(Oh, this is not cerveza con piernas, so there's no possible justification for the price there.)
Bit of a shame as the sit down toilet in American Pub is in a doorless cubicle and for all I know the bog here is nicer. No reason to suspect that except it could hardly be worse. However, I hope not to need it, just a bit worried.
Must admit I almost didn't want to come out. I know it ("Ace of Spades" on now) sounds a bit silly, but it felt like if I didn't force myself out tonight I'd never have the balls to do it again. Vaguely plan not to be out as late as last night but we'll just take it easy and see how it goes.
Bus terminal is an easyish walk from the hotel tomorrow so I need to check out (and pay, though hopefully there should be no problems there) at 12.
Bit nervous about the sandboarding. I'm sure I'm getting far too worked up. I guess if I go on the event and decide to just sit it out, tough shit. I suspect it will involve a bit of lying on the board going downhill and then trying to stand up and do it and falling over after a metre or two.
Cough sort of coming a bit to the fore, but nose is getting less blocked. Probably tuberculosis.
Vague plan for tomorrow is that I will get to San Pedro 1500ish, hopefully check in at the hostel and be out by 1600 so I can wander down the main street and see if I can up for sandboarding and the stargazing thing. I suspect sandboarding will be no trouble to organise but the stargazing may be more problematic as I suspect it may not be every night. We shall see.
Should at least be a quiet couple of nights. The hostel is supposed to have free wi-fi so I may just have a quiet surf in the evenings. Got a single private room with shared bathroom for CLP20k a night, which I think is not too bad. Cheapest I saw was about £12/night in a 4 bed dormitory, so I'm maybe paying double that.
Repacked my bag earlier with the newly washed clothes. Left the camera battery charging (it was still saying full after 2-3 hundred photos, but figured I ought to, especially as I have some idea there just may not be 24h electricity at the hostel in San Pedro) so need to remember to pack it when I get back.
Been thinking about the sandboarding trip in a practical sense. I guess, advice at booking time to the contrary, I want to take water and as few other things as possible (risk of theft while unattended) in my daypack. Probably keep passport in hidden belt unless I feel the hostel is very secure. Assuming I want protection for scrapes/burns when I fall over, I guess jeans and a long-sleeved top are in order. (Sadly the one long-sleeved top I have, other than the fleece, is quite a nice smart one, but I will have to risk it I think.) I am sure it wil be hot and climbing up the dune will be absolutely knackering but I don't have shorts (I don't *do* shorts) and I'd rather be hot for a few hours than bruised more than I can help for a few days. Having said that, I am kind of leaning to a cheap short-sleeved T-shirt and lashings of factor 50 on my arms.
Oh, will wear my old glasses of course, and my cap.
I keep telling myself that it's more about having a go than anything else and that the actual amount of time I spend actually sandboarding is likely to be microscopic. Would be nice if there was a recommended company I could try; to the best of my recollection the Bradt guide book doesn't mention any, but maybe the Rough Guide will. Ideally will have a look tonight as I expect to be rushing to get things booked once I arrive tomorrow. I really hope not to have to stay in San Pedro more than the two nights I have already booked.
In principle I could have got an early bus (eg the company I booked with at 1330 does one at 0830), checked in (at least to the extent of dropping my bag off, and maybe getting changed in a bathroom) by 1030 and have done the sandboarding tomorrow afternoon. But I figured the chances of me wanting to get up at 0830 to hare around to do something which is scaring the shit out of me were remote. Anyway, I expect it's the stargazing that will be hardest to book and I can still book that for tomorrow night if that's an option. (If I end up doing both on the same day, ie Sun, I hope the two don't nearly overlap. I also hope now I think about it things don't not happen because it's Sunday. Nothing I can do about it, just have to see. I guess I could probably also, if un-ideally, do the sandboarding Monday and get a late bus out to wherever I decide to go next afterwards.
I'm sure all this worry looks pretty pathetic but fuck it. Maybe going through all this will help me stop worrying so much about things in future. And maybe I should remember the shock I had when I thought my Mum had died and try to keep things in perspective. Most likely downside are some moderately nasty friction burns, I reckon. I think breaking anything is probably unlikely and if I did I guess it's *likely* to heal OK in the end even if it's a pisser for some months. I am not sure how you 'wear' the board but I can half see some kind of ankle twisting or breaking. Look, I'm speculating about something I know nothing about so it's a bit silly really. As I say, I am intending to sign up and turn up and I will try to push myself a little but when push comes to shove if I don't feel OK about it I'm not gonna do it and I'm not gonna beat myself up about it.
Oh, I do want an English speaking instructor if that is at all possible. I suspect it will be a non-issue, I think a lot of backpackers speak far less Spanish than I do (based on the few I have met) and so they must be catered for. Yes to practicing my Spanish in general, but not when a misunderstanding might mean the difference between a serious injury and not.
I suppose I just might be able to buy a long-sleeved top of some kind beforehand. San Pedro is not exactly a shopping mecca but as long as it's cheap just about any old crap would do. If I'd thought about it I could maybe have found something here.
Oh, when I took my electronic dictionary out of my pocket this morning the batteries were dead. They were new a month or two ago. Yay! Buying some replacements will doubtless be a bit of a fucker; I suspect it will have to wait until after San Pedro. This would obviously be an advantage of a paper dictionary but the electronic one is more convenient when it works and is small and light enough to have in my fleece pocket all the time. Another time I will bring some spare batteries and a suitable screwdriver, I think.
2145 Waitress just asked if I wanted anything else and queried the CLP200 on the table. She has a weird high pitched voice anyway but can't help wondering if she was being sarcastic when she said thanks (twice). Anyway, finished up and off to American Pub.
2152 Here. Just ordered a schop. Got a table in a corner where I hope to be fairly inconspicuous. Gonna have to pay with a 10k note to conserve my limited supply of 1ks; can probably trust them and best to do it asap so they don't think they can pull a fast one on the drunk foreign idiot. I doubt the 1ks would have lasted tonight out anyway so I would have had to use the 10k eventually.
Slightly worried about the cough and general bodily minor aches and pains but I guess I'm slightly worried about everything.
Oh, I woke up this morning before the alarm (which I think was set for 1030ish) feeling great. I think it was a combination of a decent night's sleep in a decent bed (bus the night before), plenty of it and *not really having to do anything that day*. It's obviously more of an issue on a short trip like this but I think even in 2010 I did find the continuous obligation to 'do stuff' a bit of a grind at times.
Not rammo here but modestly busy; maybe 30 people at a rough guess.
Where's my change!? Ah, just got it. Didn't tip but will do later. It's a waitress tonight, not the bloke I had last night. Good in a way but it does mean I don't get to carry over whatever goodwill I might have accrued last night.
Bit hot in here, though I am wearing the fleece. Not too bad.
Oh, lest I give the impression of poor diet, I bought an apple earlier, before lunch. A large one. And I ate it. So there. I had terrible trouble with the price - I find fruit & veg sellers intimidating enough in English, never mind two of them staring at me in Spanish - but in the end I handed over CLP350 somewhat arbitrarily (after starting with CLP50 because the guy pointed to something on the digital scale he weighed my single apple on which seemed to say 37) and was permitted to walk off. I half wonder if the scale said 370 and I was at the wrong angle to see the zero. He might have said the price but I was too flustered to understand anyway. I half hope I didn't do him out of CLP20 and I half hope I did.
2212 Apropos of nothing, I was sort of involved in a conversation with a young German (I think) couple over lunch on the Valle de Elqui tour. They said they had saved up their holiday for a year and were travelling for four weeks. That seems a bit stingy to me for a whole year and for (presumably) a German employer. I guess they maybe didn't quite mean what they said ("well, of course, we only went skiing for a long weekend instead of a week, and we only had a few days at Christmas') and I'm taking it too seriously. But it did stick in my head.
I need to confirm dates (and that they're not going to renege on our agreement) for my three weeks in (probably) February when I'm back at work the week before Xmas, so I can maybe do a bit of initial planning over Xmas. I want to get it in before the end of the tax year, though it probably makes little difference - still, if for some reason I work or earn very little the next tax year it might. Of course I also want to do it while the weather is still crap in the UK, so February would be ideal and it was the original proposal. Also, there's a fair chance I can be out of the UK on Valentine's Day, which has to be a small bonus. :-)
Oh, I don't know where I got 2700m asl from. I think it's more like 2200m asl here.
Oh 2, given the hotel room is a small apartment style thing (with balcony, though I'm only on the first floor) I was vaguely planning to buy some kind of microwaveable thing and perhaps some bread and eat in the room. But my peregrinations turned up no promising looking minimarkets or supermarkets, hence the apple and half chicken and chips.
Music tonight seems to have more of a Latin pop vibe than last night. Which is cool I guess.
I think despite liberal application of factor 50 and wearing my cap, I have a little bit of sunburn on the tops of my ears. Oh well. At least the sunburn on the top of my head seems to have gone.
2257 Just got another, by long distance eye contact and glass raising at the bar. Waiter from last night brought it over. Couldn't bring myself to say 'the change is the tip' (I can't literally say 'keep the change'; I don't know if it would work in Spanish even if I assembled it literally - maybe a question for Z) as it feels so frickin' patronising. He seemed a touch servile when he brought the change over but probably my imagination. Will play it by ear on next beer (shall almost certainly have at least one more) but may just leave 1 or 2k under glass when I leave.
0006 Gonna have one more. Feel OK but will probably be strong and leave after this; don't want to push my luck with my bowels, or the street (though I suspect the latter is probably not a big deal in reality). Struggling a bit to get waiter's attention.
Music back to rock so I guess the earlier bit of Latin pop was just random, rather than a deliberate change of mood tonight compared to last night.
Starting to wonder if this lack of attention is deliberate; been waving my arm like a good 'un for five mins now. Ah, table near me is waving which just may drag the guy over into my vicinity. I am not exactly in a rush but at the same time I don't want to be here all night. (In some sense I'd love to be, but that's not happening.)
Guys at table next to me just whistled which got him to them; still no glance at me. Not sure. If this is deliberate it seems petty and half makes me disinclined to leave a tip. Probably imagining it but still.
Blank on even as he comes to next table. Just got him, gave him CLP2,700 (ie beer plus 1k tip for the whole night) without saying anything but it's obviously deliberate as 2k notes would cover the drink without the heap of coins for the 700. Have to assume it was all just an accident - I mean, surely he remembers the foreign idiot from last night (I wouldn't be surprised if I am the only tourist in here) and knows I'm not going to fuck him over on tips, and it would be crassly petty anyway. (0018 now)
0048 Just about done. Final piss for luck and then home!
0100 Back. No problems with dogs, robbers or my own treacherous internal organs. Did notice that the first - but not second - block west of the Plaza was very poorly lit. Some streetlamps but not lit. Dunno if it was like that last night. Glanced up to see a moderately impressive stellar display but didn't dwell on it; that's for San Pedro, not for a dark street in Calama.
Anyway, shall do a little shuffling of my possessions between various places in readiness for tomorrow and to bed. No major rush - I could stay up another hour surfing, have eight hours' sleep and still be up two hours before I need to check out. Half wish I'd stayed a bit longer at American Pub but I wasn't enjoying it as much as last night and, above all else, didn't want to push it with my bowels. (Isn't this delightfully euphemistic?)
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