acanner. It has my vaccine booklet and about two hundred dollars and two bank cards in. That was a bit fucking careless.
Annoying to have to dthos scan and take belt etc off all the same of course, but not actually a big deal.
1241 on plane, no real faff. Been given a printed boaring pass which changed ny aeat but I didn't pay and it is still asile. Btheybqrw doing the fucking "roller bags only in overhead lockers" shit again as if I should suffer because my bag doesn't have wheels despite being a fair size and me having paid just the same, so I am ignoring them and if they spot it I will politely argue and give in if I have to. If they said personal items under seat (as they so), no
Problem but ny main bag is just as big and just as valid as hand luggage as a roller bag. Ok maybe it is actually smaller, but why should I be worse off because of that? It is still too big to fit comfortably under the seat in front without eating into my leg room. I do have my day-pack under seat in front as I should.
If they just said "large bags" in the overhead rack ot would be fine but they keep insisting on saying "wheeled bags". Maybe they would not really try to make me put my big backpack under the seat.
A319 btw. Confused conversation just now with crw member about whether the srats next to me are fre. Err, shouldn't they know? I was not rude but
Probably appeared rather confused and also bad at Spanish but the whole thing was a bit unexpected.
Overhead bin has been shut on my bag so that is probably OK. Fingers crossed.
1315 in air, middle seat free, all ok.
1627 el Salvador /1727 Bogotá airside at El Dorado, no problems, we got bus from the terminal and the international connections. Security bits seemed to be closed but there was a sort of route through, I followed the crowd and we seemed to clear the regular security bit without going through the prior immigration bit. No one's checked my boarding pass but obviously I'm here. So yeah, just got to wait until the flight presumably. It's not on the screens yet but presumably it's fine, well I've not seen it anyway. My stomach's churning a little bit but nothing too bad, we got a coffee and a few cookies on the plane, you got a choice, that's what I had. Everything's basically fine, I realise I could probably buy some Duty 3 here but I don't particularly want to, to be honest, although it's nice to get a souvenir, I haven't really drunk much of the, what was it, agua diente. I bought when I was here last time proper and especially since this trip wasn't to Colombia, it's not like buying something from here, it would be a massive souvenir and then I have to squeeze it into the bag and who knows if it's really cheap, so no, not particularly tempted.
1748 that's Columbian time, I'm voice typing this at the charging point, there's a few people around but no one really cares, I just called mum, just for quick chats, everything's fine, stomach's still grinding a little bit but nothing major, I'll get a coffee in a bit but obviously there's no rush. I didn't see the thing on the boards as I was going through the international connections, passageways, but I didn't hang around and maybe the other screens would show it, mum had it up and she says it was showing us on time. Basically everything's fine, I've just got to grind out this extra bit of time but at least it's been a little bit distributed differently. I think I already said a million times but given the time I got here, even if the flight had been on time from El Salvador, I would not have been going into town, I'd been thoroughly confused about it being during the day, it's much more of an evening layover. It was pleasantly cool actually when we got out of the plane, I suppose it's the altitude and maybe the late time of day but it was sort of warm but pleasantly cool outdoors which felt a bit odd after being in an opt-unco and so forth for a few days. I'm topping the P7 up so I can maybe watch some film, I did watch a bit of video on the flight over on the P7 using the phone stand so that got some use of the phone stand in the headphone case. Anyway, yeah, I'm just gabbling, so let me transcribe this and stop.
I suppose that did at least mean I got a tiny bit of fresh air rather than being in airport terminals and planes for over 24 hours.
1804 guts churning slightly but not too bad. Had some Mani garapinado. Been trying to get p7 topped up and will go for a wander and fill my water bottles and check flight status screens etc soon.
1822 being the toilet, nothing came out the backside, guts are still churning a bit, but nothing major, I guess, it's not like it's not happened before. The flight's still not on the screens, I just looked on some random website, there's an official QR code, which just takes you to a WhatsApp page. So anyway, as far as I can tell, the gate isn't on this external site yet, maybe it hasn't been announced, wouldn't be too surprising. This flight's up to about 23.05, showing on the monitor, but mine's a bit later than that, so anyway, just keep wandering round a bit. I'm going to go for a bit of a walk, because I just cannot keep sitting all that time.
1838 flight's come up, gate A3 on time, just been at the bog again, I feel a bit bloated, maybe I shouldn't have had those peanuts and their food on the flight, I don't feel terrible, it's like I'm farting a little bit but not sharting so it could be worse. I'm just going to wander round a bit, there is a chemist here but I'm not overly convinced that e.g. some indigestion tablets will do a bit of good, but they might, Al, not in a huge rush, I'm going to wander round for a bit and see what happens. Not too worried, I mean it might not be pleasant but I don't think it's going to be a huge deal, anyway just saying.
2115 okay, I was feeling a tiny bit, like I said, I walked round a bit and that certainly helped fart in a bit, I also got some medical advice from an LLM and some methicone was suggested, I went into a couple of pharmacies here, the first one I asked, I did quite well with the Spanish and the guy said, oh yeah, yeah, this, and I said, how much is it, he says it's so much Colombian pesos, and I said, what's that in dollars, it's $38 for just a packet, I was like, no, I said, no, it doesn't hurt that much, thanks, and it didn't, and I wandered round, I went into the pharmacy, but I didn't actually speak to anyone there, but they had a lot of stuff on the shelves, and nearly all the kind of things that might have contained that or that might have helped me were in the same price range, even aspirin was like about 10 quid, so no, I'm not that desperate honestly, I feel much better now, I also went and found a group of seats that didn't have armrests on and laid down on them for about half an hour, 40 minutes, I called mum, I called mum while I was doing it, been to the toilet, filled both my water bottles up, we're getting sort of close to flight time, so I'm going to walk down and have a look at the gate and see if I need to lie down near there or whatever, yeah, everything's basically fine, the flight, oh, oh, there's a gate change, it says B6 to A3, but it's always been saying A3, so I don't know what's going on there, but it is otherwise showing as on time, so yeah, anyway, I'm wandering around talking to myself like an idiot, so I should not worry, so I think lying down did help, never actually laying down I think on a set of seats at the airport, I used my bag as a pillow, not because it was terribly comfortable, but to stop losing it, and although I wasn't even trying to sleep and I didn't, I set an alarm on my phone almost a minute or two after I'd laid down, which I was doing mainly to ease the pain, not pain, the bloat, and it did help, but I was lii've come back over to the charging point not far from the gate, the gate looi've come back over to the charging point not far from the gate, the gate looked quite busy but then it's not a huge seating area for a relatively big plane so I'm kind of hoping the flight won't be too rammed and there won't be any shit about non-wheeled bags in the upper racks or something. The flight's still on time so I can say it wasn't saying boarding, I mean no one's seen a boarding pass but then I've got a boarding pass and why should there be a problem? I'm not even sure they would have checked it if there had been other security, I'm just being super paranoid. I'm not feeling too bad, not brilliant, I cleaned my teeth, couldn't floss because the floss which I've brought out with me and have used more or less every single night, I don't think I flossed the night I was sick for example, I might have missed the odd night, I flossed pretty much every single night and there was like two inches of floss when I went to pull it off to do it now so that's not too bad but I did at least clean my teeth. I haven't had a Juan Valdez coffee here because stomach's feeling a bit ropey and I want to save my endurance for eating something on the flight against LLM medical advice what it's worth but if the food's edible I'm probably going to eat it. I might have a beer as well because I'm stupid and I can't pass up a free beer but play it by ear. Anyway so I'm here topping up the P7 which is at 59% because I've been using, I watched a little video on it and been using it a bit. The A06 was at 80% and it hasn't had much use and I've got the power bank which I've put in my day pack. I'm probably going to put the fleece on, it's relatively warm in this airport and I've been taking, I had the fleece off most of the day which is slightly annoying because it means it bulks my bag out but I'm going to wear it on the flight and I'm going to wear it when I go to the gate so as to avoid the bag looking any bulkier than necessary. I'm probably also going to just carry my little day pack for under the seat separately so I do have the two bags and then the main bag does look a bit smaller although that might backfire if someone then says oh it can go under the seat, anyway sorry I'm rambling but yeah I think the lie down did help and I'm not feeling too bad, I'm not feeling 100%. video on it and been using it a bit. The A06 was at 80% and it hasn't had much use and I've got the power bank which I've put in my dayd it hasn't had much use and I've got the power bank which I've put in my day
The screen touch invisible mobeku moved the cursor during that. The very end of the sentence should be earlier on. I hope it's fairly clear from context. I'm not trying to fix it now. The flight I had didn't get any more charging because there was an incomprehensible from that distance announcement. I've had to come over. Boarding starts in five minutes. It's fine. I've got the power bank to top the phone up and it's at 60%. I've got another phone.
2145 I am in group of so probably one of last one, which seems a bit silly when my seat is right at the back. But it is always thus and apart from aviancas wheeled bag obsession it makes little real difference, and indeed the less time I am sitting on the plane the better since the seating is all preallocated anyway
2215 on plane. Got my seatt. Bag in overhead rack and only modest repetitons of the insane wheeled bag policy. Seat seems to have full recline based on appearances and (not that I picked it for thos and I do feel fine) it is of course handy for the toilet.
Flight seems fairly full. Broadly speaking all seems ok. Fingers crossed.
2218 just seen a cabin crew member helping someone push all kind of jute brown woven material "reusable carrier bag variant" into the overhead locker, despite it almost certainly having no wheels.
2221 and she just suggested a guy put a bag very like mine in a certain overhead bin. Maybe sanity actually prevails in reality despite their very specific and arsey wording, which I don't think I am just being pedantic in interpreting, since they do explicitly go out of their way to talk about wheeled bags in both Spanish and English.
My bags bin has been shut as well which is also reassuring.
B787 btw
9h10m flight time mentioned.
Thu 0021 these times are probably el Salvadoran lately as I was copying off phone flock as o wrote and it hasn't updated. Anyway. Just had dinner. Hope don't regret it but not bad teriyaki pork and rice brewd roll with butter, bit of cake and a small sprite and small white coffee. Left some possibly ok but not in mood to gamble rice salad thing I wasn't asleep but did have eyes shit and may have missed the newly service but cabin crew presumably on the
Alert for this - kudos - and one asked me what I wanted alterntive was cheese pasta.
No films of real interes, liste ing to music quietly. Hope to fall qlseep. Thighs hurting on seat for whatever reason. Right now guts feel 90% ok.
Could have had wine but saw other
People ordering sprite and it felt like best idea so no alcohol.
Thu 0755 Colombian time queueing for not really needed toilet butwe may be landing in about an hour and I'd rather avoid massive queues or wasting time lanside.
Feel roughl but 90%+ of it is that dehydrated slept on a plane feeling. Had omlette for breakfast and coffee and not feeling too bad. About an hour who was half awake and the engines were giving a "I am on a truck or bus and we have stopped moving and the engone is idling very roughly vibe.
So overall things are not that bad. Eyes feel dryish, been drinking bit of water intermittently.
1655 got home pretty easily all things considered. The automatic gates at Heathrow worked, got a tube almost straight away at all connections, didn't make a precise note but was probably home by about 1600..
Am going to send this now before anything happens to it.
Yeah I think that's right I also have about 55 in my pocket of spending money I've already paid for tonight and tomorrow night's accommodation I will need to pay $30 for the taxi to the airport and I will need obviously a bit of spending money for tonight and tomorrow let me check my notes and see what I came out with.
To be honest, it's super unclear, but my notes seem to suggest I had $222, $222 on the way out. To be honest, while I don't like being exposed to cash, my gut feeling is that I might... There's a Ippotocario machine which is supposedly fee-free right next to the hostel. I might withdraw $100 or $200 tomorrow, but I guess I don't need to rush. I'm here all day tomorrow. And I'm probably going to go home slightly cash positive, even if I don't do anything. I got some, I'll write this up later, I wrote, so I got some coke at Pepsi at that little mini market with the fierce air conditioning earlier. Put them in the fridge. I don't desperately want to drink during the day, but I may not drink much tonight. And I still got this bottle of Aguadiente from the first part of the trip in El Salvador. So, I'm going to go down and have some coke and Aguadiente in the terrors. I just went down there before when I got back and cut up some plastic bottles to make some more mending things for my sandals, some of those plastic washers. Anyway, let's have a quick crap and go down with the Aguadiente and just sit and mull.
1534 so I went for breakfast at pu chi can after brief chat in dorm with the british couple (not too smooth but not great and I was waiting for my turn in bathroom). Oh I skept badly again due to the fan and eg dug my fleece out and tried to use it to keep warmer but in an odd way I kept smiling to myself about this fenuine annoyance.
Had a cafe helado at La neveria and got a bus after 50 mins wait (a 192) over to el zonte. Brief look round, saw the Satoshi statue and did some CC exercises at the adjacent open air gym and walked along the beach. Could find an obviously afforsable coffee but had a 1.25ksh litre shlufwr grape soda at a table out front of a smallish grocery sgore. Toyed with going into Hope House but couldn't see it, despite going where GM said it was.
Was going tk get the bus but a pickup with a 4 seat car pulled up and I wasn't sure if the driver was just picking up the European tourist woman also waiting a bus stop bit basically she asked if I wanted to go and we both paid a dollar and I sat in the back earwigging as best I could (very mechanically noisy) on their fairly fluid Spanish conversation as he had an 80s 90s playlist (self control and big in japan) on which was modulated by both the left and right speakers intermittently disconnecting. Oddly memorable ride.
Walked back via small shop where I got the Pepsi and now here.
1553 second ag and coke.
Hostel activities tonight are seeing sunset together 530 and board games at 8. I will probably try to join both but not super excited, although tbh they could be good and except for a slight "I would almost rather go out and have a few beers" feeling, it isn't as if I really have much else I want or need to do.
I may go out and see if I can find any crappy souvenirs after this drink.
1558 just had quick chat with british woman from dorm. I think they might be Alan and Liv but not sure.
Tue 1257 I need to write up everything that's happened on the whole, it's been pretty good with sort of an unpleasant night but just to say I've just checked in online I may go out and print it now and I'm going to see if I can arrange the taxi and then that'll be sorted and I need to get some food before the shop's shop. There's plenty of time but that way I don't have to panic at the last minute. I'm feeling a bit ropey but not too bad. I got an aisle seat on the first flight anyway so that's a minor bonus especially if I am feeling a bit edgy although I don't know I think I'm basically fine and I also realised that the flight is I don't quote this from memory but it's like I'm actually in Bogota from like 4 to 11 pm or something so it actually wouldn't be that good for going out into the city anyway I pretty much decided I wasn't going to but I did have a chat with LLM to see if I'd forgotten any options but I was thinking it was more in the day and it's only a seven hour 25 minute or something layover which obviously sucks but I'd been saying to myself and telling everyone it's nine hours so the fact that it's seven hours and a bit is actually quite a nice little little bonus now I mean the whole thing is 20 hours something you know from one flight taking off to the first flight taking off to the last flight landing which is a lot but not too bad right anyway it is what it is I'm not going to type all this up now because my voice typing in the dorm and the on-screen key was crappy but I might write something up later or failing that I don't think I'm going to forget what's happened and of course I have some photos to also back things up to some extent I have I can always write it up during the layover for example but I may write it up later anyway I'm going to stop talking
1636 gutted. I've been repacking and as far as I can tell I have lost the wireless transmitter Bluetooth that I never actually used But obviously that might have been nice to have for the flight back and I've lost 128 gig USB stick with all my photos on and the USB on the go cable it was attached to. I've been through the stuff twice I cannot find it. It's vaguely possible. It's hiding. I Mean fingers crossed. I haven't actually lost any photos because they are all I think on the SD card in the A06 and I haven't deleted anything except photos off the p7 so You know the photos should I deleted to free up space should have been uploaded to the micro server But nonetheless, this is I'm still gutted It's like I can't rule out the possibilities with some obscure files Although to be fair most things would probably be a copy as long as I get both phones home intact and get the files off It's probably fine, but I am gutted. I have no idea how it happened It must have had something to do with the repacks before and after the the volcano trip where I use the main bag and Maybe something fell on the floor in that room in the hostel in La union or something. I mean I cannot absolutely rule out the possibility that they're buried somewhere But I suspect not having me into things twice. I can't go through stuff again I say I probably haven't lost any photos, but I'm still gutted It's probably about 30 or 40 50 quid's worth of stuff not to mention. I don't like losing things anyway It's not a good sign and obviously that bloody USB stick the whole point of that was that it was extremely precious It is vaguely possible. It's lurking somewhere. I don't feel terrible, but I'm not 100% But I can't find it
1649 I did mostly go through everything again I can't find it I am gutted I say probably I've still got all the photos and everything I probably haven't actually lost any information but I'm obviously a lot more exposed to things like one of the phones getting broken or stolen or tits up before I can copy stuff off or the micro server going down not much I can do about it I put a message out on the hostel WhatsApp group here but I don't think anyone's stolen it and to be honest I don't think it got lost here it's all just been such a whirl these last few days I've been running around like crazy ever since Leon basically I would probably be a note in the blog about me doing some photocopying at some point maybe I just left it on a table then I've also lost that USB the Bluetooth transmitter so maybe there's no connection I don't know I say I've been through stuff pretty carefully there's nothing I can do about it just maybe this stuff will miraculously turn up at home I can get through the flight without the Bluetooth transmitter I didn't use it on the flight out and this is a night flight and I've still got the headphones to have noise cancelling and listen to some music on my phone if I want and I wasn't even sure I was allowed to use it last time it's obviously it's annoying because it was 10 or 15 pounds I think maybe and never actually used it and the USB on the go cable I've had that that was working well I've had that USB stick for ages and obviously just generally losing stuff never feels good especially not stuff which is the crown jewels almost you know that USB stick I'm supposed to have taken really good care of I don't know where I lost it if it's lost it probably is it probably got lost a hostel or two back but I mean yeah we could perhaps do some forensics with the blog and work out when I last mentioned it and I might be able to tax my memory but anyway it is what it is I'm not happy but as I say fingers crossed I probably haven't actually lost any photos or any other files it's just a layer of backup has gone obviously I can't do anything about it now
Wed 0836 so, I'm voice typing this in the food court landside at San Salvador Airport, I got here about 10 minutes ago. Everything's fine, everything's fine. I don't feel amazing, but I don't feel too bad. I had most of my remaining brothers toast after I got up at 6.30 this morning. There was a bit of disoriented stuff at 3, 4 in the morning, like where the hell am I with some visions of me being on some sort of weird island or pseudo-zopiloti thing where I had to hike or wade or swim out. Not quite swimming, I mean, maybe there's a hint of the kite surfing in there. I mean, anyway, everything's fine. I did see Alan brief this morning, he was awake, I sort both of them, but said morning to him. I had some toast, taxi turned up a couple of minutes after 7.30, driver didn't really talk, no problem. Deliberately didn't wear my seatbelt in the back, even though there actually was one. Sometimes there is one, but there's no way to plug it in because it's disappeared. But I thought, fuck it, last trip here, so not going to do it. I feel a bit discombobulated, I just don't, it's like, should I go through to the airside, but then it's a bit early, the flight is at least showing on time. I'm going to spend hours airside. I could eat something here, but should I? I mean, you know, with the stomach issues, I should perhaps at least have my last two slices of bread that I brought with me. I left a little bit of aguadiente and a nearly full bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, in the hostel, I sent a message on the WhatsApp group telling people to help themselves. Nothing's wrong, I don't feel too bad, I feel a tiny bit sad to be leaving, but also it will theoretically be nice to be back home and see everyone and stuff like that. I'm just a tiny bit weird feeling.
In the back of the taxi I had both of my phones in my left pocket and without really anything feeling forced the zip just suddenly went so I don't think I can mend it on the fly, it's a bit annoying but at least the pair of trousers very nearly lasted the entire trip, it just means that pocket which is rather gapey when it's not zipped up is sort of out of commission which is slightly inconvenient for the flights but hardly the end of the world, erm, yeah.
0842 getting a cafe frozen for 2 50 at Claudius, saw it on a screen, might not be smart but it will use some change up and these vaguely frappe style things have been a new to me and frequentish thing during trip so this feels vaguely like a decent send off if it doesnt fuck my stomach over, plus it is calories.
0913 okay, so I just finished the frappe thing, the frozen as it's called. That was quite nice, I don't feel particularly sick, bit shivery actually, but I think that's just not, just in a low temperature way, because I'm in an air con and I've had that. It still feels too early to go airside, but now that I've eaten, there isn't really any reason not to be airside, it's like I'm not going to go out for some fresh air at this point. Am I saying that I suddenly get worried about it, but no I'm not. And it's like I might as well get through the security and it makes sure that my boarding pass electronically is working to be maximum time to try and sort something out that really shouldn't be any problem. I'm just always a bit nervous about going airside unnecessarily early, but it's fine. As I say, now that I've eaten what I've had this coffee, even if I didn't have any stomach concerns, I don't really want Burger King or pizza or Pollo Camparo at this time in the morning. So if I am going to be spending on airport food, it's going to be airside, most likely in Bogota anyway. I really don't want the restaurant facilities here, landside, that may not exist airside. So, especially now I've had this coffee, coffee pay thing, there's no real reason not to go.
0951 so I wandered out the front, just for the hell of it, as it happened to be 9.35 so I noticed that because it's like, I think 23 hours to the minutes in some time due to landing in London. Nice and warm out, check the weather forecast in London, says it's like field seven is nine or something very vaguely like that, when I get there that is, that's fine, just a bit of a contrast. I came in, went through security and a checkpoint, all very polite, no force, I took all my stuff off and put it in the bag first, except after they scanned my bag twice, they said they were doing it and didn't do anything second time round, it's fine, they even called me back and asked if I'd left something on the counter, which was a coat that wasn't mine, but fingers crossed I haven't lost anything, I'm a bit edgy, I always am and having had lost that USB stick doesn't help, but my bag is fairly full which is in part because I've picked up stuff on the way, for instance I'm carrying a nearly full pack of 48 Huggies because I didn't see any point throwing them out, if I could bring them back with me, they might offer me some comfort in a toilet washing up, cleaning myself up a bit in Bogota or something if I feel sweaty or whatever and you know I've got quite a bit of food for the flight and stuff if I can get it through for Bogota, so anyway my bag isn't really that, I mean I picked up the stuff from the event in El Salvador to start the trip and there's the t-shirt from the volcano boarding if that's survived, anyway it's all fine, I'm now at airside just after security talking to myself like a loon and I'm gonna go through, I feel basically okay, did have a crap between before I came through airside as well, first one in a day or two actually, not too bad actually, fairly solid, it's exciting stuff isn't it, alright well that'll do.
Anyway my point is that the bag is fairly big so in some sense I can't have forgotten too much. I haven't counted my clothes or anything before I left but I had a very good check round in the dorm so if I had lost anything I'm pretty sure I lost it earlier and I'm fairly sure I got everything. Yeah, anyway.
0959 okay, so there actually seems to be a drinking water fountain between the 12-13 to 19 and 1-12 blocks of gates next to the coffee cup. So I filled up my small bottle, 600ml. I necked the 600ml before I came through security and I tipped the 1 litre I'd brought with me down the sink in the toilet. I've got both bottles with me and I've just filled up the 600ml. The litre one is, I mean there should be refills at Bogota, but the litre one is just keep saying more. Just so I can use it for measuring out to disinfect if I really need to./
1001 flight's delayed to 13.05. There's no announcement, I just saw it on screen. I'm feeling a bit gutted but at the same time obviously it really doesn't matter as long as nothing else goes wrong. With a seven hour layover it just spreads the time a bit differently and perhaps better. There's a kind of vaguely bossa nova version of that Morrissey Smith song, Why Do You Come Here, Why Do You Come, when you know it makes it hard for me, which is kind of weird and cool. I wish I could remember the title but I'd rather get the lyrics down and I know which song it is.
1010 the airport feels quite a lot larger than I expected, obviously I didn't see this when I arrived. Anyway, there's a little art gallery here, not too bad, don't really like the theme as such. Well, no, no, it's kind of interesting, but slightly smug, but then that's what these posters are always about, the tech site. Anyway, it's abstractly modern, but whatever you might say about that, I don't find them displeasing, they're quite pleasing, so anyway, that's irrelevant. I probably ought to start writing stuff up and talking to myself like a loom, I guess people just think I'm on a phone call or something, so I'm wandering around a bit. Anyway, before we get into the general background, I'm still in the art gallery, before we get into the writing up the mist stuff, let me just waffle a bit, like I've been already saying, it's all repetitive, I'm a bit sad to be leaving, I've got all sorts of mixed feelings, like I'm not dreading this flight, I feel fingers crossed, relatively healthy, it'd be nice to see mum and dad and Jaffa, and to some extent, although that's a couple of weeks away, because I'll probably be visiting family for the next couple of weeks, I need to be careful not to put on too much weight and stuff, you know, the stuff to look forward to, even getting back into swimming, and I want to do some personal projects and stuff, and I can come back and borrow more or less, I'm not too worried about money and stuff, and there could be another trip later, or I might do some kitesurfing in Egypt, money permitting, it's fine, I'm sad to be leaving, last night could have been better but under the circumstances, I didn't do too badly, and it's like, you know, the trip as a whole, certainly and it's ups and downs, but there've been some, some definitely good bits, and some, some pretty raw bits, you know, it's just me getting over worked up, but raw all the same, and it feels like forever, I mean that's probably a good thing in terms of subjective life extension and stuff, it feels like absolutely forever since I left in January, I mean, nine weeks, not quite nine weeks, isn't nothing but man, it just feels like an eternity, which is good, don't know, I'm not saying the time, it's just like, you know, lots of stuff happened, lots of change, so yeah, anyway, I'm gonna stop talking and wander around a bit more, and then I'll maybe write some more, not type, some more, voice type, some.
Yeah, there's another water point down towards Gate 1 and 7 something like that. There's obviously quite a few of them. I'm just talking to myself like an idiot Yeah, I mean obviously all the usual sort of stuff all travel and is it worth it and how real is it and why am I doing this? But yeah, it's fine. I did enjoy myself and Not that I have any specific travel goal But although I didn't speak as much Spanish as I might have liked I did speak some I'm thinking I did meet some locals you know there were those nights down at the especially that quiet night down at the gas station in Santa Ana and You know I've met some of the people and to some extent I've done some stereotypical Hostily touristy stuff and I've it's not go so far say I've made friends although I think other people just use that term so lightly I probably could get away with it But you know, it's it's been okay, right? It's been okay. I Am sad to be going home Yeah, I mean at the same time. Maybe it's just me. It's like yesterday obviously with the illness, but It is kind of wearing at the same time to be somewhere. That's just so hot all the time It's not always hot like Santa Ana was fine. You know you do get the cool evenings and I guess I was feeling worse yesterday because I was I'm still under the weather, but It's like every time I don't go wrong. It's not like I've been suffering non-stop But it's like it will also be nice to be somewhere where you know you just go out in the day And it's cool or cold even or in the summer where it's mostly warm in it, but not stifling of course all the stuff about being at home and just having my toothbrush right there by the sink and not by oh I left my towel in the bag when I've already gotten dressed So now I need to get dressed again so I can go out the bathroom into the dorm to get the towel to come back into The bathroom to have a shower all those kind of little irritations where you make little balls of for the whole dorm Situation or shared bathroom even if you've got a private those little irritations You know things like not having to eat in restaurants all the time You know because even in these cheap restaurants that I do like and with the pupusas and everything it's still It's still a tiny bit more sort of stressful than just cooking what you want at home and eating it when you want in whatever quantity you want and You know obviously it's the swings and roundabouts. I'm not saying it's good. I'm just waffling and this is all try other is true Anyway, I'm gonna let this type dictate whatever
I mean, the voice typing's crap, but it's not too bad. Hopefully future me can piece it together. Let's just bash out what's happened the last couple of days. So, I'm not scrolled back to check, but I think, let's see, it's Wednesday today, Tuesday was the day I was under the weather and the last day. So, Monday, oh, I'm going to stop and scroll back. Oh, yeah, what the hell? I just don't like scrolling back, because with this dodgy screen, if it starts going invisible monkey on me, it'll just delete random bits of text. run the bits of text, but that doesn't happen very often, I'll take it back up first.
Okay, yeah, so it was Monday and I'd had a couple of Agua Deentes and Pepsies, I don't get the terminology right, on the hostile terrorists, those people talking upstairs, and then there were supposedly those activities, and the board games got cancelled officially, not that it was a problem, just saying, because there was this live music at 7.30. And, long story short, I mean, I did get told about the live music, but there was also a certain amount of talking over my head about it or what felt like it when I was there having the rum and cokes or something, and then the volunteer who was in my dorm. I'm not sure she was in my dorm, she seemed to be using one of the bunks as a massive storage area, but I don't think she was sleeping there, because she wasn't there this morning, and the bunk was still covered in junk, like she couldn't possibly have slept in it. Anyway, it doesn't matter, she'd told me about it, but I was feeling a bit sort of pissed off and stuff, and it was like, oh yeah, now I'm being told in an official capacity, because she has to. That is a bit stupid, but, so I did go to that, and I couldn't really, I can't remember exactly how it felt, I was feeling kind of shitty, it's like, it wasn't, oh, I went down to see the sunset, which was supposed to be a together thing, yeah, that's about right, and I bumped into some of the people, including that British couple, and the annoying, might have been German, actually, maybe she was just a fluent German speaker, that's slightly annoying, probably okay, actually, I spoke to her last night, loud, very little, loud American woman, and the party kind of guy who I'll talk about, and there's a few other people, and it's not that I hadn't, I hadn't tried hard to join them, but I was hanging around there, and feeling very much on the fringe, and just standing near them, this was as I was about to go back to the hostel after watching the sunset, but, and I could have maybe tried to flag in a bit more, but I didn't, anyway, so I went back to the hostel, and I might have hung around a bit, I can't quite remember, I perhaps had a shower, and then I thought, oh well, I ended up going to the live music place on my own, sitting at the bar, and they did turn up later, and it's like, they sort of split up, and it was a bit weird, but, I felt really, sort of, billy no mates, and like, well technically there's something happening here, and yet I somehow just don't seem to be able to join in, and it was all really weird, to be honest, while they were quite good about organizing the events, I think the people, hostel actually in general, were quite nice to some extent, there was this element of, oh it's, we say it's such and such time, but actually people aren't going to head over for another hour or two later, or they'll miss the start and turn up later, or whatever, maybe because the volunteers have done these things several times, or they're busy chatting, or whatever, anyway, so I went over on my own, and I was feeling pretty down, and I was sitting at the bar, the music was pretty good, but I felt a bit awkward, so let me let the voice type and catch up with all this wandering.
So I'm actually feeling surprisingly chilled, all things considered. I mean, maybe the sort of lounge music helps. I'm actually recording this accidentally as I'm recording a sample of it. There's a version of Fly Me To The Moon, kind of Bossa Nova-y. Let me stop the recording.
So anyway I stayed until the live music ended it was quite good and I was not feeling absolutely awful but I was sort of debating things in my head and stuff and anyway I went back to the hostel and I think that's where I bumped into I forgotten am I the the Danish guy I'd met I did get his name right correctly but I've not looked it up just now because of the massive difficulty of looking anything up he came running over sounds a bit eager but he came up to me as I was going up the stairs to my room I think I was gonna have a shower or something or I'd just come out the shower and he goes oh hi and you know so I got his name right and we chatted a little bit and it was really nice to see him actually it's like we were super close but it was nice of him to come over and everything and I said oh I'm just gonna go to the bar across the road and he didn't want to come but I mean I just arrived that day anyway blah blah but that was nice and then I went to the bar across the road and I sat outside and I scraped acquaintance with this chap and then I'd been hearing some music the chap was a sort of he said he was first language is English but he seemed to keep dropping into Spanish in a very strange way I think he might have been very drunk or perhaps even on something mildly illegal nothing major I don't know but he's in a nice enough chap and we talked a little bit and I think he was American but I don't know I mean I didn't want to probe it's fine you live in there a few months and anyway and we'd been hearing some music so I went upstairs there was a couple of guys doing live music it was very quiet there was like another table and I think some of the guys from the hostel would in and out and like the party guy turned up with a bottle of rum that's been doing them so last day or two and he gave me a bit of rum or something and then they went out and I stayed there and I listened to live music and I had a couple more beers and I wasn't feeling too bad at this point I because I think I said that I did a leg lift exercise at the open air gym in Elzante maybe that had done some small thing to my muscles I didn't use them like for ages maybe coincidence but my stomach was feeling just slightly funny and I actually left a little last beer.
So this is about midnight and I walked into the hostel and it's all dark and the sort of main lower terrace which is on the first floor by my standards because there's becker virtually nothing on the ground floor and It's just calm and muse. I might as well say now. I've left if it's not obvious already and there's maybe about 10 people sitting around in the dark and some of them call out to me Possibly it was the British couple or possibly it was the party guys and they and I've just made some sort of quip about how Are you all really attractive sitting there in the dark? And I I went over and sat down and I felt kind of like alright and People drifted off and basically I ended up playing Jenga with like stupid ...questions and very minor forfeits on the blocks and stuff like that, and it got down to basically five of us, like me, the British couple, the party guy, and there was an Australian chap who left about 130. I think I saw him the next day, but to be honest, I never quite got to pin down which of several people he was, because I just didn't see him enough, and I did feel kind of included, and it felt kind of natural and friendly, and that was really good, you know, really stereotypical hostel. And then I left at two, and I think they went to bed about ten past, twenty past two, the Jenga was very much ancillary to the conversation, I was just sort of carrying the conversation along. I didn't drink during this time, I had a bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, because I bought the two bottles and the Aguadiente, I offered those round, I don't think anyone was interested, but you know, I think it was appreciated. I went under the bridge, got rid of a bit of straight coke, I just drank the coke, so I did not, I'd had a few beers over the night, you know, maybe three, four, I took photos of them, because they were craft beers at the live music, and I'd had the Aguadientes and cokes in the afternoon, and those would probably mostly be metabolised, and then I probably had, let's say, three at the bar, me chaler, the pirate bar, MI space, CH, ELA, nearly opposite the hostel, with live music and stuff. So I wasn't particularly drunk, and I was on the coke for two hours, and I had this slight pain in the stomach all the time, but I was ignoring it, because I'm not writing this off, and then in the night, basically, I can't believe I've already written this, but I've probably been discussing the symptoms of an LLM or something, like three, four times in the night, it was like, I wasn't totally surprised at where I've been feeling when I went to bed, it's like, I had to get up and puke and vomit, and it's like, it was all black coming, I think it was basically Pepsi, but, and it's like, and I was sweating a bit, and there's I had an echo in the dorm, but not in the toilet, even so, the way I was sweating was a bit too much, and I'm feeling like, oh shit, oh shit, I mean, at least I didn't have to fly the next day, the next morning I felt a bit fragile, I kept nicely and semi-jokingly saying, oh I hope I didn't wake you up, no one apparently noticed, I guess most of the people had had a few beers, not everyone in that dorm was out that night, but I guess they had their own beers or whatever, and I didn't speak to the others. So, it was fine, but three or four times that happened, I woke up in the morning feeling a bit rough, but definitely better, you know, the third or fourth time when I went in the night, and at least the dorm had a private bathroom, and no one else was in it, so I was able to sort of lie on the floor, on the crouch on the floor and everything, and it's like, I was feeling rough in the morning, but better, and I'm thinking, oh, okay, I'm probably going to get, this probably isn't like the Bocas del Toro thing, or the, you know, and fingers crossed, it's been okay so let me just let the voice typing catch up
So Friday, I mean, it was already going to be, not Friday, sorry, Tuesday, it was already going to be the last full day and I knew I had to do some kind of prep and I was feeling rough, it's a shame I didn't get to have any last pupusas or anything, or any beers, but I did chat a bit to people in the dorm that morning and there was a couple of women who were talking about going to El Zonti and I told them where the bus was, I jumped in the conversation briefly while I was still in bed and I had a shower before I got up and I went, er, got a beer. Got a bit of bread and some, there's no big supermarkets in El Tonco, so I couldn't really get great supplies and I got some snacks for the flight in case the shop shut and I didn't feel well later and you know I did the online check-in and that was fine even though I didn't get any emails about it but I did it and fortunately I didn't have to type my passport number or anything I guess because I already booked, gave them that for the outbound flight and it was fine and it turned out I got an ILC on the short flight, I'm about to take it in an hour or two now uh not that that's a huge deal but it's nice I suppose and I seem to have the ALC I paid for on the other flights fingers crossed and you know I went for a little bit of a wander and the heat was a bit more oppressive I asked someone, Hyun guy and he was like no I don't think he's any hotter than it was yesterday but maybe it was just getting to me a bit more uh and I sat around on the terrace a bit and had some dry toast because I got some bread if I didn't already say and a bit of water oh and I had some rehydration fluid just the one sachet which I drank very slowly um I only had I maybe should have had more of them but they all got packed away because what would repack oh and I repacked my bag in the afternoon which is when I discovered that the bloody transmitter and the USB stick had gone missing and then I did ask people a bit in the hostel there was supposed to be some other live music at my paleo, MOP, ELIA and that was the thing and I just speak to people like some volunteer chap and I asked him and like I did I went to that on my own and I drank ginger ale which went down surprisingly well I sat in at the bar it was a bit busy and I wasn't it was all that last night feeling and I've not really got the party vibe on what with the illness and having to go and everything I was there on my own but it didn't feel too bad it's more like well I don't actually see her and I was here and I wasn't really in with the big crowd at the hostel oh I should say that that morning when they were leaving the dorm both the British couple independently invited me to join them on to hike to the lakes but I think they actually didn't do it because some guy they were going to be charged eight dollars for a guide because someone got got killed a month so I go so they've tightened things up but it was really nice of them to ask and maybe that would have got me in a little bit more with the so-called annoying woman and the American guy the party guy and well maybe it would have been a bit fifth wheel but anyway I didn't go and I wouldn't even have been feeling well I might not have done but I was feeling rough enough just my stomach a little bit raw walking down the street to get some supplies so I'm glad I didn't go it was a shame to get invited and not be able to but you know at least the invitation was there and I'm just rambling all over the place so I went to the live music on my own but it was quite busy and there's a lot of people milling around and coming to the bar and trying to get drinks anyway they hadn't been the last night so I had that two gin drills and I went back to the hostel I had a brief chat with that hyun guy before I'm completely mangling his name on I but I did get it right before and it is in the blog correctly uh and he was going off to smoke weed I think I probably said that to someone uh already and then I went back to the hostel so it was probably about half eight and I bumped into the British couple and the party guy and the annoying woman I shouldn't call her that but what else can I say I don't know a name uh outside on the outside on the terrace outside my dorm on the top floor and uh I talked to them a bit and they sort of invited me along and so I thought we were going to go to karaoke but basically we went back to the live music and I was a bit fifth wheelie there but then I wasn't trying to force my way in and then like party guys offering shots of rum to people and I turned it down because it's like I can't really be drinking today and I felt a bit of a party pooper like you know I didn't want to go for poosers later and I said good night to them when that was what they went off to do but you know I had my reasons I wasn't just being an arse I felt a bit of a fifth wheel at the thing but let's say I was stone cold sober and I couldn't really join in the party and I didn't know the group as a whole that well and I could have made more an effort but without trying to without trying to force myself onto them I did have a bit of a half decent chat with the British couple and we looked at some ants and we talked about shit and I think it was quite a nice conversation and then we were going to go back to the karaoke but they wanted to get poosers first and then the place they wanted to go was this was probably getting on for about 10 half 10 it was shut off had no no no stuff so the nice old woman running it was talking to them a bit but they were going to go off and get some poosers somewhere else I couldn't risk eating poosers last night and I said goodbye to that point I didn't actually get to say goodbye to the annoying woman but I did say goodbye to the others and then I walked past my trailer where the karaoke's on they actually had like a screen on the outside so there were people in the street singing and a couple of and probably upstairs as well and a couple of police watching and it was quite a nice looking atmosphere but if I hadn't been feeling sick and you know I might have gone on my own and then they'd have turned up or I would have gone with them or but if it wasn't the last day and the feeling sick so it wasn't it wasn't happening right but it did look quite a nice atmosphere the annoying woman feel quite bad corner that had been like trying to persuade me to sing karaoke earlier but like well what's the worst that can happen you're ever going to see any of these people again and you know I will sing with you if it's a good sign so she was nice don't get me wrong I'm being unfair corner annoying it's just that was one of my initial perceptions so I don't have a name so she was quite nice I guess but anyway it's like she wasn't annoying the same way as the annoying Dutch girl she was a bit older as well I think but anyway but I hope this fucking voice talks because I'm just going on and on and on time so then I went into the hostel and I had four slices of toast and there's maybe one guy sitting around and I just nodded at him and then I went to bed and there was a couple of other people I think a couple of girls in the dorm asleep and I went and had a shower and cleaned my teeth and then I I went to bed let's job typing
So yeah, I mean while we were talking like the rich couple Adam and Liv, sorry not Adam, Alan, they're 26, 27 by the way, they're looking to buy a house when they go back, they do this sort of thing a couple of times a year but, sorry a couple of months a year I think, because I think I already said like he's a freelance carpenter and she does, she's an NHS nurse so she gets to do this bank thing where she can work like crazy and take time off. They showed me a video of them of people like heading down on the Akatunango hike and while I'm probably rose-tinting a bit and there were quite a lot of people up there when I was there it felt pretty, it looked like Piccoli Circus and they were saying like yeah you can't just, he was saying I like to walk down quickly and you just can't because there's just the path and there's people going really slow and it did look really busy. I suspect it was busier than I remember in my head when I was doing it, like our group going up was probably about 20 or 30, maybe not that, I don't know, maybe 20, I don't know, I was probably in the old blog and there were other groups at the top and so when we're actually climbing up we are going up but like I remember distinctly running down parts of the upper bit from the sunrise bit and feeling a bit reckless and enjoying it at the same time and I don't know, just a note, you know everything's going downhill in it but that's just the increased travel. Some funeral parlour adverts, cremation parlour adverts in the regular rotation on the screens here which is mildly depressing, they all are vaguely inspirational quotes on about oh I remember my grandmother telling me stories and it will live in my heart forever. Anyway, like last night, even ignoring any social issues I might have, also as I said the British couple were 26, 27, I don't know about the other woman, I might guess she was mid-30s, the annoying woman and the party guy, he did say because it came up during the Jenga thing the night before, he was probably in his mid-30s but I'm not sure, I mean I was way the oldest but didn't seem to bother anyone overly much I guess but even ignoring any questions of my social skills, my age, whatever, the previous trajectory of the interactions and how well I knew people like last night, even ignoring all that kind of stuff which may or may not have been an issue anyway, I was like I'm glad I made an effort to go out and it was nice of than to try and encourage me to go with them, especially the annoying woman who hardly knew me like and it's like I had my eye on, I had one, you know my stomach, I feel a lot better today, I'm not saying I'm completely over it, I feel a lot better today, at that point you know my stomach's still feeling a little bit rough and I've got one eye on packing and one eye on getting to bed and I can't drink and I can't really eat anything either because I don't want to take any chances because I've got the flight tomorrow, it's not like oh I'll gamble and if I feel shit tomorrow it's not the end of the world, I had the early taxi and the flight and it's like the whole thing, I just had one eye on the clock so to speak so it was a shame but it was never going to be amazing and in a way it's a shame because this group did have kind of a real party sort of drinking and staying out late kind of vibe that would have been really nice to get involved with at other points, that hasn't always been present in other hostels, probably not even for other people I've seen whether I was invited to join or not, so just the way things go until it varies but it wasn't happening, it was logistically it would have been fucking stupid to do it under all those sort of constraints, anyway so I think I'm probably actually more or less caught up now, it's a really bad explanation, I'm not trying to sit here and think what to say and then dictating it and then doing the next bit, maybe I should do that but also the fact that you have to wait while the dictation transcribes, if I was typing this into a virtual voice recorder and then going to transcribe it afterwards maybe that would work anyway it is what it is, it's crap, I think it's probably just about going to be intelligible especially for future me where it maybe augments my faded but not totally dead memories, if some total strangers reading this on the web and after all it is my blog even though there's no real point in it being a blog, that's going to be harder but I hope it is broadly comprehensible, as I keep saying over and over again the main point is just to try and bash stuff out while it's still fresh in my memory rather than looking at things back with the rose tinted or confused or mixed up view afterwards, look let's transcribe this.
So I'm pretty sure some of this Boston Overtime covers playing and stuff. I've heard myself on some YouTube playlists. It's quite cool, I'm just saying. I'm sitting at Gate 5, by the way, because there's no flight from here and it's like, there's quite a bit of space. If anyone is listening, obviously, technically I'm posting this on the web anyway, but not that they are. Anyway, overall, I must admit, although it wasn't for me, El Tunco was a lot better than I thought. I mean, not saying there weren't certainly rough moments, but the hostel did work out pretty nicely. Both at that hostel and in general, I perhaps wish I'd spent a bit more time sitting around in hostels. Maybe I did more, I've just forgotten. It's like, thinking back to, although there was a slight Southern quality about it, when I was sitting there with that Aguadientian coke on the Saturday, Monday afternoon before I was sick, you know, before the night that turned out to go quite well in the end until I got sick. It was kind of nice and the terrace was warm, but not uncomfortable and it felt nice. Like, not every hostel has an environment where even ignoring any social dynamics, it actually feels super nice to sit. It's like, yeah, you could sit here, but do I really want to, even if I'm not, even if I am feeling comfortable? But I don't, anyway, just to note that maybe that is a legit thing to do. I've kind of already evolved to that point of view, but I sometimes feel bad about it or there's social concerns stopping me doing it. Yeah, a little bit more of judicious, no, I'm going to spend an hour or two or this afternoon sitting around at the hostel and just reading or having a drink or whatever might have been nice. It's like, you know, for instance, Rick's courtyard was OK and, you know, if you were chatting to someone, it was fine. But it wasn't somewhere that I think, even if I had no social considerations whatsoever, it was not somewhere that was so inherently nice. I would really want to sit there for hours. But anyway, just saying, Rick's was the Santa Ana hostel, by the way, I probably already said. But I did generally like El Tunco more than I expected. It's small. It was this weird pseudo island feeling with the relative isolation and the lack of decent shops. And I guess the water somehow gives an irrational island feeling. There was definitely a preponderance, not preponderance, a distinct subpopulation of surfer dudes, the kind of people Lucas had mentioned. But there were some older people. I mean, of course, it skews young among the foreigner crowd, but not exclusively young, young, you know. And they say the locals, presumably locals, because it could be like Spanish speaking tourists. I think mostly locals, local visitors, probably local tourists or whatever, they go to all ages and there's a familyish kind of quality to that. So it's quite a nice mix, actually. And I didn't feel monstrously out of place in that sense. I mean, the hostel, obviously, it's a bit different. But even then, you know, at least there were these 30ish people and there were, in fact, a few, probably 50, 60ish people who wandered around the hostel a bit. I never really spoke to, but because they either looked on their own or they were with people or I was in a bad mood or they looked sort of like they didn't want to talk and they didn't look that friendly. But anyway, you know, El Tunco, I mean, I don't know whether I'd ever come back because at some point I probably am going to want to try and take surf lessons for two or three weeks. But apparently it's quite expensive in El Tunco and I don't know that it would necessarily be the best place if you were making a free choice from, say, all of Central and Latin America. If I was going to go somewhere for two or three weeks, I'd have an eye on price and quality and busyness and so forth. But I could imagine going back. I thought I would absolutely hate it. And it was on the whole not perfect. I just wish there'd been a big supermarket or something, you know, but it was nice and compact, actually, and there was some element of nightlife. I mean, yeah, I felt a bit lonely at points, but that's not really down to the place. And to some extent, I did get a bit better with the hostel and if I'd made a bit more effort or been a bit less in end of trip mode, if nothing else, which does obviously have some sort of effect. I mean, overall, yeah, it was much better than I expected.
Just on a more general note, it's like I never used the Bluetooth keyboard, I probably should stop bringing it with me. I mean like in theory fingers crossed it's not going to happen. If the screen on the P7 had got even worse, being able to maybe manage to turn Bluetooth on and use that keyboard to type the password into unlock, it might have got me out of a hole. But I don't think that's generally something that's worth lugging the keyboard around for. In theory it's still a good idea because I hate the on-screen keyboard and the voice typing in different ways. I mean it turns the blog, I mean the blog wasn't interesting before but at least it felt fairly literate and writing is different than typing. I mean yeah the on-screen keyboard does still have the writing quality that's fair but the voice typing does not, it's different. With the writing you're forced to at least be semi-coherent. But I mean of course the on-screen keyboard is perhaps not as bad as I make out but particularly on this trip since the screen started playing up while it is usable and sometimes surprisingly so it also goes wrong intermittently and it makes it extra frustrating and the fact that you type some correct but strange word or name of a place or foreign word and it auto-corrects it and if you're not careful it just gets missed. It's super annoying. I mean I really do wish I could have a hardware keyboard on the phone but you can't have it can you? So even so the carrying the Bluetooth keyboard is in theory a good idea but in practice and it isn't just that I've been lazy obviously now I've got the very vocals and not that I even tried it would be the inconvenience of sitting and using it would be less than when I had to dig my reading glasses out. In practice the chances of having the time and inclination to use it and somewhere where you have a chair and a table at sort of laptop-y kind of height is fairly slim then like yes obviously there are a fair number of digital nomads and just other travelers around with laptops so that sort of thing certainly exists like there were people using laptops on the terrace at Carmemieux but it's also it's not something that's been super common especially in my rooms even when I've had privates where you know it might be I'm not doing much tonight let's sit and type the blog up and even maybe I'm just lazy but digging the keyboard out doesn't generally feel super inviting but as a general rule the limiting factor has been the time and inclination to write something up at that point combined with having somewhere to sit and use the phone plus Bluetooth keyboard like a laptop it is a good idea in theory and I will consider it but I am kind of thinking that for another trip it's not worth bringing the Bluetooth keyboard as I say I don't think I've used it once and I didn't do that to prove a point it's anyway
Nothing new, but I should probably also be strict with myself about not hanging on to every random receipt and shoving them in my blue folder and lugging them around for ages. I'm never going to do anything with them, even in theory, if I was going to do a scrapbook, which I'm normally too lazy to do. Those don't really be needed. It's like there's nothing wrong with keeping the odd paper or a ticket or a wristband. It's not really necessary, but at least those are vaguely low-grade souvenirs that might go in a scrapbook. But I mean, although the odd supermarket receipt might be interesting, I end up carrying so many. They're probably adding some significant weight on that note, although it's not exactly a bad thing and they probably don't weigh very much. I've accumulated so many carrier bags that I don't dare throw away, and it's kind of nice to have them. But there's quite a lot, to be fair. Maybe I ought to weigh them when I unpack the bag. I mean, and I still haven't had enough small plastic bags, you know, litre size, smaller ones, the freezer bags, ones that you might put a key or a few coins in, ones that you might use a packet of peanuts in after you've eaten half of it. Zip lock with the press. I just never have enough. I just cannot get that right. And it's like maybe there's some in the bag that I can't find. I don't think so. It's just really weird. Anyway, just noting some things for future trips. The power bank got loads of use, both phones did. For what it's worth, the A06, the screen is obviously technically fine. It works perfectly. But because it is a low grade phone, and I've maybe got too much stuff on it, although I don't think I've gone absolutely crazy. It's super fucking laggy. And it's like, in many ways, like you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to the home screen or get a list of apps. I actually can't remember how it works, but it's semi-intuitive when you're doing it. It doesn't work. It feels a bit like the P7 with its broken screen does, but the A06 is just really laggy. But on the whole, it's done what I need it to. It's added the comfort of a second phone. It's let me put a local sim in it without putting that in the P7. So both phones have had connectivity because the P7's got its travel sim. It's given me Uber access without any worries because it's stock Android. Although I haven't been generally worried about getting mugged or things getting broken or lost, it has let me have a cheaper phone around and I can have WhatsApp on it with no faffing. The WhatsApp via the web on the P7 has in practice worked okay when I've needed it to. But it's not nice to have to rely on that. It's still not ideal to have it on the P7 at all. So on the whole, the A06 has worked pretty well. And despite the initial confusion, it has given me decent signal on at least the networks I managed to use. I was forced onto in both El Salvador and Nicaragua, so while it's laggy as hell and I'm just making the observation that it feels like using the P7 with the broken screen a lot of the time, it has done its job pretty well. And I kind of, it has been good to have the stock Google Android even if it's snoopy as hell. For travel purposes, I can mostly accept that.
1131 just wandered to gate 2 where my flight is showing, still 1305 delayed. But it is getting closer to the original departure time and I irrationally dont like to be too far away.
There is some vague tension to buy a snack or perhaps a coffee but I'm not particularly desperate even if you assume there's absolutely no bodily health issues which probably aren't to be fair at this point but it's like it's not something I need I'm gonna still be killing a lot of time in Bogota I may get a coffee on the plane I'm not desperate I probably won't I mean I have a few dollars cash but that's not an issue of course I probably I suppose I use cash coins to buy that frozen earlier so that was free by my rules almost because I like to incentivize myself to spend coins I have I haven't counted them I've put them in my bag somewhere I have probably about a dollar twenty and small change and no dollar coins and I have some dollar notes obviously I can pay on a credit card which is what I'll do in Bogota because I have no Colombian cash and even if I brought some with me which I probably should have done in case I had wanted to go into town although maybe I thought more clearly about the timing when I was back home probably I didn't just look I should maybe but I wouldn't want to pick up a load of Colombian coins when I'm in the country for five hours and then you're never going to bring them back so I'll be using credit card at the airport as I did on the way out so I could buy on a credit card here but it's like it's just overindulgent and I don't need it and I'm not going to do it but there it and I could have a snack out of my bag as well I'm not really I just had two slices of bread that finished off the stuff that I squashed in because I didn't want to force it down or leave it anyone when it was so small. I'm just rambling like crazy aren't I?
So I've just put my fleece on. I wasn't exactly cold but, you know, I'm wearing the black long sleeve rs top, which would have probably had me sweltering, mildly, in, you know, El Tonco or wherever, but with the air con here, it was just a smidge on the cool side and it's like putting the fleece on. Gives me extra pockets if I want them and it'll come in handy for the flight and it debulks my bag slightly for getting on the plane. I've come back to gate 5, by the way, it's just around the corner and I just want to keep checking in on gate 2. Just some general rambling, it's like, during the trip I've probably watched about, I don't know, an hour and a half of YouTube oh so it's over precise but something like that it's not like I've been super productive indeed obviously to some extent there's been some personal project stuff I wish I could do but can't do because semi deliberately I'm on holiday without a laptop and I'm not supposed to be doing that kind of thing but it's not like I've been super productive but at the same time when I'm at home I will just relax by watching some maybe mildly semi useful but mostly fluff YouTube or something I haven't done anything I have nearly nine weeks right so just an observation that maybe I should try to keep that down a bit over time of course when you're at home it's different the whole the whole pattern of the day is different but you know maybe a lesson there I've been checking in on my handful of social media follows a bit too often but I haven't massively bloated it so that hasn't really got too out of control maybe checking in more than I should but probably no more than I was before I left I keep thinking I mean I wish my Spanish was better to be honest even even without the comprehensible input hypothesis which I have kind of been trying to work on the basis of even without that as a hypothesis it does feel like it would be a huge jump up if even if my spoken Spanish was still a bit clunky and hesitating if I could just understand maybe let's let's rule out super local chat among three or four locals with lots of slang straight away but like if I could be watching you know just normal Spanish everyday Spanish like some when there's a soap opera on the TV or something you know in a hostel as an example or you know some more casual I mean I do do a bit of this of course but you know some some random video content aimed at Spanish speakers of course there's still an attempt to speak clearly mostly it really would be good to just get some more practicing with that sort of thing and improve my vocabulary and so forth because even if I speak clunkily maybe my I should really work harder and I keep saying this and I always say this and I'm too lazy I never get around to it if I could just work harder towards basically unless you're doing something super local and super fast I understand you even if I can't speak very well probably based on the comprehensible input hypothesis I would start to speak a lot better if I could do that but it's like I really do nearly mostly kind of understand everything but there's just that vocabulary or whatever and it's like so I can follow stuff but it's not quite perfect and anyway just just some ramblings and vague inspirational aspirational stuff
Electronic pan pipes version of pachelbels canon playing.
I kind of wish I'd been a bit more chilled in general during the trip, on the other hand to be fair, I've probably not done too badly in that sort of sense a lot of the time, definitely not always, I should maybe just try not to fucking worry too much about socialising and whether I'm doing it right and whether I'm in the right place, I should just go with it, I'd probably get as good results, maybe even better without worrying about it, but it's difficult. I mean, I wish I'd done this sort of stuff when I was 25 or whatever, but didn't. Lots of reasons it wasn't happening right and you know the best thing you can do is what you can with what you have and blah blah blah
I do on the whole, I mean I'm not saying I'm ultra super, I do feel pretty relaxed right now, I'm much better than I was expecting And at least with this delay, if it doesn't get crazy, it does spread the delay out into two different gaps, a bit more evenly so Fingers crossed, I'm obviously not looking forward to getting that tube all the way home and everything and then going to the station tomorrow But it will also be nice to see people, you know, and see their nephew and niece at Easter and stuff like that So I'm just rambling now to fill the time I mean I think we've kind of got the basic gist of the semi-valid aspirational stuff down that I might have learned from the trip I can always say more later I mean it's, I mean all the time mean and like, what can you do, voice isn't writing It's like, it's, I don't think it's just me, it's like You've got, it's, I know we already know this, I think I've probably even said it before, but for what it's worth it's like The time just goes in strange ways, it's like, as I think F3W says, like stuff like just doing your laundry or whatever And you're having to decide where to eat every day and going out to eat and stuff And it eats up the time in a not bad way, but in a very different way than at home You're not literally, I mean, technically you are touristy 24-7 when you're abroad and you're a tourist But you're not actively tourist-ing all the time, you know You might do 2, 3, 4 hours a day of some kind of vaguely explicitly touristy activity Doing a hike, going somewhere, that little side trip to Ozzonti for example But the rest of the time, and it's not even for other people, I think it's not all partying or socialising either It's like, you want to hang around a bit and just do nothing And I guess that kind of happens when you're at home, but because you're at home you It's just easy to sit there and watch YouTube, or if you're a bit more dynamic, work on some personal projects and stuff And that doesn't happen here, and it's just It's a very strange and just different life dynamic in some way I mean, this is not novel or anything, I'm just kind of making the observation And I think to some extent you've got to kind of accept that, although maybe I am being a little bit lazy Life works differently when you are moving around every few days and not at home It's like I've not been great about keeping my exercises up, I've done a tiny bit But I've been doing a lot of walking, and I do think I might have actually lost some weight, but we'll see I certainly don't think I've put tonnes on, but again the scales might prove me a liar.
This is just random waffling and it's probably a bit pretentious and a bit wanky but it's like Both with the trip and when I'm back home, I perhaps need to try and future trips I should probably say I probably need to try not to make things such a fucking chore It's like, you know when I'm going for my swimming in back at home I need to not think oh fuck or I need to not get too worked up about whether I'm making progress or whether it's doing any God or what it's maybe a waste of time. I just need to sort of not think about it so much. I mean take it seriously And think it a bit but not get overworked up. I don't know.
1204 so I think the flight that I'm the inbound version of my flight has just arrived I think I even saw the plane taxi along the runway outside where I'm sitting so that does at least suggest that they'll turn it around and we'll probably will take off more or less at the delayed 13.05 and it's not going to just grow indefinitely so I guess the flight inbound was just delayed for whatever reason so I have plenty of margin in hand and there's fingers crossed it's going to be fine I'm having some salted peanuts that I paid a dollar 25 for at small marketing not to unco late last night they're probably between going home on my own from the live music and then getting back to the hostel and meeting those people again 125 is a bit insane I'm sure I would have got a much bigger bag for not much more money in a supermarket big supermarket but there aren't any you know and it is what it is just saying I don't I'm not starving but I thought I would eat them it'd be something to do and that way if I lose them I get confiscated somewhere like it's immigration or transit through to the air side when I get to Columbia at least I've had something
1209 just seen an ad for "eau so intense" perfume and after the penny dropped I did chuckle at the name.
Music now OK but far more bland.
Gonna go sit at gate 2 now I don't need to voice type so much and now we are getting closer to touch wood departure.
1218 wtaf? We have to go through a second security scanner here at the gate?
1225 ffs. The scan was not big deal but since my passport is in my trouser pkxket with my phone I forgot about my hidden waist belt and it was inside my trousers after I took my waist belt off and I noticed it only when it slid down the inside of my leg after passing throgubhe acanner. It has my vaccine booklet and about two hundred dollars and two bank cards in. That was a bit fucking careless.
Annoying to have to dthos scan and take belt etc off all the same of course, but not actually a big deal.
1241 on plane, no real faff. Been given a printed boaring pass which changed ny aeat but I didn't pay and it is still asile. Btheybqrw doing the fucking "roller bags only in overhead lockers" shit again as if I should suffer because my bag doesn't have wheels despite being a fair size and me having paid just the same, so I am ignoring them and if they spot it I will politely argue and give in if I have to. If they said personal items under seat (as they so), no
Problem but ny main bag is just as big and just as valid as hand luggage as a roller bag. Ok maybe it is actually smaller, but why should I be worse off because of that? It is still too big to fit comfortably under the seat in front without eating into my leg room. I do have my day-pack under seat in front as I should.
If they just said "large bags" in the overhead rack ot would be fine but they keep insisting on saying "wheeled bags". Maybe they would not really try to make me put my big backpack under the seat.
A319 btw. Confused conversation just now with crw member about whether the srats next to me are fre. Err, shouldn't they know? I was not rude but
Probably appeared rather confused and also bad at Spanish but the whole thing was a bit unexpected.
Overhead bin has been shut on my bag so that is probably OK. Fingers crossed.
1315 in air, middle seat free, all ok.
1627 el Salvador /1727 Bogotá airside at El Dorado, no problems, we got bus from the terminal and the international connections. Security bits seemed to be closed but there was a sort of route through, I followed the crowd and we seemed to clear the regular security bit without going through the prior immigration bit. No one's checked my boarding pass but obviously I'm here. So yeah, just got to wait until the flight presumably. It's not on the screens yet but presumably it's fine, well I've not seen it anyway. My stomach's churning a little bit but nothing too bad, we got a coffee and a few cookies on the plane, you got a choice, that's what I had. Everything's basically fine, I realise I could probably buy some Duty 3 here but I don't particularly want to, to be honest, although it's nice to get a souvenir, I haven't really drunk much of the, what was it, agua diente. I bought when I was here last time proper and especially since this trip wasn't to Colombia, it's not like buying something from here, it would be a massive souvenir and then I have to squeeze it into the bag and who knows if it's really cheap, so no, not particularly tempted.
1748 that's Columbian time, I'm voice typing this at the charging point, there's a few people around but no one really cares, I just called mum, just for quick chats, everything's fine, stomach's still grinding a little bit but nothing major, I'll get a coffee in a bit but obviously there's no rush. I didn't see the thing on the boards as I was going through the international connections, passageways, but I didn't hang around and maybe the other screens would show it, mum had it up and she says it was showing us on time. Basically everything's fine, I've just got to grind out this extra bit of time but at least it's been a little bit distributed differently. I think I already said a million times but given the time I got here, even if the flight had been on time from El Salvador, I would not have been going into town, I'd been thoroughly confused about it being during the day, it's much more of an evening layover. It was pleasantly cool actually when we got out of the plane, I suppose it's the altitude and maybe the late time of day but it was sort of warm but pleasantly cool outdoors which felt a bit odd after being in an opt-unco and so forth for a few days. I'm topping the P7 up so I can maybe watch some film, I did watch a bit of video on the flight over on the P7 using the phone stand so that got some use of the phone stand in the headphone case. Anyway, yeah, I'm just gabbling, so let me transcribe this and stop.
I suppose that did at least mean I got a tiny bit of fresh air rather than being in airport terminals and planes for over 24 hours.
1804 guts churning slightly but not too bad. Had some Mani garapinado. Been trying to get p7 topped up and will go for a wander and fill my water bottles and check flight status screens etc soon.
1822 being the toilet, nothing came out the backside, guts are still churning a bit, but nothing major, I guess, it's not like it's not happened before. The flight's still not on the screens, I just looked on some random website, there's an official QR code, which just takes you to a WhatsApp page. So anyway, as far as I can tell, the gate isn't on this external site yet, maybe it hasn't been announced, wouldn't be too surprising. This flight's up to about 23.05, showing on the monitor, but mine's a bit later than that, so anyway, just keep wandering round a bit. I'm going to go for a bit of a walk, because I just cannot keep sitting all that time.
1838 flight's come up, gate A3 on time, just been at the bog again, I feel a bit bloated, maybe I shouldn't have had those peanuts and their food on the flight, I don't feel terrible, it's like I'm farting a little bit but not sharting so it could be worse. I'm just going to wander round a bit, there is a chemist here but I'm not overly convinced that e.g. some indigestion tablets will do a bit of good, but they might, Al, not in a huge rush, I'm going to wander round for a bit and see what happens. Not too worried, I mean it might not be pleasant but I don't think it's going to be a huge deal, anyway just saying.
2115 okay, I was feeling a tiny bit, like I said, I walked round a bit and that certainly helped fart in a bit, I also got some medical advice from an LLM and some methicone was suggested, I went into a couple of pharmacies here, the first one I asked, I did quite well with the Spanish and the guy said, oh yeah, yeah, this, and I said, how much is it, he says it's so much Colombian pesos, and I said, what's that in dollars, it's $38 for just a packet, I was like, no, I said, no, it doesn't hurt that much, thanks, and it didn't, and I wandered round, I went into the pharmacy, but I didn't actually speak to anyone there, but they had a lot of stuff on the shelves, and nearly all the kind of things that might have contained that or that might have helped me were in the same price range, even aspirin was like about 10 quid, so no, I'm not that desperate honestly, I feel much better now, I also went and found a group of seats that didn't have armrests on and laid down on them for about half an hour, 40 minutes, I called mum, I called mum while I was doing it, been to the toilet, filled both my water bottles up, we're getting sort of close to flight time, so I'm going to walk down and have a look at the gate and see if I need to lie down near there or whatever, yeah, everything's basically fine, the flight, oh, oh, there's a gate change, it says B6 to A3, but it's always been saying A3, so I don't know what's going on there, but it is otherwise showing as on time, so yeah, anyway, I'm wandering around talking to myself like an idiot, so I should not worry, so I think lying down did help, never actually laying down I think on a set of seats at the airport, I used my bag as a pillow, not because it was terribly comfortable, but to stop losing it, and although I wasn't even trying to sleep and I didn't, I set an alarm on my phone almost a minute or two after I'd laid down, which I was doing mainly to ease the pain, not pain, the bloat, and it did help, but I was lii've come back over to the charging point not far from the gate, the gate looi've come back over to the charging point not far from the gate, the gate looked quite busy but then it's not a huge seating area for a relatively big plane so I'm kind of hoping the flight won't be too rammed and there won't be any shit about non-wheeled bags in the upper racks or something. The flight's still on time so I can say it wasn't saying boarding, I mean no one's seen a boarding pass but then I've got a boarding pass and why should there be a problem? I'm not even sure they would have checked it if there had been other security, I'm just being super paranoid. I'm not feeling too bad, not brilliant, I cleaned my teeth, couldn't floss because the floss which I've brought out with me and have used more or less every single night, I don't think I flossed the night I was sick for example, I might have missed the odd night, I flossed pretty much every single night and there was like two inches of floss when I went to pull it off to do it now so that's not too bad but I did at least clean my teeth. I haven't had a Juan Valdez coffee here because stomach's feeling a bit ropey and I want to save my endurance for eating something on the flight against LLM medical advice what it's worth but if the food's edible I'm probably going to eat it. I might have a beer as well because I'm stupid and I can't pass up a free beer but play it by ear. Anyway so I'm here topping up the P7 which is at 59% because I've been using, I watched a little video on it and been using it a bit. The A06 was at 80% and it hasn't had much use and I've got the power bank which I've put in my day pack. I'm probably going to put the fleece on, it's relatively warm in this airport and I've been taking, I had the fleece off most of the day which is slightly annoying because it means it bulks my bag out but I'm going to wear it on the flight and I'm going to wear it when I go to the gate so as to avoid the bag looking any bulkier than necessary. I'm probably also going to just carry my little day pack for under the seat separately so I do have the two bags and then the main bag does look a bit smaller although that might backfire if someone then says oh it can go under the seat, anyway sorry I'm rambling but yeah I think the lie down did help and I'm not feeling too bad, I'm not feeling 100%. video on it and been using it a bit. The A06 was at 80% and it hasn't had much use and I've got the power bank which I've put in my dayd it hasn't had much use and I've got the power bank which I've put in my day
The screen touch invisible mobeku moved the cursor during that. The very end of the sentence should be earlier on. I hope it's fairly clear from context. I'm not trying to fix it now. The flight I had didn't get any more charging because there was an incomprehensible from that distance announcement. I've had to come over. Boarding starts in five minutes. It's fine. I've got the power bank to top the phone up and it's at 60%. I've got another phone.
2145 I am in group of so probably one of last one, which seems a bit silly when my seat is right at the back. But it is always thus and apart from aviancas wheeled bag obsession it makes little real difference, and indeed the less time I am sitting on the plane the better since the seating is all preallocated anyway
2215 on plane. Got my seatt. Bag in overhead rack and only modest repetitons of the insane wheeled bag policy. Seat seems to have full recline based on appearances and (not that I picked it for thos and I do feel fine) it is of course handy for the toilet.
Flight seems fairly full. Broadly speaking all seems ok. Fingers crossed.
2218 just seen a cabin crew member helping someone push all kind of jute brown woven material "reusable carrier bag variant" into the overhead locker, despite it almost certainly having no wheels.
2221 and she just suggested a guy put a bag very like mine in a certain overhead bin. Maybe sanity actually prevails in reality despite their very specific and arsey wording, which I don't think I am just being pedantic in interpreting, since they do explicitly go out of their way to talk about wheeled bags in both Spanish and English.
My bags bin has been shut as well which is also reassuring.
B787 btw
9h10m flight time mentioned.
Thu 0021 these times are probably el Salvadoran lately as I was copying off phone flock as o wrote and it hasn't updated. Anyway. Just had dinner. Hope don't regret it but not bad teriyaki pork and rice brewd roll with butter, bit of cake and a small sprite and small white coffee. Left some possibly ok but not in mood to gamble rice salad thing I wasn't asleep but did have eyes shit and may have missed the newly service but cabin crew presumably on the
Alert for this - kudos - and one asked me what I wanted alterntive was cheese pasta.
No films of real interes, liste ing to music quietly. Hope to fall qlseep. Thighs hurting on seat for whatever reason. Right now guts feel 90% ok.
Could have had wine but saw other
People ordering sprite and it felt like best idea so no alcohol.
Thu 0755 Colombian time queueing for not really needed toilet butwe may be landing in about an hour and I'd rather avoid massive queues or wasting time lanside.
Feel roughl but 90%+ of it is that dehydrated slept on a plane feeling. Had omlette for breakfast and coffee and not feeling too bad. About an hour who was half awake and the engines were giving a "I am on a truck or bus and we have stopped moving and the engone is idling very roughly vibe.
So overall things are not that bad. Eyes feel dryish, been drinking bit of water intermittently.
1655 got home pretty easily all things considered. The automatic gates at Heathrow worked, got a tube almost straight away at all connections, didn't make a precise note but was probably home by about 1600..
Am going to send this now before anything happens to it.
