Sun 24th 0846 At Molinero (sp?! and also from mem as no sign inside) with choc croissant and a white coffee. Didn't sleep super well, new hostel dorm is sort of nice (curtained off bed/cubicle) but the mattress is plastic-wrapped and makes crinkling noises (mine and other people's) and my little toes were perhaps hurting a bit after trek etc. Who really knows why didn't sleep well tho. Kept waking up in night, didn't feel too bad, finally got up 730 as didn't seem much point hanging on in bed just for sake of it, tho didn't leave till 0830ish as was eg adding photos to album on GP and having huge dump.
Brought K1 out and left O6 in locker, the idea being that today is mostly about bumming round, eating junk and some non-junk and drinking coffee and the only major "job" being to buy a few souvenirs. So I figured I can risk not having internet on the go (and a lot of places will have wifi) and I can gradually write up last few days as I go.
0853 Think I didn't sleep super well night before trek, or rather slept OKish but kept waking up.
Met guide at appointed time (can't remember, 6ish, think I wrote it down before) and gave him my plastic bag of stuff to store and he stashed it away. Gave him the other 400k too so it couldn't get lost on trip.
We walked into town and got on a jeep - he rode on the back but I sat inside. He told me if anyone asked we were just going for a walk in the valley, which seemed odd but whatever. Guide was Nico(las) BTW, if didn't already say - youngish, early-mid 20s? Unlike everyone else we paid when we got there - 5k. I was feeling vaguely edgy at this point but it gradually diminished over time.
0911 At bus terminal, happened to be passing so popped in to ask. First bus to Armenia tomorrow is at 6, there's one every 15 mins and it takes an hour.
1003 At Cafe Danubio for a pintado. Shopped round for keyrings and fridge magnets and probably overpaid for tat but in any case I have a fridge magnet (8k) and two leather keyrings (sadly not the same) for 8k each, got magnet in one shop and keyrings in another. But this is at least a baseline set of tat for nephew and niece and if I see anything half decent here or in Bogota I might buy that as well.
So we got off the jeep and iirc walked off and a bit later I had to pay 6k to enter Sendero Finca El Porton (it's written on the wristband). We then walked on, at some point we did some stretching exercises (iirc by a green painted caravan I photographed) and walked on further. Gonna be vague about this kind of stuff. Had a piss at side of path there. For whatever reason I didn't need to take much in the way of dumps during the whole trek, I squeezed a tiny bit out at the finca we stayed at a couple of times but very little.
Didn't always take photos as we were moving quite a lot and I did my best not to ask for extra rests/water stops etc. Guide on first day only quite insistent on me drinking water with the suero hidratante "diarrhea rehydration" stuff in, but on subsequent days he never mentioned it and so I only used it on first day and still have two of the sachets left.
I took about 7 bananas with me, IIRC had one or two on first day, two on second day after lunch and ate four partly just to finish the now slightly manky remaining ones off on day three - the very last back at Atardecer de Salento (hostel for first two nights in Salento and where guide lives) before heading off to new hostel.
I did feel a little bit headachey at one point but mentioned it and guide told me to drink more of the hydration solution stuff and it wasn't a big deal.
Guide shared some food (brownie, tin of tuna and crackers) with me during walk. We saw Morrogacho (sp) and he said he had camped up there a lot with friends, esp at full moon. Apparently it was (?) a "templo universal" for the natives, and as a general note he seemed to be quite a spiritual-y sort of person.
We crossed Cerro La Virgen at IIRC 3800m. The rain mostly held off, it started to drizzle a bit round about there and put rain jacket on. Had worn fleece in morning but guide said it was important to sweat as little as possible to minimise dehydration and I took it off round about the green caravan point. I didn't wear waterproof overtrousers at any point but he did ask if I had them and I did and I think this justifies having brought them with me. I will say now we got lucky with the weather generally, except for this drizzle for the last few km into Finca La Playa (where we stayed the two nights) and the jeep ride and walking from old to new accom it was mostly dry and the second day at least was pretty bright.
1037 Back at hostel. I had left alarm on on the o6, ffs. No one seems too upset but bit embarrassing all the same. I normally set alarms on the o6 instead of k1 precisely because the k1 stays behind while o6 goes with me but got tripped up by taking k1 out today. (I do set alarms on k1 but either earlyish ones which will almost certainly go off when I am in bed or when it's super critical or when I am travelling and will both phones with me.)
k1 being super laggy.
Have shaved with my new blade and it has of course drawn blood, albeit only one "significant" cut, so I'm just loitering round now waiting for it to stop bleeding before I go out.
1137 At El Rincon de Los Recuerdos - got a granizado de cafe (12k) which isn't bad. Took a while to prepare. Bit fancier than Juan Valdez with cream and what looks like choc sauce on top, which looks cool but is perhaps not so easy to drink.
I am not certain my guide was official. all the other guides seemed to know him which gave me confidence, but things like him telling me to say we were just going walking in the valley (it never came up) and the fact eg the sign at the (apparently closed) office type hut at what was probably the entrance to PNN said stuff like "min groups of 3" vaguely suggests otherwise. TBF things like this may be winked at with locals who obviously come into the park a lot etc.
1143 Sitting on balcony ("lucky" as would have sat lower down inside had it not been so busy) and some sort of parade (prob related to semana santa) is passing/has passed in main square. Videoed quite a bit of it, there wasn't that much more after I stopped. (But for all I knew there was going to be a long stream of people and I couldn't record forever.)
I had an oblea (4k - I picked "simple" with just arequipe, not 8k with literally four or five other syrups on, I think it was all of them not a choice) before coming here, quite nice if a bit sticky.
Anyway, when we got to Finca La Playa it all felt a bit chaotic and I was standing round like a spare part to some extent but not a huge deal. They gave us cups of warm agua panela and in some order we had lunch (sitting on the raised bit in the cosy and warm but a tiny bit smoky kitchen area, eating off our knees - lunch was soup and then roughly speaking rice with meat) and I was shown to a 4 bed dorm (super low top bunks, I picked a lower one and I had to be careful with my head against top bunk getting in/out) and ended up sharing with a couple from Munich (Daniel and Pia IIRC, though spelling is a guess) who we had periodically leapfrogged on the walk in - spoke to them a moderate amount over the three days, they were there to go up Tolima (I think - the one with the glacier crossing) and even had their own ice axes with them. They were suffering differently from altitude sickness (and he at least wasn't a believer in masking symptoms), though (jumping ahead) they did feel better the next day (when they had an acclimatisation hike up to 4x00m) and they did attempt the summit of Tolima but had to turn back becaue of altitude sickness. Obviously kudos to them for giving it a go and they didn't seem too upset, Daniel said he had mainly wanted to see the paramo (the region between iirc 2600 and 3200m where nothing iirc is over 3m and in practice at least round there was much lower - Nico said a lot of the frailejones which grow only 1cm a year had died or been cut back or something a while ago due to cultivation and as they grow so slowly the paramo was absolutely heaving with tiny ones which were still probably 100ish years old).
We got to FLP at about 1445 and after dinner and sorting out bed I was mostly left to my own devices. I was a bit cold at times and at one point I was sitting in "corridor" and they invited me to sit in kitchen for a bit. Did iirc at this point have a bit of a chat with some poss French people staying at another finca 2km off and one of them - who I did half recognise - recognised me and he was one of the guys (not the coffee semi-business German guy or his Colombian friend) I'd met at the hostel in Villa de Leyva. Small world etc etc.
I really wish I could recognise people like that, I do need to work on it.
I did watch a saved video on my phone while lying on bed at some point during afternoon - I had taken my headphones and I'm glad I did. It was possible to charge phones there, they had solar power and there was a socket strip to plug chargers in. I also left my phone charging on bunk off power bank and it did work but I am 95% sure my long USB C cable is getting iffy and even when it is connected properly it is probably high resistance and charges slowly.
I did have a shower and change clothes after dinner. The shower had afaict two outlets, one of cold water and the other of "chill taken off" tepid water from a gas boiler gadget prob running off bottled gas. The cubicle was from from wind tight and I left bulk of clean and dirty clothes on chair outside with an opening in the wall to the outside and while not *terrible* it was probably character building, and I didn't spend ages under the tepid water stream and didn't use the other one at all. The water temperature itself wouldn't necessarily have been bad but in the generally rather chilly and damp (I might guess air temps in the 10Cish region, but I really don't know - except it was clearly not getting down towards 0 as my water bottle did not freeze overnight and the water was generally running not freezing etc). (I assume the water came from a small stream running under the property - there were some planks across it outside - as for eg the only hand/tooth washing sink was outside (a bit chilly for morning/night tooth cleaning but I was diligent and even flossed at night) and the tap was perpetually running with a trickle even when turned off, and presumably the only reason they didn't care about this was that they effectively had an infinite free water supply from this stream instead of eg relying on rainwater collection).
1209 Finished granizado a bit ago - ate the cream etc with the cut end of the (pleasingly plastic) straw, which I assume is the point. Will prob go see if Rincon de Lucy has their menu del dia on (they didn't 4-5pmish last night when I was feeling a bit desperate and maybe low blood sugar irritable) in a minute.
FWIW lots of tourists about, as think said before Salento feels v touristy but in quite a nice way. I do have a feeling that at least last night/today the majority of the tourists are Colombian - I might guess during the week foreigners predominate, as for >1 week trip people who travelled a long way (including I guess a smallish group of Colombians on holiday, but mostly people from outside Colombia, be they from europe/US or other LA countries or whatever) to get here weekends aren't that important, whereas at weekends localish people from "not too far away" can come in as they have time off work and they then predominate. (eg perhaps people from Medellin or Bogota, both of which are probably 6ish hours away by bus and maybe less by private car - Cali is probably even closer)
I did go into quite a few souvenir places and had a little chat with the owners earlier. As I say I suspect I overpaid as a lot of places were doing stuff at 6k (and one place even 5k iirc) but it is what it is.
1224 at rincon de lucy.
1301 Now at Restaurante Bar Casas Viejas on plaza. Getting tres cordilleras rosa to try it (9k). Had same as pre-trek at RdL, went down pretty well.
Yes, this is pretty nice, does definitely have a frutiness even to my limited palate. I might try one of the others after this, tho don't intend to drink a lot right now.
Dinner on day 1 was also pretty good, soup and then prob rice and a chicken drumstick and a piece of homemade choc cake. generally given agua panela to drink tho did get given a cup of black (prob instant) coffee during afternoon when talking to the guy from VdL and his friends.
Most of the chat over dinner IIRC in Spanish, though I think the two Germans from my dorm were there, and I did have a bit of a chat with a Spanish guy called iirc Felix and his Colombian friend who were going to go up Tolima (and spoiler they made it and I chatted with them at breakfast on day 3 and he showed me photos which were both impressive and scary of him on the glacier with the holes in it and he said you could hear the ice cracking underneath and the sunrise was very impressive). I didn't say that much in general and a lot of the very local slangy and rapid chat went over my head but got gist, even if slightly disappointing (and not for first time I do feel my Spanish is rather lumbering when I speak).
Made my excuses after and went to bed, having checked when I should get up and told iirc breakfast at 0530.
1311 TV here is showing stock type footage (no sound - "Wake me up before you gogo" is playing) of blue seas and green islands and rocky coasts and stuff and it reminds me (perhaps it *is* the same footage/YT channel/whatever) of the stuff on the TV in the Bogota hostel at the start of the trip.
Flashdance playing now...
Feel vaguely sad to have to leave but it's all good, as usual better than being glad and while it will be a little "rushed" (2 nights Bog, 1 night on plane, 1 night London then train up to visit family for easter) it will also be nice to get home and (after the family visit) try to resume "normal" life except (aspirations etc) not wasting so much time and being slightly more productive.
Perhaps its just the v scratched screen protector but despite putting brightness up to full the K1 screen seems v hard to see in bright sunlight compared to the o6.
1316 "Never gonna give you up" playing :-)
I don't think it was expected but I left a 3k tip on top of 17k bill at RdL. I didn't tip last time. And I took two folded 50k notes out of zipped belt while back at hostel earlier (and replaced them with my two folded USD20 bills from Panama part of trip - in a pinch, better to have USD than nothing) and I used one of those to pay at RdL to use it up rather than (not that I seriously expect a problem) being unable to pay for the bus when time is of the essence tomorrow morning because they don't like my creased 50k bills.
My completely unofficial self-inferred way to distinguish a frailejon (which appearently collect water from mist and feed the underground springs and contribute to n rivers which provide water to large proportion of the country) from a wax palm is that a frailejon has that kind of lumpy bumpy "trunk" all the way down to the ground, while a wax palm has the lumpy bumpy bit up near the crown and the trunk is relatively slender and smooth for almost its whole length.
And while I remember in the photos of the trek the guide is probably the one wearing the biggest backpack - on day 2 he was the only one of four of us with a "full-sized" pack.
1343 Completely unable to attract attention of either waiter, short of (which I haven't tried yet) vigorous and probably insulting arm waving. If this wasn't just my second beer I'd have some niggling suspicion they didn't want to serve me.
Still, it's not as if I'm in a huge rush and I'm occupying their table (not that they are scarce) for free. Last night I managed to be invisible for at least 20 minutes at Kafe del Alma, despite being served with a drink someone else had ordered almost as soon as I got there. (Again, I didn't go out of my way to indulge in perhaps excessive attempts to attract staff attention, but I was hardly hiding, and there I didn't even have a drink on the table as I'd just arrived.)
I never know what to do in these situations. Once a modest arm wave and a "disculpe" has been ignored once, it feels vaguely undignified to keep trying. I have been trying to make a bit of eye contact but it doesn't seem to help. There is a waiter standing right behind me but he has ignored me at least twice and is intermittently drinking a coke and might for all I know be on his break.
I'm gonna experimentally put my empty beer bottle across the far end of this four person table and see if that makes a difference.
1352 It is a bit annoying I'm probably going to be expected by them and/or compelled personally to tip 10% for service when I appear to be almost deliberately being ignored.
1354 Actually I will go up to the counter and order. This feels slightly like saying "actually you know, I would like some service and this is evidently the only way I am gonna get it" and will also mean I actually get my drink.
1355 Got my 3C mestiza. Guy didn't seem to find it odd I went up to order (perhaps sadly), but anyway.
Just seen group of 3-4 cyclists in matching kit on plaza, and seen similar (either on bikes or in cafes) earlier today. I assume these are local cycling club types or the like.
1402 Prob went to bed about 8ish on day 1. There was a huge stack of maybe 4 blankets on the bunk, I put two of them on (the top an oddly fetching childish cow design which I photographed) and felt reasonably warm.
Woke up at 520ish on alarm and manfully got up despite it being cold and dark (there was some suggestion the sunrise would be good, but it was cloudy and TBH we seemed to be kind of without great views to the west anyway, tho clouds prob big problem). Went for piss and after a few mins Nico appeared and it seemed breakfast would be a while but I asked about dogs and he said they'd be fine (and they were) so I went out and cleaned my teeth and ended up outside watching sunrise-ish with German couple and chatting to them a bit and Pia (who is apparently quite the photographer) took a photo of me and I took one of them together.
Inside for breakfast which was roughly scrambled eggs-ish (poss with added veg) and maybe some rice type stuff and prob some crackers with the (quite nice but don't know name of) very common white slightly rubbery cheese they have here.
Maybe 730-8ish (but photo timestamps would be definitive) set off out with Nico, Natty (20ish woman who may be one of the family and live there, but not sure - full name prob Natalia) and a guy who might have been caled Alon but not sure. (Just poss "Ash" but if I had to choose I'd go with Alon.) I got the vague impression Alon kind of knew the area but wasn't a guide as such (and Nico definitely seemed to take the lead) and that Natty knew the area a bit but if I understood some chat correctly had tried to go where we were going but had gone off down a different track at some point.
They were all chatting together in Spanish which I mostly followed. I felt a tiny bit awkward given they all knew each other but it wasn't too bad, and I generally do feel a bit awkward with groups and it probably wouldn't have made much difference if they'd all been native English speakers.
I'll observe here while I remember that I had terrible trouble knowing whether to use tu or usted and was flip-flopping horribly. To be scrupulously fair I am fairly sure eg Nico had been addressing me as "tu" at some point before we started so I'd try to remember to use tu, then during the day 1 walk with the two of us when I was in front (as he wanted me to set a pace I felt comfortable with) and we'd come to a fork and I'd ask him if it was this (gesturing) way or similar, he'd reply "si, señor" in an apparently deadpan way and so I'd try switching to usted, etc. And this is before we get on to the fact that I'm a lot less used to speaking to people using usted anyway, except I've been trying to default to it over here so I've got a sort of rusty clunky default usted going too. This is hardly the biggest problem with my Spanish but it probably contributed to some of the lumbering feeling when I spoke.
On a random note, I will say that based not just on my visit this morning but on walking past a few times, contrary to gb's prob outdated opinion that Cafe Danubio is "every LA fantasy" or something like that, I'd say that shop-cum-bar I had a couple of beers in when arriving in Guatape (?) after walking over from Barichara was *way* more stereotypically but apparently authenically LA in a cool kind of way.
Oh, on day 1 shortly after leaving the "office" bit in the park I realised I'd lost my vaseline tin out of my pocket. I went back to bench by "office" to check but no dice. And as I'd switched to my spare tin post SBA trip as the original tin had somehow gone kind of rusty and manky I hadn't brought the manky spare with me, so I was a bit stuck. Not utterly devastated by this but was a bit concerned. Serious lesson learned: esp now I don't keep change there and have small bills in another pocket, *even if I don't fear pickpockets*, I should make a point of keeping rh upper pocket zipped.
Been meaning to make a note on pocket use during trip for future ref. I have got into habit of:
- bit toilet paper in a plastic back in back left pocket
- loose coins in back right pocket (it zips, and the absolutely value is low if I am pickpocketed, and this keeps them accessible easily to try to make it easier to spend them, and avoids the annoying weight in a lower pocket as my legs move while walking)
- phone (and nothing else - would normally have hanky in here, but perhaps due to flip belt being in same region inside pocket I found hanky and phone getting vaguely entangled) in front left pocket - sometimes zipped but often not as it's awkward to pull phone out to take photo (zipped really only if I particularly fear pickpockets or something else shaking phone loose)
- binder clip wallet with bigish bills, misc tin and vaseline tin in front right pocket
- smallish bills in left leg above-knee pocket - these are my go-to for eg street food purchases along with coins in back right, and make it more practical to keep upper right pocket zipped if I want
- hanky, maybe some spare tissue and any random receipts etc in right leg above-knee pocket.
Obviously this is massively nerdy to write up but since it took me time to form these habits (my travel needs, habits and the quantity of pockets - I normally only have/use the two "standard" upper pockets back home) it might be useful to refer back to for a future trip.
I will say at this point that the zips I sewed in myself just cos these trousers had none in "main" upper pockets have worked well. The left pocket zip on black pair has come loose but I could have done repairs had I prioritised it/been less lazy/not had such a long dorm stretch in Panama, and I was sewing them all up a bit against the clock pre-trip and could prob have reinforced them more.
The extra zip I put in towards the bottom of the rh pocket (which is non-standard and would not be in a pair bought with zips on all the pockets like the Karrimor Panther trousers) has not in practice been that useful and I prob wouldn't bother putting it in on a new pair - a few times I zipped enough cash to pay hostel bill in there when travelling between places, but in reality the flip belt is easy enough to get to that since quite some time ago I just flip that out at reception to get cash out to pay on arrival. To be fair, altho I've got out of habit of using it, now I've stopped keeping loose change in there (loose change inevitably makes it hard to put stuff in/take stuff out of bottom part as it wants to fall in there) that bottom of pocket bit might be a bit more useful but I haven't felt any real need to use it anyway.
IIRC that "bottom of rh pocket" zip was also pretty fiddly to put in and took a disproportionate amount of time. It might possibly have been helpful to put "bottom of pocket" zip into one or both of the knee pockets, to allow something light and infrequently accessed to be stashed at the bottom of one of those pockets while leaving top free for other stuff, but I'm not sure I'd have found it all that useful - just not ruling it out right now.
1434 Finished second beer, gonna go pay and then get myself an ice cream and then prob go for a coffee and maybe a pastry.
1437 That worked out nicely. Paid 20k, got given 6k in change which was too much, so I was honest and pointed this out and handed 4k back. I wasn't going to tip unless they "defaulted" to it as genuinely prob not nec, but this way I have acted well towards them *and* I didn't have to tip for poorish service.
1458 It's hot out. Not insanely so but warm.
Had ice cream at the "old couple" place nearish bus terminal (3k there - I asked one place on street leading to old hostel which is way busier, went in in hope they had the more homemade style - which they didn't - and while they had more flavours they wanted 4k) - went for quesobocadillo - and now at Molwhatsit for pintado and a pastry which the woman keeps telling me something about that I don't understand, just maybe it's stale but she's serving it since I asked but I *really* don't know.
1509 Feeling hot.
On iirc first night of trek someone asked me what I thought of the finca/the kitchen and I said it was chevere and checked i'd used it correctly and that it was a v Colombian word and it is and I had (it means roughly "cosy/cool" aiui). Apparently you can also say "chimba" among friends although it is slightly rude and it means basically the same thing.
(If I didn't already note this in general I have overheard a lot of people saying "marrica" . I can't quite believe they mean this in the sense of "poof" as it just seems too common and it just doesn't feel like should come up as often as it does if that is the meaning, but I really don't know.)
While not ideal - esp given I feel sweaty now, tho didn't earlier - I am prob gonna wear these clothes inc uw (all clean on yday when had shower 4-5pmish) again tomorrow. That will *possibly* give me enough clean clothes for rest of trip without laundry, and at the very least should help eke things out so (subject to privacy of shared bathroom in Bogota hostel) I have a chance to do a final wash there to see me through the trip maybe tomorrow night.
Place is La Molienda, just seen it on back of MoS T-shirt.
I have noticed on some of the big cakes here and in large eg balloon letters in some shops/restaurants the text "Feliz dia" . I wonder if this is *meant* to be generic or if in practice it is a standard shorthand for something like "happy birthday" .
I haven't seen a "free stuff" box but I will ask reception at hostel and see if I can dump my nearly full can of pressurised aerosol 25% DEET repellent on them in case someone else can use it. It's bulky enough (and I don't know if it's allowed anyway) that I don't want to fly home with it, the space is better used on misc edible/drinkable souvenirs etc, it's not as if I'm likely to use it again as I prefer the saltidin repellent when it's not safety critical (and it may be fine even when it is) and if it is safety critical on a future trip I'd want to buy non-pressurised 50% DEET in a simple atomiser type spray before leaving home.
1546 6.9k, made it up to 10k as they do have a tip jar and I've been there quite a lot. Feel slightly guilty and turning back on oldish sounding woman calling "muchacho" (probably) at me as I was putting cash away on leaving, but what can you do? I also feel like this only happened because I had the cash in my hands and I'm not going to be guilt-tripped into a random donation just because I happened to come out before putting cash away.
1551 In supermarket, going to get chilled soft drink and have on street then go to BdlR for a pintado or two before going back to hostel for shower then head up to lookout points a bit ebfore sunset. Anyway, have a photo but I found some panela with instructions on how to make which I'm not sure is always there - 240ml water to 30g of panela.
1912 Back at hostel for second time. There is a nice (if slightly old-skinny looking) fluffy white and black cat here and it has let me stroke it a bit. It came running into dorm meowing and woman from desk explained it didn't want to go out - it's pissing it down - but it pees everywhere and it ran under the bed in corner and she had to fish it out with a broom (she called it señor when she got it out).
Changed plans earlier. Felt stuffed after soft drink so came back to hostel. Was watching bit of YT with curtain across and in short order two blokes and a woman (no idea if this is same woman spoke to briefly this morning re alarm, as well as speaking to one of staff women - I didn't really "see" the people this afternoon) came in and were asking each other if "that" was their locker and mentioned the alarm and I pulled curtain back and said it was mine and apologised and that was all OK, they were more curious than fussed.
I was on verge of going in shower and did so but I kind of ignored them and they kind of ignored me. I can't really blame them and I am not sure who "started" it and arguably they were being tactful but rightly or wrongly I felt a bit peeved/invisible at this three-way conversation going on as if I wasn't there - as I say, can't really blame them but I did feel a bit of a sad git etc.
Anyway, I went out to Recuerdos and had two pintados and then (getting rather irritated - prob off back of mild low mood induced by invisible bit - by the extremely thick and doddery crowd) up to the cross, brief look there, then across to the lookout over the valley. It was starting to rain as I headed up, I got a canelazo with aguardiente for 7k from the bloke there and watched (and videod badly) quite a cool thunder and lightning storm with both sheet and a few quite cool lightning bolts before (trying not to milk it) walking back through very light rain (and streets still busy) to come back here. I can here it is still pissing it down.
Partly came back as had left K1 charging in basket by bed and risk of loss was making me edgy, even tho seemed unlikely.
Oh, I handed woman at desk my insect repellent aerosol after a brief chat to see if they had a "free stuff" box (which they don't, but she's left it on the desk) - I hope it doesn't just get chucked out but I can't do much about it, obv could have waited til Bogota but I suspect the place there may not have one (on no major grounds, but it gives off a bit of a cheap hotel vibe).
Plan for tonight was to go out and have a couple of beers and then come back to go to bed 9-10ish to be up 6ish. I still may go out but we'll see what happens with the rain.
Bit edgy about getting to hostel in Bogota but I'm sure it will be fine and can only hope.
2127 Back at hostel heading towards bed. Went out, had stopped raining. Wandered street up to cross, went to place have forgotten name of but have photo, guy was playing guitar when I arrived but stopped soon after. Three Tres Cordilleras (27k, made it 30 with tip), two Mestiza and one Mulata (?). Everywhere v busy and lively when I came out but not the night to stay out.
Bit of a whiny git (even tho mostly over earlier annoyance re dorm conversation) to myself re trying to sort out Transmilenio stops etc re tomorrow.
Gut feeling is if I get to Bogota with plenty of daylight in hand I will prob walk to TM from bus terminal (gb makes out it is a pretty upscale area) and then take rather circuitous route on TM to Heroes where it is a short walk to new hostel and Chapinero is supposed to be pretty safe etc. This is nearly the inverse of route I will take to get to airport.
Don't think finished vaseline story re day 1. At dinner I took an empty sealable plastic bag with me and was going to and did ask for some cooking oil or grease at end - they asked why, I explained for lips and mentioned losing vaseline and they (Patricia I think, owner-ish woman/wife) generously gave me a pretty big "finger load" of vaseline, which I was really chuffed about and which got me out of a hole. (And since I have it I am still using it now, tho won't take that rather messy bag home, even tho I made an effort to clean up my SBA-rusted-ish tin at hostel middayish and do have it in pocket.)
Got a load of photos from Nico via WA, think I have them saved.
Felt tiny bit sad git BNM to be on own in that bar tonight but not a big deal.
Oh, press stud "brand tag" on PackTowl which had been hanging on by a thread happened to come off in this afternoon's shower (no fucking towel at this hostel, even tho IME most Colombian hostels give you one - fwiw no towel provided at Finca La Playa BTW). Not a massive deal as rarely used it and the whole PT is (surprisingly, doesn't feel like it's had huge amount of use) rather worn and holey and in need of replacement, but FWIW. have shoved loose tag in bag and if it makes it home it just may come in useful for sewing on to something I guess, or I can throw it out at home.
2220 Others come back, have curtain drawn. Anyway, bed.
Brought K1 out and left O6 in locker, the idea being that today is mostly about bumming round, eating junk and some non-junk and drinking coffee and the only major "job" being to buy a few souvenirs. So I figured I can risk not having internet on the go (and a lot of places will have wifi) and I can gradually write up last few days as I go.
0853 Think I didn't sleep super well night before trek, or rather slept OKish but kept waking up.
Met guide at appointed time (can't remember, 6ish, think I wrote it down before) and gave him my plastic bag of stuff to store and he stashed it away. Gave him the other 400k too so it couldn't get lost on trip.
We walked into town and got on a jeep - he rode on the back but I sat inside. He told me if anyone asked we were just going for a walk in the valley, which seemed odd but whatever. Guide was Nico(las) BTW, if didn't already say - youngish, early-mid 20s? Unlike everyone else we paid when we got there - 5k. I was feeling vaguely edgy at this point but it gradually diminished over time.
0911 At bus terminal, happened to be passing so popped in to ask. First bus to Armenia tomorrow is at 6, there's one every 15 mins and it takes an hour.
1003 At Cafe Danubio for a pintado. Shopped round for keyrings and fridge magnets and probably overpaid for tat but in any case I have a fridge magnet (8k) and two leather keyrings (sadly not the same) for 8k each, got magnet in one shop and keyrings in another. But this is at least a baseline set of tat for nephew and niece and if I see anything half decent here or in Bogota I might buy that as well.
So we got off the jeep and iirc walked off and a bit later I had to pay 6k to enter Sendero Finca El Porton (it's written on the wristband). We then walked on, at some point we did some stretching exercises (iirc by a green painted caravan I photographed) and walked on further. Gonna be vague about this kind of stuff. Had a piss at side of path there. For whatever reason I didn't need to take much in the way of dumps during the whole trek, I squeezed a tiny bit out at the finca we stayed at a couple of times but very little.
Didn't always take photos as we were moving quite a lot and I did my best not to ask for extra rests/water stops etc. Guide on first day only quite insistent on me drinking water with the suero hidratante "diarrhea rehydration" stuff in, but on subsequent days he never mentioned it and so I only used it on first day and still have two of the sachets left.
I took about 7 bananas with me, IIRC had one or two on first day, two on second day after lunch and ate four partly just to finish the now slightly manky remaining ones off on day three - the very last back at Atardecer de Salento (hostel for first two nights in Salento and where guide lives) before heading off to new hostel.
I did feel a little bit headachey at one point but mentioned it and guide told me to drink more of the hydration solution stuff and it wasn't a big deal.
Guide shared some food (brownie, tin of tuna and crackers) with me during walk. We saw Morrogacho (sp) and he said he had camped up there a lot with friends, esp at full moon. Apparently it was (?) a "templo universal" for the natives, and as a general note he seemed to be quite a spiritual-y sort of person.
We crossed Cerro La Virgen at IIRC 3800m. The rain mostly held off, it started to drizzle a bit round about there and put rain jacket on. Had worn fleece in morning but guide said it was important to sweat as little as possible to minimise dehydration and I took it off round about the green caravan point. I didn't wear waterproof overtrousers at any point but he did ask if I had them and I did and I think this justifies having brought them with me. I will say now we got lucky with the weather generally, except for this drizzle for the last few km into Finca La Playa (where we stayed the two nights) and the jeep ride and walking from old to new accom it was mostly dry and the second day at least was pretty bright.
1037 Back at hostel. I had left alarm on on the o6, ffs. No one seems too upset but bit embarrassing all the same. I normally set alarms on the o6 instead of k1 precisely because the k1 stays behind while o6 goes with me but got tripped up by taking k1 out today. (I do set alarms on k1 but either earlyish ones which will almost certainly go off when I am in bed or when it's super critical or when I am travelling and will both phones with me.)
k1 being super laggy.
Have shaved with my new blade and it has of course drawn blood, albeit only one "significant" cut, so I'm just loitering round now waiting for it to stop bleeding before I go out.
1137 At El Rincon de Los Recuerdos - got a granizado de cafe (12k) which isn't bad. Took a while to prepare. Bit fancier than Juan Valdez with cream and what looks like choc sauce on top, which looks cool but is perhaps not so easy to drink.
I am not certain my guide was official. all the other guides seemed to know him which gave me confidence, but things like him telling me to say we were just going walking in the valley (it never came up) and the fact eg the sign at the (apparently closed) office type hut at what was probably the entrance to PNN said stuff like "min groups of 3" vaguely suggests otherwise. TBF things like this may be winked at with locals who obviously come into the park a lot etc.
1143 Sitting on balcony ("lucky" as would have sat lower down inside had it not been so busy) and some sort of parade (prob related to semana santa) is passing/has passed in main square. Videoed quite a bit of it, there wasn't that much more after I stopped. (But for all I knew there was going to be a long stream of people and I couldn't record forever.)
I had an oblea (4k - I picked "simple" with just arequipe, not 8k with literally four or five other syrups on, I think it was all of them not a choice) before coming here, quite nice if a bit sticky.
Anyway, when we got to Finca La Playa it all felt a bit chaotic and I was standing round like a spare part to some extent but not a huge deal. They gave us cups of warm agua panela and in some order we had lunch (sitting on the raised bit in the cosy and warm but a tiny bit smoky kitchen area, eating off our knees - lunch was soup and then roughly speaking rice with meat) and I was shown to a 4 bed dorm (super low top bunks, I picked a lower one and I had to be careful with my head against top bunk getting in/out) and ended up sharing with a couple from Munich (Daniel and Pia IIRC, though spelling is a guess) who we had periodically leapfrogged on the walk in - spoke to them a moderate amount over the three days, they were there to go up Tolima (I think - the one with the glacier crossing) and even had their own ice axes with them. They were suffering differently from altitude sickness (and he at least wasn't a believer in masking symptoms), though (jumping ahead) they did feel better the next day (when they had an acclimatisation hike up to 4x00m) and they did attempt the summit of Tolima but had to turn back becaue of altitude sickness. Obviously kudos to them for giving it a go and they didn't seem too upset, Daniel said he had mainly wanted to see the paramo (the region between iirc 2600 and 3200m where nothing iirc is over 3m and in practice at least round there was much lower - Nico said a lot of the frailejones which grow only 1cm a year had died or been cut back or something a while ago due to cultivation and as they grow so slowly the paramo was absolutely heaving with tiny ones which were still probably 100ish years old).
We got to FLP at about 1445 and after dinner and sorting out bed I was mostly left to my own devices. I was a bit cold at times and at one point I was sitting in "corridor" and they invited me to sit in kitchen for a bit. Did iirc at this point have a bit of a chat with some poss French people staying at another finca 2km off and one of them - who I did half recognise - recognised me and he was one of the guys (not the coffee semi-business German guy or his Colombian friend) I'd met at the hostel in Villa de Leyva. Small world etc etc.
I really wish I could recognise people like that, I do need to work on it.
I did watch a saved video on my phone while lying on bed at some point during afternoon - I had taken my headphones and I'm glad I did. It was possible to charge phones there, they had solar power and there was a socket strip to plug chargers in. I also left my phone charging on bunk off power bank and it did work but I am 95% sure my long USB C cable is getting iffy and even when it is connected properly it is probably high resistance and charges slowly.
I did have a shower and change clothes after dinner. The shower had afaict two outlets, one of cold water and the other of "chill taken off" tepid water from a gas boiler gadget prob running off bottled gas. The cubicle was from from wind tight and I left bulk of clean and dirty clothes on chair outside with an opening in the wall to the outside and while not *terrible* it was probably character building, and I didn't spend ages under the tepid water stream and didn't use the other one at all. The water temperature itself wouldn't necessarily have been bad but in the generally rather chilly and damp (I might guess air temps in the 10Cish region, but I really don't know - except it was clearly not getting down towards 0 as my water bottle did not freeze overnight and the water was generally running not freezing etc). (I assume the water came from a small stream running under the property - there were some planks across it outside - as for eg the only hand/tooth washing sink was outside (a bit chilly for morning/night tooth cleaning but I was diligent and even flossed at night) and the tap was perpetually running with a trickle even when turned off, and presumably the only reason they didn't care about this was that they effectively had an infinite free water supply from this stream instead of eg relying on rainwater collection).
1209 Finished granizado a bit ago - ate the cream etc with the cut end of the (pleasingly plastic) straw, which I assume is the point. Will prob go see if Rincon de Lucy has their menu del dia on (they didn't 4-5pmish last night when I was feeling a bit desperate and maybe low blood sugar irritable) in a minute.
FWIW lots of tourists about, as think said before Salento feels v touristy but in quite a nice way. I do have a feeling that at least last night/today the majority of the tourists are Colombian - I might guess during the week foreigners predominate, as for >1 week trip people who travelled a long way (including I guess a smallish group of Colombians on holiday, but mostly people from outside Colombia, be they from europe/US or other LA countries or whatever) to get here weekends aren't that important, whereas at weekends localish people from "not too far away" can come in as they have time off work and they then predominate. (eg perhaps people from Medellin or Bogota, both of which are probably 6ish hours away by bus and maybe less by private car - Cali is probably even closer)
I did go into quite a few souvenir places and had a little chat with the owners earlier. As I say I suspect I overpaid as a lot of places were doing stuff at 6k (and one place even 5k iirc) but it is what it is.
1224 at rincon de lucy.
1301 Now at Restaurante Bar Casas Viejas on plaza. Getting tres cordilleras rosa to try it (9k). Had same as pre-trek at RdL, went down pretty well.
Yes, this is pretty nice, does definitely have a frutiness even to my limited palate. I might try one of the others after this, tho don't intend to drink a lot right now.
Dinner on day 1 was also pretty good, soup and then prob rice and a chicken drumstick and a piece of homemade choc cake. generally given agua panela to drink tho did get given a cup of black (prob instant) coffee during afternoon when talking to the guy from VdL and his friends.
Most of the chat over dinner IIRC in Spanish, though I think the two Germans from my dorm were there, and I did have a bit of a chat with a Spanish guy called iirc Felix and his Colombian friend who were going to go up Tolima (and spoiler they made it and I chatted with them at breakfast on day 3 and he showed me photos which were both impressive and scary of him on the glacier with the holes in it and he said you could hear the ice cracking underneath and the sunrise was very impressive). I didn't say that much in general and a lot of the very local slangy and rapid chat went over my head but got gist, even if slightly disappointing (and not for first time I do feel my Spanish is rather lumbering when I speak).
Made my excuses after and went to bed, having checked when I should get up and told iirc breakfast at 0530.
1311 TV here is showing stock type footage (no sound - "Wake me up before you gogo" is playing) of blue seas and green islands and rocky coasts and stuff and it reminds me (perhaps it *is* the same footage/YT channel/whatever) of the stuff on the TV in the Bogota hostel at the start of the trip.
Flashdance playing now...
Feel vaguely sad to have to leave but it's all good, as usual better than being glad and while it will be a little "rushed" (2 nights Bog, 1 night on plane, 1 night London then train up to visit family for easter) it will also be nice to get home and (after the family visit) try to resume "normal" life except (aspirations etc) not wasting so much time and being slightly more productive.
Perhaps its just the v scratched screen protector but despite putting brightness up to full the K1 screen seems v hard to see in bright sunlight compared to the o6.
1316 "Never gonna give you up" playing :-)
I don't think it was expected but I left a 3k tip on top of 17k bill at RdL. I didn't tip last time. And I took two folded 50k notes out of zipped belt while back at hostel earlier (and replaced them with my two folded USD20 bills from Panama part of trip - in a pinch, better to have USD than nothing) and I used one of those to pay at RdL to use it up rather than (not that I seriously expect a problem) being unable to pay for the bus when time is of the essence tomorrow morning because they don't like my creased 50k bills.
My completely unofficial self-inferred way to distinguish a frailejon (which appearently collect water from mist and feed the underground springs and contribute to n rivers which provide water to large proportion of the country) from a wax palm is that a frailejon has that kind of lumpy bumpy "trunk" all the way down to the ground, while a wax palm has the lumpy bumpy bit up near the crown and the trunk is relatively slender and smooth for almost its whole length.
And while I remember in the photos of the trek the guide is probably the one wearing the biggest backpack - on day 2 he was the only one of four of us with a "full-sized" pack.
1343 Completely unable to attract attention of either waiter, short of (which I haven't tried yet) vigorous and probably insulting arm waving. If this wasn't just my second beer I'd have some niggling suspicion they didn't want to serve me.
Still, it's not as if I'm in a huge rush and I'm occupying their table (not that they are scarce) for free. Last night I managed to be invisible for at least 20 minutes at Kafe del Alma, despite being served with a drink someone else had ordered almost as soon as I got there. (Again, I didn't go out of my way to indulge in perhaps excessive attempts to attract staff attention, but I was hardly hiding, and there I didn't even have a drink on the table as I'd just arrived.)
I never know what to do in these situations. Once a modest arm wave and a "disculpe" has been ignored once, it feels vaguely undignified to keep trying. I have been trying to make a bit of eye contact but it doesn't seem to help. There is a waiter standing right behind me but he has ignored me at least twice and is intermittently drinking a coke and might for all I know be on his break.
I'm gonna experimentally put my empty beer bottle across the far end of this four person table and see if that makes a difference.
1352 It is a bit annoying I'm probably going to be expected by them and/or compelled personally to tip 10% for service when I appear to be almost deliberately being ignored.
1354 Actually I will go up to the counter and order. This feels slightly like saying "actually you know, I would like some service and this is evidently the only way I am gonna get it" and will also mean I actually get my drink.
1355 Got my 3C mestiza. Guy didn't seem to find it odd I went up to order (perhaps sadly), but anyway.
Just seen group of 3-4 cyclists in matching kit on plaza, and seen similar (either on bikes or in cafes) earlier today. I assume these are local cycling club types or the like.
1402 Prob went to bed about 8ish on day 1. There was a huge stack of maybe 4 blankets on the bunk, I put two of them on (the top an oddly fetching childish cow design which I photographed) and felt reasonably warm.
Woke up at 520ish on alarm and manfully got up despite it being cold and dark (there was some suggestion the sunrise would be good, but it was cloudy and TBH we seemed to be kind of without great views to the west anyway, tho clouds prob big problem). Went for piss and after a few mins Nico appeared and it seemed breakfast would be a while but I asked about dogs and he said they'd be fine (and they were) so I went out and cleaned my teeth and ended up outside watching sunrise-ish with German couple and chatting to them a bit and Pia (who is apparently quite the photographer) took a photo of me and I took one of them together.
Inside for breakfast which was roughly scrambled eggs-ish (poss with added veg) and maybe some rice type stuff and prob some crackers with the (quite nice but don't know name of) very common white slightly rubbery cheese they have here.
Maybe 730-8ish (but photo timestamps would be definitive) set off out with Nico, Natty (20ish woman who may be one of the family and live there, but not sure - full name prob Natalia) and a guy who might have been caled Alon but not sure. (Just poss "Ash" but if I had to choose I'd go with Alon.) I got the vague impression Alon kind of knew the area but wasn't a guide as such (and Nico definitely seemed to take the lead) and that Natty knew the area a bit but if I understood some chat correctly had tried to go where we were going but had gone off down a different track at some point.
They were all chatting together in Spanish which I mostly followed. I felt a tiny bit awkward given they all knew each other but it wasn't too bad, and I generally do feel a bit awkward with groups and it probably wouldn't have made much difference if they'd all been native English speakers.
I'll observe here while I remember that I had terrible trouble knowing whether to use tu or usted and was flip-flopping horribly. To be scrupulously fair I am fairly sure eg Nico had been addressing me as "tu" at some point before we started so I'd try to remember to use tu, then during the day 1 walk with the two of us when I was in front (as he wanted me to set a pace I felt comfortable with) and we'd come to a fork and I'd ask him if it was this (gesturing) way or similar, he'd reply "si, señor" in an apparently deadpan way and so I'd try switching to usted, etc. And this is before we get on to the fact that I'm a lot less used to speaking to people using usted anyway, except I've been trying to default to it over here so I've got a sort of rusty clunky default usted going too. This is hardly the biggest problem with my Spanish but it probably contributed to some of the lumbering feeling when I spoke.
On a random note, I will say that based not just on my visit this morning but on walking past a few times, contrary to gb's prob outdated opinion that Cafe Danubio is "every LA fantasy" or something like that, I'd say that shop-cum-bar I had a couple of beers in when arriving in Guatape (?) after walking over from Barichara was *way* more stereotypically but apparently authenically LA in a cool kind of way.
Oh, on day 1 shortly after leaving the "office" bit in the park I realised I'd lost my vaseline tin out of my pocket. I went back to bench by "office" to check but no dice. And as I'd switched to my spare tin post SBA trip as the original tin had somehow gone kind of rusty and manky I hadn't brought the manky spare with me, so I was a bit stuck. Not utterly devastated by this but was a bit concerned. Serious lesson learned: esp now I don't keep change there and have small bills in another pocket, *even if I don't fear pickpockets*, I should make a point of keeping rh upper pocket zipped.
Been meaning to make a note on pocket use during trip for future ref. I have got into habit of:
- bit toilet paper in a plastic back in back left pocket
- loose coins in back right pocket (it zips, and the absolutely value is low if I am pickpocketed, and this keeps them accessible easily to try to make it easier to spend them, and avoids the annoying weight in a lower pocket as my legs move while walking)
- phone (and nothing else - would normally have hanky in here, but perhaps due to flip belt being in same region inside pocket I found hanky and phone getting vaguely entangled) in front left pocket - sometimes zipped but often not as it's awkward to pull phone out to take photo (zipped really only if I particularly fear pickpockets or something else shaking phone loose)
- binder clip wallet with bigish bills, misc tin and vaseline tin in front right pocket
- smallish bills in left leg above-knee pocket - these are my go-to for eg street food purchases along with coins in back right, and make it more practical to keep upper right pocket zipped if I want
- hanky, maybe some spare tissue and any random receipts etc in right leg above-knee pocket.
Obviously this is massively nerdy to write up but since it took me time to form these habits (my travel needs, habits and the quantity of pockets - I normally only have/use the two "standard" upper pockets back home) it might be useful to refer back to for a future trip.
I will say at this point that the zips I sewed in myself just cos these trousers had none in "main" upper pockets have worked well. The left pocket zip on black pair has come loose but I could have done repairs had I prioritised it/been less lazy/not had such a long dorm stretch in Panama, and I was sewing them all up a bit against the clock pre-trip and could prob have reinforced them more.
The extra zip I put in towards the bottom of the rh pocket (which is non-standard and would not be in a pair bought with zips on all the pockets like the Karrimor Panther trousers) has not in practice been that useful and I prob wouldn't bother putting it in on a new pair - a few times I zipped enough cash to pay hostel bill in there when travelling between places, but in reality the flip belt is easy enough to get to that since quite some time ago I just flip that out at reception to get cash out to pay on arrival. To be fair, altho I've got out of habit of using it, now I've stopped keeping loose change in there (loose change inevitably makes it hard to put stuff in/take stuff out of bottom part as it wants to fall in there) that bottom of pocket bit might be a bit more useful but I haven't felt any real need to use it anyway.
IIRC that "bottom of rh pocket" zip was also pretty fiddly to put in and took a disproportionate amount of time. It might possibly have been helpful to put "bottom of pocket" zip into one or both of the knee pockets, to allow something light and infrequently accessed to be stashed at the bottom of one of those pockets while leaving top free for other stuff, but I'm not sure I'd have found it all that useful - just not ruling it out right now.
1434 Finished second beer, gonna go pay and then get myself an ice cream and then prob go for a coffee and maybe a pastry.
1437 That worked out nicely. Paid 20k, got given 6k in change which was too much, so I was honest and pointed this out and handed 4k back. I wasn't going to tip unless they "defaulted" to it as genuinely prob not nec, but this way I have acted well towards them *and* I didn't have to tip for poorish service.
1458 It's hot out. Not insanely so but warm.
Had ice cream at the "old couple" place nearish bus terminal (3k there - I asked one place on street leading to old hostel which is way busier, went in in hope they had the more homemade style - which they didn't - and while they had more flavours they wanted 4k) - went for quesobocadillo - and now at Molwhatsit for pintado and a pastry which the woman keeps telling me something about that I don't understand, just maybe it's stale but she's serving it since I asked but I *really* don't know.
1509 Feeling hot.
On iirc first night of trek someone asked me what I thought of the finca/the kitchen and I said it was chevere and checked i'd used it correctly and that it was a v Colombian word and it is and I had (it means roughly "cosy/cool" aiui). Apparently you can also say "chimba" among friends although it is slightly rude and it means basically the same thing.
(If I didn't already note this in general I have overheard a lot of people saying "marrica" . I can't quite believe they mean this in the sense of "poof" as it just seems too common and it just doesn't feel like should come up as often as it does if that is the meaning, but I really don't know.)
While not ideal - esp given I feel sweaty now, tho didn't earlier - I am prob gonna wear these clothes inc uw (all clean on yday when had shower 4-5pmish) again tomorrow. That will *possibly* give me enough clean clothes for rest of trip without laundry, and at the very least should help eke things out so (subject to privacy of shared bathroom in Bogota hostel) I have a chance to do a final wash there to see me through the trip maybe tomorrow night.
Place is La Molienda, just seen it on back of MoS T-shirt.
I have noticed on some of the big cakes here and in large eg balloon letters in some shops/restaurants the text "Feliz dia" . I wonder if this is *meant* to be generic or if in practice it is a standard shorthand for something like "happy birthday" .
I haven't seen a "free stuff" box but I will ask reception at hostel and see if I can dump my nearly full can of pressurised aerosol 25% DEET repellent on them in case someone else can use it. It's bulky enough (and I don't know if it's allowed anyway) that I don't want to fly home with it, the space is better used on misc edible/drinkable souvenirs etc, it's not as if I'm likely to use it again as I prefer the saltidin repellent when it's not safety critical (and it may be fine even when it is) and if it is safety critical on a future trip I'd want to buy non-pressurised 50% DEET in a simple atomiser type spray before leaving home.
1546 6.9k, made it up to 10k as they do have a tip jar and I've been there quite a lot. Feel slightly guilty and turning back on oldish sounding woman calling "muchacho" (probably) at me as I was putting cash away on leaving, but what can you do? I also feel like this only happened because I had the cash in my hands and I'm not going to be guilt-tripped into a random donation just because I happened to come out before putting cash away.
1551 In supermarket, going to get chilled soft drink and have on street then go to BdlR for a pintado or two before going back to hostel for shower then head up to lookout points a bit ebfore sunset. Anyway, have a photo but I found some panela with instructions on how to make which I'm not sure is always there - 240ml water to 30g of panela.
1912 Back at hostel for second time. There is a nice (if slightly old-skinny looking) fluffy white and black cat here and it has let me stroke it a bit. It came running into dorm meowing and woman from desk explained it didn't want to go out - it's pissing it down - but it pees everywhere and it ran under the bed in corner and she had to fish it out with a broom (she called it señor when she got it out).
Changed plans earlier. Felt stuffed after soft drink so came back to hostel. Was watching bit of YT with curtain across and in short order two blokes and a woman (no idea if this is same woman spoke to briefly this morning re alarm, as well as speaking to one of staff women - I didn't really "see" the people this afternoon) came in and were asking each other if "that" was their locker and mentioned the alarm and I pulled curtain back and said it was mine and apologised and that was all OK, they were more curious than fussed.
I was on verge of going in shower and did so but I kind of ignored them and they kind of ignored me. I can't really blame them and I am not sure who "started" it and arguably they were being tactful but rightly or wrongly I felt a bit peeved/invisible at this three-way conversation going on as if I wasn't there - as I say, can't really blame them but I did feel a bit of a sad git etc.
Anyway, I went out to Recuerdos and had two pintados and then (getting rather irritated - prob off back of mild low mood induced by invisible bit - by the extremely thick and doddery crowd) up to the cross, brief look there, then across to the lookout over the valley. It was starting to rain as I headed up, I got a canelazo with aguardiente for 7k from the bloke there and watched (and videod badly) quite a cool thunder and lightning storm with both sheet and a few quite cool lightning bolts before (trying not to milk it) walking back through very light rain (and streets still busy) to come back here. I can here it is still pissing it down.
Partly came back as had left K1 charging in basket by bed and risk of loss was making me edgy, even tho seemed unlikely.
Oh, I handed woman at desk my insect repellent aerosol after a brief chat to see if they had a "free stuff" box (which they don't, but she's left it on the desk) - I hope it doesn't just get chucked out but I can't do much about it, obv could have waited til Bogota but I suspect the place there may not have one (on no major grounds, but it gives off a bit of a cheap hotel vibe).
Plan for tonight was to go out and have a couple of beers and then come back to go to bed 9-10ish to be up 6ish. I still may go out but we'll see what happens with the rain.
Bit edgy about getting to hostel in Bogota but I'm sure it will be fine and can only hope.
2127 Back at hostel heading towards bed. Went out, had stopped raining. Wandered street up to cross, went to place have forgotten name of but have photo, guy was playing guitar when I arrived but stopped soon after. Three Tres Cordilleras (27k, made it 30 with tip), two Mestiza and one Mulata (?). Everywhere v busy and lively when I came out but not the night to stay out.
Bit of a whiny git (even tho mostly over earlier annoyance re dorm conversation) to myself re trying to sort out Transmilenio stops etc re tomorrow.
Gut feeling is if I get to Bogota with plenty of daylight in hand I will prob walk to TM from bus terminal (gb makes out it is a pretty upscale area) and then take rather circuitous route on TM to Heroes where it is a short walk to new hostel and Chapinero is supposed to be pretty safe etc. This is nearly the inverse of route I will take to get to airport.
Don't think finished vaseline story re day 1. At dinner I took an empty sealable plastic bag with me and was going to and did ask for some cooking oil or grease at end - they asked why, I explained for lips and mentioned losing vaseline and they (Patricia I think, owner-ish woman/wife) generously gave me a pretty big "finger load" of vaseline, which I was really chuffed about and which got me out of a hole. (And since I have it I am still using it now, tho won't take that rather messy bag home, even tho I made an effort to clean up my SBA-rusted-ish tin at hostel middayish and do have it in pocket.)
Got a load of photos from Nico via WA, think I have them saved.
Felt tiny bit sad git BNM to be on own in that bar tonight but not a big deal.
Oh, press stud "brand tag" on PackTowl which had been hanging on by a thread happened to come off in this afternoon's shower (no fucking towel at this hostel, even tho IME most Colombian hostels give you one - fwiw no towel provided at Finca La Playa BTW). Not a massive deal as rarely used it and the whole PT is (surprisingly, doesn't feel like it's had huge amount of use) rather worn and holey and in need of replacement, but FWIW. have shoved loose tag in bag and if it makes it home it just may come in useful for sewing on to something I guess, or I can throw it out at home.
2220 Others come back, have curtain drawn. Anyway, bed.
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