Sat 0852 By the kitchen area near the pool, it's not kitchen its a dining area. But anyway, no one else is around, I've said hi to a couple people inside.
On a random note, I heard a zeta gas jingle being played by something in the street when I was lying in bed just before I got up. I don't think I've heard that since one of the Mexican Spanish schools, probably back in 2007.
Also on a random note, when I got to the cenote yesterday, it was closed, but it opened maybe a minute or too late, nothing major. There was like five or six people ahead of me in the queue, I'm not sure. And when I actually went down after getting changed, I think there were three people in the water, so I was probably like the fourth person in. It did get a bit busy, but hardly insanely busy, not really a problem at all. It was really quite pleasant. One of the reasons I wanted to go yesterday apart from making sure I got it done was that I suspect at the weekend it might get rather busier. Anyway, just thought it's worth.
Someone was in the bathroom next to the door when I got off and they were on the lower floor and someone was cleaning it. So I've not done my teeth or put subblock on yet, by the way.
Just popped over to stick a few clothes pegs on the stuff hanging out to dry. the top had sort of half fallen off, but it was OK. I'll leave it all there until I hopefully swim, flourish, don't send your brush to bring it in. And you know, the underwear always needs a bit of extra time to dry and it's not in direct sun so it won't hurt.
So I need to get my change back off the owner from yesterday's extension. It's not a big deal. I need to go out and withdraw some cash. I need to buy some souvenirs and I want to swim about four. We'll worry about tonight when it comes. I may not even go out, but we'll see. Maybe do a museum, but that's not the main thing. Oh, I'm a little bit hungry and it would be good to perhaps have something Mexicanish. I don't know. I might get a pastry or something. First one I've had for days. Because when i want one, I can never find a bakery. When I don't want one when I find the bakeries.
I've got about 900 pesos on me. I was thinking I might withdraw about 3000 more at the low fees if I can do it with the chase card. That's not too bad. I'm going to be paying for the buses with credit card, I don't need to pay anything else at this hostel, assuming I go tomorrow, so I'm probably going to need to pay something like, even if I go in a private hotel, 900-ish pesos, call it a thousand in Cancun, so I've then got Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, that's four days of incidentals, which are probably going to come in at about 300 a day. So that's 1200, plus 1000 for 2200. So I could withdraw less, but it's nice to have a little bit in reserve for emergencies, you know, taxis or whatever, and I don't mind having a moderate amount back when I'm at home, it's nice to come out with a little bit of cash in case my cards don't work and so forth. I'd have very roughly 1700 pesos on me when I leave the country if those estimates and the withdrawal are exactly what happens. That's about 68 quid. That's not huge amount of money to be exposed to inflation. It's also enough that it would comfortably pay for a taxi and, at the very least, the first night in accommodation when I come back, whatever time that is. And there's always a possibility that I'll want to stash a 500 Rivera and kahlo note if I get one or one of the new plastic notes in my collection. So, that's that. It's only a very small regret, but I did have some half-decent Rivera notes earlier, but I spent them because I didn't want to withdraw any more money at the time. I should have stashed one away. I did keep it aside for a while, but then when I ran low I spent it, not the end of the world, and for all I know I'll get one in this withdrawal.
I don't think any of the stuff I've got to do today is ultra critical. I don't feel totally relaxed and chilled, but then maybe it's partly because I've not put the sunblock on and clean my teeth yet and it's hot and blah blah blah. Anyway, I think everything's basically okay. It would also be good to get that change back just to knock it off my mental to-do list. I'm a bit worried I won't be able to find the kind of souvenirs I want. I'm looking to get some of those tortoise, low-budget alebrijeish things with the wobbly heads because I think that might be nice-ish for the nephew and niece. and not ridiculously expensive if they don't, but I've got a horrible fear. I'm going to not find any of your pain through the nose, and we'll see. You'll see which answer practice must vanish with some of the souvenir shops. Yes, that last sentence is a brilliant transliteration of, we'll see what happens, at least it will be some practice speaking Spanish with the souvenir shops, or words to that effect. To be screw-perously fair, I'm probably muttering a bit because of how I'm out here on my own. There could be people listening to me from the nearby inside kitchen. I'm not saying anything ridiculous, but, you know, there's an actual tendency to murmur and mutter, which probably doesn't help.
I was also thinking, as I probably said, when I was in a supermarket probably a few weeks ago now that maybe I will take a packet of drinking chocolate back with me, it comes in these sort of things, these long solid sticks, a little bit like the panella I got from Colombia, so I might try and buy a packet of that. I'd like to get the souvenirs, not from Cancun, the chocolate I could maybe buy in a supermarket in Cancun and I wouldn't have to carry it from here, but if I see anything sort of cheap and convenient, then I might buy that. I don't want artisanal stuff I just want from a Mexican supermarket stuff.
I do feel a bit guilty about not trying more like tacos and quesadillas or even new novel Mexican foods lately. I've been going for the easy and comfortable option of pizza and noodles and stuff. It's not a big deal. I have eaten some of that stuff. I've got my own quirks with the food and sauces. I might try and get an empanada or something later. Anyway, we'll see. No pressure, no need to get worked up. It would be good to try a marquesita as well, but I haven't seen anyone selling those here in Valladolid.
"Zeta gas" is pronounced "Zetta" BTW, I believe this is just "Z gas" with Spanish pronunciation but ftr.
Fuck me I'm feeling hot sitting here in the shade and it's nine o'clock in the morning. But, you know, I maybe gradually get used to it. I'm not going to die, there's air con. Cancun will, I don't know, be better or worse. Haven't checked the actual forecasts or the geography, but maybe being on the coast makes it slightly cooler there. Anyway, it is what it is and the trip's nearly over and I'll probably be missing the heat when I get back to London. I havent check the forecasts there either, actually. If I had to guess I might say London was going to be peaking about 10, 12, 13 during the day, I don't expect it to be super cold, unless there's a particular unusual weather going on now, but I also don't expect you to be super warm. I'm kind of looking forward to going back. It probably will be a smidge on the over-cool side, but then it will be, even if that's true, it will be nice to get a bit of that and then work through into spring and summer myself rather than going back from here and it's already hot without seeing any of the kind of... early spring weather myself.
0914 As always, I didn't really sleep super well. It wasn't terrible. I think I woke up in the night, maybe I was a little bit mentally uncomfortable, just worrying about minor-ish shit. Also, it was a little bit cold, not ridiculously so. I'm trying to hide under the sheet, and then I'm trying to read myself back to sleep under the sheet, and the sheet's flapping down so it gets between my eyes and the phone, and all that kind of stuff. Nothing huge. Didn't sleep terribly. I'm not feeling knackered, and I woke up. Fine, and I got up without the alarm, because i thought I might as well get up if I wasn't sleeping. Anyway, it's fine, it's fine.
Not really a travel thing, but the fingerprint unllck on the P7 is shit, I don't know if it's the screen protector or the increasingly knackered screen protector, though it looks fine over the fingerprint sensor. It feels like at least half the time, I try three times and I have to type the bloody password in. The password's too long and I ought to change it, but I daren't change it while I'm abroad because if I get it wrong, you know, and there's a mistype both of the re-entries, then that's it, all my data's gone. So I don't want to change the password without being at home and making sure I've got a solid backup of all my data first.
I think I'm going to have another coffee in a minute and then go. I just went in and topped up my water bottle. Someone was, I think, doing some new coffee, so I've got to wait for it to drip through into the bowl, you know. And then, of course, I need to do my teeth and put some sunblock on, and then we'll go out, probably getting some cash as the first order of business, and then we'll take it from there. I might make it 3,500, actually. It's like... it's... it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter. The inflationary losses, even if I lose the whole amount, the inflationary losses over 5 years, it's going to be 10% of what, 75 quid or something like that. It's at £7.50, it's nothing. I mean, alright, maybe the inflation's going to be worse than that, but you know, it's fine. And I hope we're out in 5 years and it's good to have some. Anyway, it's good to have it here as well now for mental feeling safe reasons as well.
I'm being lazy and I'm also trying to show what it's like, obviously I could totally tart up what I just voiced typed to get rid of some of the ums and errs and reword it but I'm sure some of this is even worse and maybe the conversational style is not too bad. I do think what I used to just type conversationally was a bit more to the point but you know it is what it is and although the Bluetooth keyboard is by no means useless and I have had some value out of it. It just doesn't have the convenience of the key one being here right in my pocket at the hostel.
I'm going to see how it goes and we'll see what happens tonight etc but my current feeling is very much that I'm going to Cancun tomorrow rather than leaving it till Monday, but that's just the current thinking I'm not booking anything till tonight or probably tomorrow morning and at some point probably I'll come back here either before after the swim but before I go out and I'll do some serious research on booking.com, look at privates and dorms and sociability-ness and see what I think.
Just check the London weather forecast. Tomorrow (Sunday) it's low 8, high 19. But then Tuesday is low 4 high 11. So maybe we're having a warm spell right now but My broad feelings and recollections of what it would be are probably not too far off.
For what it's worth no one is in either of the pools and although there were a few people sitting around on the sun lounges yesterday morning, as I think I said, I haven't seen anyone in the pool at all except for those two guys of unknown nationality last night who jumped in a couple of times and swam around for a minute and then got out and jumped in a bit later. Doesn't matter, just an observation. It is quite nice hostel. I would kind of like to be more sociable. Maybe that's just me not doing it right, but also to some extent if it was really busy obviously the pool would always be rammed and it wouldn't be the same. Anyway, just some wafflings.
0928 Okay, annoyingly the FUTO keyboard itself, not the extra voice typey thing. I think it's the keyboard one I'm using. It won't show you which model you have, but I think I'd set it to the medium 70-ish model. I've just on a whim gone and downloaded the highest model available, so now that I've got a lot more experience with the voice typing, we'll see if that is delivering extra quality in return for being slower, or whether it makes no difference. I'm pretty sure I wasn't on that top model before. I may have been on the default lowest or the intermediate one. I suspect intermediate, but I have no way to really know. Yeah, this one is visibly much slower. It's a little annoying perhaps if I want to write a longish post too slow to be really usable, so I definitely wasn't using this top level 2-4-4ish. I'm not sure I can't see the name anymore, one before. Hard to say if it's obviously better. I think it's still putting commas in strange places, although maybe that's my diction. Anyway, I'll try and stick with it for a bit and see how it goes, especially since I don't need to write a lot right now. Okay, yeah, it just chopped off a bit of my last sentence after transcribing a little bit. I was saying something about, let's form a judgment over time and see how it goes. So it's clearly not perfect, although I guess that kind of meta what to transcribe and what not stuff is maybe not a property of the model. Maybe it is, I don't know. Anyway, we'll give it a go. I could see myself going down to the 70 Werther, that's what I was on before, or Werther I was on the 39 before. But we'll stick with this for a little bit at least. My brother would like that. It's not transcribing my pronunciation of the word whether correctly because I don't say it correctly. Family quirk, I think. Anyway.
I kind of feel I ought to be rushing off to take advantage of the relative coolness and to get stuff done but it's fine, nothing is urgent, just need to chill, have a relaxed-ish kind of day, I really hope I can swim later because that's the last chance for the trip and if I can swim today then that would probably go a long way towards getting me back on the bike, ready for going home. I don't have to go crazy though, probably won't swim tomorrow morning unless I can't swim tonight because it'd be a bit rushed and crappy and there might be people around and feel a bit embarrassed and then I'm stuck with soaking wet swimming trunks on the bus, not soaking wet but you know I don't like traveling with really wet clothes. Anyway, fingers crossed I can swim later today, just don't go getting worked up, take it all easy, nothing really matters in a getting bent out of shape way.
Just for the record, and because I'm waffling, because I'm slightly bored, I'm using the FUTO voice typing, because I like the privacy. Obviously, with this actually being my blog, it wouldn't matter that much if I was using some sort of internet-based voice transcription. But I'm not, because I want the voice typing for other stuff, and it's still good not to be giving extra samples of my actual voice to random internet organisations, if I can help it. You know, consistency and all that.
There's not much yet. I must admit, although it is very slow, maybe this higher parameter voice model is doing a better job. Hard to say. Let me just throw in a few random things which mention Spanish-y words and see if that helps, although it is an English model. So I'm here in Valladolid and I'm going to Cancun tomorrow, probably, and I was in Merida and earlier on I was in San Cristobal. Yeah, it did get those right. I think it missed out the word experience in the first sentence in that paragraph, but maybe I didn't say it. Anyway, let's persevere. Everything's fine. I don't know if people think I'm a nutter, but it's not really any different to being on the phone call to someone with people potentially listening. No one really cares, as I say. It's not like I'm saying anything terribly juicy in any sense of the term, you know. So it's fine. It's fine. Obviously, if I did have anything juicy to say, I would use the on-screen keyboard. I have, indeed, sometimes thrown in a paragraph or so of keyboard typing in the middle of voice dictation for precisely that reason. That might explain why the style of errors and weirdnesses varies.
I have wondered briefly, partly because the voice typing makes me think about it but also just in the past, in theory obviously now and indeed years ago, I could have done an audio blog which would probably not have been postable but you know for myself and just like dictated notes to myself but there is a general privacy concern some of the time so pure audio isn't great also even if we imagine 20 years later there is super intelligdng AI transcription and my crappy audio notes from the last 20 years of travel can finally be turned into something readable it's a bit late by then and it's probably never going to be as good as me writing something properly in the first place because writing does force you to pay attention and do it properly. Obviously I'm not doing with these knobs to some extent, but can't be helped. Also, in the meantime, I'd have a much harder time just dipping into my old blog for entertainment or to remind myself something. It wouldn't be searchable. I don't like the sound of my own voice either, so, you know, I think it's much better to go for written, however I get that written stuff. But written now rather than transcribe something later, at least with the voice typing, it's instant transcription and we're throwing the voice away. And I get to, if I'm not being lazy, review the text on screen and fix the most obvious mistakes and waffles, if I can be bothered, blah blah.
0940 Jesus, Mason just turned up!
1212 Voice dictating in the otherwise empty super pizza, bite me. I had a bit of a chat with Mason. Lewis might be around. Anyway, I think I can probably do something with him tonight, so that would be nice. He did also invite me to go to some cenotes with him and his friend today, but I was genuinely tempted, but apart from the fact I had things I wanted to do, I thought it was best, as I said to him, not to go to these kind of unofficial or really low-key cenotes with no life jacket and my current swimming abilities. Best do it in future, you know, something to look forward to, remind me why I'm actually learning to swim.
So, I trogged off over to Santander Cash Machine, I double checked on Google Maps, this one was in a Willys supermarket and with both First Direct and Chase cards it wanted 74 pesos fee, I played around with the amount and receipts and no receipts didn't make any difference, so I thought fuck it and I don't really have that much to do do I, so I trogged over to another one that was also on Google Maps, I'd checked before I left but on Organic and I got there in a sort of mini shopping mall and they didn't seem to have a Santander machine, I looked around and there was a Benorte one which would do a fee of 54 with either of those cards, so I withdrew 3500 there, there was also a Chinese Express buffet type place in there and I was a bit tempted but it was a bit early and I thought I'd leave it.
So I came back into town and I spoke to a couple of slightly fancy looking souvenir shops and I explained about these little tortoise things with the wobbly head that I'm looking to buy and the guy was quite nice actually and he said they're called Semillas I don't know if that's true but like seeds anyway and he said oh four blocks down that way so I went four blocks down that way and wasn't really sure what I was looking for and there was a sort of little market around the square but nothing really promising but there was a kind of slightly brick-a-bracky shop and I I went in there and I thought I'll chat to the staff after I had a quick look round. And they didn't have them, and they looked at me a little bit funny, but I think they understood what I meant, and they suggested I try the mercado minicipal and that's on the opposite side of this super pizza place that I had had half a mind to come to anyway, so I've stopped in here, and now I'm going to trogg over to the macado un monicipao, see how it goes. It's something to do, it's an experience, maybe do some Spanish, didn't have anything else I desperately wanted to do, so, and then I'll go back to the hostel and hopefully swim.
Oh I did get myself an ice cream (masapan) from that shop I like on the way over to the first cash machine by the way.
I did see a couple of like little cafe food places. I could have maybe got a quesadilla or something But I kind of figured that especially if I might be out tonight with Mason and his friend and Lewis or something like that That if I get a pizza now, I've indulged my craving for that and I've had something to eat You know, it's a solid base even if not super healthy and then either with them later on I can have a little snack of some kind depending on where they might go or I can maybe treat myself to a quesadilla Or another ice cream or something this afternoon as I'm wandering around being careful with regards to the swimming that sort of thing.
To some extent, obviously this tortoise souvenir thing doesn't matter, but like I think I read years ago, it's sometimes nice to have a kind of goal that gives you a reason for moving around the place and talking to people and doing stuff and just seeing stuff as you go around. You know, I think the example they gave was find the best cup of coffee in the city. So, my little quest for wobbly-head tortoises, you know, it's forcing me to talk to people, you know, it's getting me around. It's something to do and it doesn't almost matter what the thing is, right?
I don't know if I could in theory make an effort to avoid these kind of vocal tics like saying right and you know if I thought maybe I could dictate more in the classic businessman recording on the dictaphone style but you know I'm just trying to bash stuff out and I'm in a noisy pizza place so whatever.
Sun 1235 At the ADO terminal I'm going to voice dictate this because there's probably some English speaking people around but it's reasonably noisy and I'm speaking right next to the mic and I can bash something out so what the hell I think the bus goes at 1310
So after the super pizza, I went over to the Mercado municipal and I did find some of those little tortoise things. Someone even called them alabrijes so you know that's interesting. The first ones I saw, my god, they were really shoddy looking and they were like 25 or even 30 but I wandered around a bit more and there was like an adjacent block and I went in there and there were some people sending them at 20 that were, if anything, slightly nicer quality. I don't think as good as the ones I've got at home but anyway, so I bought like four tortoises and two fish things from three different places each at 20 pesos. I got them to wrap them. When I got back to the hostel I wrapped them inside my beanie hat and some waterproof trousers and caught them towards the bottom of my bag. I have no idea if the heads are gonna stay or the spring wobbly bits are gonna stay intact during the trip from here to home but we can only hope.
Mason and I think apparently a couple of Chichen Itz tour guides and maybe the owner and some other people were having a bit of a party in the enclosed area by the pool. I popped back out and having another ice cream with coconut this time at that place. I came back, Mason invited me to join them but I said I was going to swim and I'd join them afterwards so I did have a swim so that's something probably in the water about 32 minutes. Better than nothing I think. Anyway I then went and had a shower and got changed and I rinsed a couple of tops in water and I think I ended up, I can't exactly what happened, I didn't join them outside because they'd sort of stopped by then but I ended up having some water and I made an effort to chat with that Brazilian woman who is like staff volunteer as well as a guest and we chatted a bit in English and then I ended up chatting to Mason and subsequently to Mason and that woman the Brazilian woman and then later to with Mason and the oldish Asian looking woman who turns out to be from London and is called Tina. She is actually going to be in Cancun on Monday night but I decided in the end to jump ahead that I wouldn't stay in the hostel I had been toying with which is the one she was going to stay in.
There was some idea that me and Mason and Alex, who was the friend of the Canadian-Mexican guy, would go out but I think Mason had a lot to drink, no judgement, I'm not blaming him, and he went and sort of collapsed on his bed about quarter past nine. I could probably have gone out to see some kind of light show with two Swiss women and Tina but I decided I wouldn't, I wasn't sure if Mason was going to be out at that point. I wandered through Plaza La Candidaire about nine and just to jump ahead subsequently about 11, 1130 and it was really dead both times so maybe there was something special happening when Mark went there, maybe I was way too early but I doubt it, I suspect it was just some strange unusual event when Mark was there rather than it being routinely lively on a Saturday night.
I did briefly toy with going to St Patrick's for the live music again, but I thought it might be a bit repetitive and I'd been talking earlier with Mason and sort of also with the Brazilian woman and like they were like oh you know you could have gone in that cantina it would have been fine if you're not the arsehole tourist people really like to see you and make an effort and you know and they'll be talking to you and stuff I mean I don't think it's guaranteed and maybe else you can sit at the bar which I didn't do but anyway since I wasn't going out with Mason I thought fuck it I toyed with going to la officina but I didn't
So I went in the bar I hadn't gone in that had had the two waiters outside near just off the square yesterday and it wasn't or it wasn't too big a deal it was I felt oddly drunk despite only having had one can of beer like two hours earlier maybe I was just nervous anyway I went upstairs they sort of seemed to want me to and I sat at a table on my own and I had a couple of draft beers it was quite nice and then I thought and it was about 11 by this point so I thought okay well I'll go out I'll walk through Candelaria in cases anything there or I can get a taco or something in the street I couldn't either of those and then I went to Tres mentiras or Mil heridas it seems to be called both nearer the hostel and there was a guy in there singing the waiter seemed a bit funny about letting me in it's like the door was locked and I said are you open he said yes I said can I come in and he said yes but it was a bit weird anyway I got in the end I got some quesadillas there it was a bit pricey but I figured what the hell and in the end I had three beers and there was a guy doing sort of singing and karaoke ish with some of the audience but it was it was all right I didn't feel super welcome I didn't understand everything the mic wasn't great but you know it was quite a nice experience and of course I didn't chat with anyone but I don't think you can rely on it happening every time and it's not like I was sitting at the bar and at least I made a bit of an effort
I think I got back about one half past and at that point I ate the very very sugary biscuity thing which I took a photo of earlier that I'd bought for 25 at the market after I got the alabrihares. Went to bed, woke up wanting to go for a dump about four or five in the morning. Not too bad, didn't sleep brilliantly, but not too bad. I think I woke up about eight and drifted and then maybe about nine half past I was looking at accommodation on the phone in bed and I probably actually got up about ten and had a couple of coffees and a bit of a chat with Mason and was looking at the hostels on booking. Com bit more.
So I went back up to the dorm and started packing, it was about 11 and I did book the hostel, I'm going to ramble about that in a minute. And then I came down and checked out, no problem, and I had a little farewell chat with the Brazilian woman who was just about to head out to the cenote, her shift had just finished. And I thanked Oscar and gave him the key back and I had a little chat with Mason. He actually came out with me, we met in the street after I'd left about 5 metres, he was going to buy a hat. I walked over, we came to the bus and we went to oxxo and I got some rolls for the bus, the canella things. And then I went and watched him buy a hat and then we said goodbye and then I came into the terminal.
So I was blowing hot and cold on the accommodation. In the end, I waffled a bit to mason, but it was just, you know, just waffling, right? Anyway, I decided I would splurge on a private, and I picked somewhere that's not a million miles from the bus terminal in Plaza de Palapas, and I picked somewhere that's got, there wasn't much space in the dorm, so at least there should be some people there. I'm paying about 22-ish pounds a night, which isn't great. It's about double what a dorm would be, but a lot of the cheaper places, the reviews were mixed, and I did wonder if the dorms were going to be rammed, and there were people talking about theft, and I'm sure it'd be fine, and probably Cancun just attracts a lot of bad reviews, but I thought, fuck it, I'll feel a lot more comfortable in a private just before I go, and also, in a strange way, it's not like I could say, oh, well, if this place isn't good, the next place would be better as it is the end of the trip, so I, you know, wanted to have a semi-nice time, and having a private would be nice, that means I can repack my bag and stuff like that, so it's fine. In the long run, an extra 20-odd quid doesn't really matter. It's not like I've splurged enormously on accommodations throughout the trip.
1300 on bus, as other day it was not on the screen and I just went and asked the woman checking tickets when another 1310 bus showed up on screen and she waved me at this one and the guy at the bus checked my ticket and met me on with my bag no fuss. Who knows if it would have shown up.
Aircon is pleasantly cold right now. Trip is I think 2.5h but the time zone shift makes it look like 3.5h.
I suspect oppenheimer is showing (presumably from a previous part of the journey, not from start).
I actually seem to have slightly "burned" the tip of my right middle finger on the hotback of the p7 probably from the voice typing.
1310 film seems surprisingly interesting albeit I have never really fancied watching it. But I am doing my best to ignore it, if I want to watch it I can do it from the start sometime.
1313 we are off. Loads of empty seats and as is semi usual lately I have a a double to myself.
1406 bored tbh. FWIW I switched to my second bottle of sunblock today, I could maybe have squeezed a dribble more out of the first one but it was getting tight and no point faffing. The first bottle was a nominal 50ml which I had overfilled at home, I think. So it lasted me almost 8 weeks despite at least occasional beach stuff and short sleeves etc.
Toothpaste - which wasn't quite new for the trip - has borderline run out and I may be forced to buy some here, not sure.
Razor is shot but I think I can get by without buying another useless one here.
2212 So I'm in the hotel room doing this on voice typing. There is actually a table and a chair so in theory I could get the little Bluetooth keyboard and the reading glasses out but it feels too much effort. Make of that what you will.
So we got into Cancun on time, I walked over to the hostel, no big deal, maybe 15 to 20 minutes, bit hot but not too bad. The big problem with Cancun, well a big problem with Cancun, is they've got all these major fucking roads and although to be fair they're not as bad as they could be, crossing them isn't all that much fun and it feels very traffic oriented. Anyway I got here okay, I rang the bell and someone came and let me in, got checked in, slightly discombobulated at seeing the list of rules that they made me sign and there was something in there about the air conditioning only operates between certain hours and I thought well that's kind of what you're expecting in a dorm but it's not what I expect in a private.
The woman who checked me in was actually nice enough, but maybe one of the reviews on booking had put the idea in my head, but it felt like she was vaguely amused by me speaking Spanish, but wasn't going to speak English with me or something. Maybe that was in my head. Anyway, she offered me the choice of this room or the next room, which this room I'm actually in is the twin room that I did book. The other room had a double bed and it had a window to the outside, so I said, oh, I'll have that then. And then she said, all right, let me just get someone to change this stuff. And then she said, oh, can we go to the other room because this one's reserved? That was a little bit bait and switchy, probably didn't set my expectations up too well, but I'm not strictly speaking complaining about that because this is the room I booked. I don't know whether it said there was no window or it said city view or something because booking.com don't put that kind of thing in the email they send you, so you have no real way to check afterwards, but it in of itself is not a huge deal.
So, I got checked in, and I'm in the room, and I noticed that there's no control for the air conditioning, so I'm getting a bit pissed off, because I'm thinking, not only do I not get to turn it on when I want, despite paying quite a lot of money for a private, I also can't control it at all. I called Mum and Dad, and I was probably not rude, but a little bit, and, er, yes, yes, yes, not great, but, you know, I didn't really want to call, but obviously I had to call while the time zones were okay.
So I went out and I'm feeling a bit hacked off and I didn't really know what I wanted but I guess I wanted some food and I'm wandering around the local area and it's all it's obviously sort of touristy but it's more sort of like American-ish I mean that's not even fair but you know like really big restaurants and it all looks very chain-y and you know weird and I'm feeling pissed off and I don't know where I'm going or exactly what I even want to eat even if I forget it and I go over to Parque de las Palapas because I hadn't heard that there was events on there and stuff and there was some food stalls so I thought well I'll maybe go after dark but I'll check it out now.
So I went there and it was sort of nice-ish and quite a lot of families and like probably 90% plus locals and Anyway, I went and looked at the food Court type area and I found a place to in quesadillas and I paid 40 for a quesadilla and the woman said What do you want on it? And she waved some white slop at me and I said, ah no, no salsa and she looked at me like I'd asked her for a fish or Something and anyway, I said, oh is that the cheese in Spanish? I think and then she just did it and I got it and it had this white slop inside So I maybe could have eaten it but I had a little sniff at it I didn't I just left the thing on the counter. It's like I didn't throw it in the bin. Maybe someone ate it Maybe they didn't know obvious beggars around I could have given it to him if I'd been inclined. So I wandered down the other Stalls and I found another place to in quesadillas But they had a stupid sign on the wall saying they wanted to charge five pesos for a plastic tray or five pesos for a Plastic fork to cit down on plastic use (but not AFAICS offering an alternative at no charge) and it's like well, you're already charging the 40 to start with so fuck you And then I went down the row again, and there was another one which actually charged 40 pesos for a quesadilla And I asked the bloke can I have it without sauce or without dressing (sin salsa y sin aderezo) and he was like he looked at me a bit funny and I had to repeat it and he's like no No, it doesn't have anything like that inside. (It is this variabikity in what sauces actually come with a particular food, even 20m apart in the same town, that is a big part of the problem for me.) Anyway, so I ordered that It took forever to be prepared and I wondered if they were going to give me anything at all But they did eventually give me something and well not super substantial of a 40 pesos to be honest Considering I bought at paying 140 150 ish for three in that bar last night. It wasn't too bad at all It was very hot to start with but I took it off and I managed to find a table in the kind of food court Area, they're all stony tables undercover and I ate it and it was quite nice.
And I think I'd sort of half wondered if I was hangry, really hate that word, you know, low blood sugar not eaten and that was affecting my mood earlier, but I had had, yes it's junky but even so, I had had that pankonella on the bus and a hundred grams of fruit and nuts finishing off the bag I'd brought from home. So it's not as if I hadn't eaten anything, but anyway I did feel better after eating that quesadilla as I kind of intellectually half expected I might, but I really didn't think I would have been that bad anyway, just to be honest and to tell this story in the right order.
So I wasn't sure what to do about food generally but I thought I'll go and have something else at one of these stalls so I went to a different stall and I got three tacos with arrachera for 80 pesos which isn't amazing value they weren't huge I mean considering I was paying seven at that stall in Oaxaca with Samuel the other day but you know at least that's the going rate it's not like they rip me off because I was a tourist and I asked the bloke could I have them without sauce and he's like yeah there's no sauce (because there isn't normally sauce I think, but what do i know, and i think tqcos al pastor mqybe normally have sauce bjt again far from clear) there are sauce I don't know anyway so I got those and I put some onion and an actual chilli on one and some chili sauce on the other twk and I took them off I couldn't get a stone table I thought should I ask someone if I can sit here but I didn't really want to so I ate them standing up they were quite nice as well to be honest pretty spicy if my hands a bit greasy but you know pretty nice.
And I had been thinking I'd go back to the hostel and then come back out after dark but I was thinking well I probably ought to just stay and there were signs of an event and basically I sort of hung around and there was some some guys sort of renting out those electric cars that kids can ride around in and that was surprisingly cute entertaining and then later on as it was sunset ish some bloke came up on the stage and there was a sort of echoes of carnival performance and I I basically stayed watching that till it finished at about 2115.
I told myself I'd go back to the hostel about nine but you know since it was obviously sort of coming towards an end I stuck it out to the end, not really my bag but I didn't have anything else to do and it was quite a nice thing to see on the second to last night and you know it sort of helped rescue the evening a bit on top of having had the food and some of it was quite, I mean some of the little kids dancing were quite cute and the final spectacular thing was pretty good. It alao reminded me of my niece a bit. I mean some of the gaps were a bit tedious but you know it wasn't too bad and I was thinking I'll get some beers at the oxo and I'll go back to the hostel and I'll have a couple of beers and maybe there'll be someone there I can chat with. I was also vaguely tempted to buy a bottle of that pre-mixed margarita, which I've not had since that second night in Cancun at the start of the trip, if memory serves. I have had a few margaritas, mostly with pox, but not the premixed.
So I went in three oxo's, they really are all over the place, the first one didn't have any alcohol at all, the second one had alcohol, but there were some bin bags sort of knotted through the handles of the cabinet, and I spoke to the guy in the till and asked him a leading question, and he said, no you can't buy alcohol on Sundays. And then I went to a third oxo in a petrol station as I carried on walking home, and I asked the guy without a leading question there (btw there was nothing blocking off the cabinets in the third oxxo, I guess he just wouldn't have let me buy it if I'd taken some) and he said, yeah all oxo's don't sell after 5pm on Sundays or something to that effect. I don't know why, is this some sort of decision on oxo's part, or is it somehow externally imposed. had a quick look on my phone, I couldn't see any Six branches, I didn't pass any other shop, so oxxo have got the convenience store market sewn up round here it looks like, so I didn't have the chance to try somewhere else for a beer. It was annoying but to give myself some credit, I didn't flip out too badly, it means I'd get a day off the alcohol, but you know it would have been nice to buy something, but not a huge deal. I bought some peanuts and a small bottle of Pepsi black at the third oxo just to have something for when I got back.
When I got back it was about 20 to 10 I rang the bell and it took a little bit time to get let in and some other guy came up who's presumably a guest and I said hi and then he pushed the door open and it opened but then the woman who'd checked me in was behind it so maybe she had literally just opened it. I don't think I tried pushing it but it was fairly clear it was locked and I tried turning it with my key from my room and it didn't work.
Anyway she completely unbidden gave me a remote control for the air conditioning and when I got into the room I turned it on with that and so maybe in fact the air conditioning does work whenever I want it in the private room and I got worked up over nothing. But I can't entirely blame myself because after all that's I saw what was written in the rules/advice for guests and I read it and I didn't have a remote control and you know anyway for what it's worth maybe I should have politely asked for one but then I was also keen to go out and maybe I didn't want to rock the boat and maybe I was low blood sugar not thinking straight.
I'd also, to be scrupulous and honest, been getting myself a bit worked up about whether there would actually be any breakfast, which is supposedly included, because she hadn't mentioned anything about that when she checked me in, and so when I came in tonight, she gave me the air conditioning control and this bloke got the blanket he wanted, I asked her, and she said, oh yeah, it's 9 to 10.30, so that's also probably okay. I don't think the breakfast is anything special, but the point is, when I'm told it's there, and it's included, and that factors into my decision to choose to stay here. I didn't really have any reason to expect there wouldn't be any breakfast except maybe the low blood sugary thing and the fact that she didn't tell me about breakfast when I was checking in and on top of the air conditioning misunderstanding I was generally starting to feel rather distrustful and pissed off with the hostel.
There was no one else on the lower terrace although I did see both of their rather nice cats One of them let me stroke it a tiny bit and I think some staff woman was saying to me about how it wanted feeding at that time and they were giving it some later so the cats are nice and there was no one on the lower terrace except I think that staff woman and I went up to the roof terrace (which I had a quick look at after I checked in and there was an old bloke sitting up there with a laptop then he had his headphones in and didn't even look round so I didn't say hi) and tonight there was no one up there either I sat there with my bottle of Pepsi Black and the guy who'd come up when I was waiting to be let in tonight came up just walked straight past me and sat down with his laptop at another table so I'm not complaining but I didn't make an effort to try and chat to him. I think he might have put headphones in as well so when I'd finished my Pepsi I just said goodnight and walked off not a big deal but doesn't look like it's super busy and I wonder what on earth was going on with that one bed free in the eight bed dorm maybe everyone else is out partying although if and I haven't checked and I can't remember reading it in the rules because in practice I don't care too much if there is an 11pm curfew maybe they're not out partying but who knows. Maybe all the people staying here are already asleep in their dorm because they have early flights or they just got in on a flight and they're tired anyway just saying it doesn't feel like it's remotely social tonight so not really my fault that nothing's happening that's just the luck of the draw I think.
So I had a shower and they had given me a towel when I checked in by the way which was nice and the water was actually hot so hot that I had to turn the cold on there was no soap but you know it's not a huge deal so that was nice and I'm back in the room now I've not cleaned my teeth yet but I might snack on the peanuts because there's a sign saying not to eat in the room so obviously I'm deliberately going to flout that and then I'll go and clean my teeth and go to to bed, I think. Got to do bloody Duolingo, of course.
I think the plan for tomorrow is to basically get up in time for breakfast at 9, go for a bit of a wander. I will check oit somewhere around the corner I could probably print out my boarding pass after I do the online check-in, I don't know if I need to print it but i probably have time to do on tue morning and that's fine, and then I want to go to the supermarket and maybe buy some local sweets to take home with me as a kind of pseudo gift and maybe get some drinking chocolate. Other than that it's just wandering around a bit and maybe looking for somewhere to eat and if I can find some pizza place or something I can lard out at on the final morning that will help sustain me through the airport and on the flight if I can't eat the flight food.
It's hard to say if this high parameter voice typing model is helping or not, it is pretty annoying waiting for it to transcribe when I want to write a long load of crap like this because I am sitting here for a minute or so between bouts and I can't do anything while it's transcribing. I won't switch down to the lower grade yet, I don't know if it's doing any better but you know it's just about ok and I've ground all this out now so I might as well see how it goes.
I also have semi-started to empty my bag for a repack. I'm pretty sure I have enough clean clothes to see me through the rest of the trip without doing any laundry which is good because most of the sinks here are out in public although there is one in private if I was really desperate but I don't think I'm going to need it. So I want to repack, throw any junk away to try and create space for things like the drinking chocolate and some airport air side cheap/novel spirits, so I want to do that tomorrow as well of course.
2338 just shaved - I found a half decent razor, tbh I have been bad at throwing old ones out in case ne wone's are worse and it gets confusing - and cleaned teeth. Will send this and go to bed. Don't feel too bad overall tbh.
On a random note, I heard a zeta gas jingle being played by something in the street when I was lying in bed just before I got up. I don't think I've heard that since one of the Mexican Spanish schools, probably back in 2007.
Also on a random note, when I got to the cenote yesterday, it was closed, but it opened maybe a minute or too late, nothing major. There was like five or six people ahead of me in the queue, I'm not sure. And when I actually went down after getting changed, I think there were three people in the water, so I was probably like the fourth person in. It did get a bit busy, but hardly insanely busy, not really a problem at all. It was really quite pleasant. One of the reasons I wanted to go yesterday apart from making sure I got it done was that I suspect at the weekend it might get rather busier. Anyway, just thought it's worth.
Someone was in the bathroom next to the door when I got off and they were on the lower floor and someone was cleaning it. So I've not done my teeth or put subblock on yet, by the way.
Just popped over to stick a few clothes pegs on the stuff hanging out to dry. the top had sort of half fallen off, but it was OK. I'll leave it all there until I hopefully swim, flourish, don't send your brush to bring it in. And you know, the underwear always needs a bit of extra time to dry and it's not in direct sun so it won't hurt.
So I need to get my change back off the owner from yesterday's extension. It's not a big deal. I need to go out and withdraw some cash. I need to buy some souvenirs and I want to swim about four. We'll worry about tonight when it comes. I may not even go out, but we'll see. Maybe do a museum, but that's not the main thing. Oh, I'm a little bit hungry and it would be good to perhaps have something Mexicanish. I don't know. I might get a pastry or something. First one I've had for days. Because when i want one, I can never find a bakery. When I don't want one when I find the bakeries.
I've got about 900 pesos on me. I was thinking I might withdraw about 3000 more at the low fees if I can do it with the chase card. That's not too bad. I'm going to be paying for the buses with credit card, I don't need to pay anything else at this hostel, assuming I go tomorrow, so I'm probably going to need to pay something like, even if I go in a private hotel, 900-ish pesos, call it a thousand in Cancun, so I've then got Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, that's four days of incidentals, which are probably going to come in at about 300 a day. So that's 1200, plus 1000 for 2200. So I could withdraw less, but it's nice to have a little bit in reserve for emergencies, you know, taxis or whatever, and I don't mind having a moderate amount back when I'm at home, it's nice to come out with a little bit of cash in case my cards don't work and so forth. I'd have very roughly 1700 pesos on me when I leave the country if those estimates and the withdrawal are exactly what happens. That's about 68 quid. That's not huge amount of money to be exposed to inflation. It's also enough that it would comfortably pay for a taxi and, at the very least, the first night in accommodation when I come back, whatever time that is. And there's always a possibility that I'll want to stash a 500 Rivera and kahlo note if I get one or one of the new plastic notes in my collection. So, that's that. It's only a very small regret, but I did have some half-decent Rivera notes earlier, but I spent them because I didn't want to withdraw any more money at the time. I should have stashed one away. I did keep it aside for a while, but then when I ran low I spent it, not the end of the world, and for all I know I'll get one in this withdrawal.
I don't think any of the stuff I've got to do today is ultra critical. I don't feel totally relaxed and chilled, but then maybe it's partly because I've not put the sunblock on and clean my teeth yet and it's hot and blah blah blah. Anyway, I think everything's basically okay. It would also be good to get that change back just to knock it off my mental to-do list. I'm a bit worried I won't be able to find the kind of souvenirs I want. I'm looking to get some of those tortoise, low-budget alebrijeish things with the wobbly heads because I think that might be nice-ish for the nephew and niece. and not ridiculously expensive if they don't, but I've got a horrible fear. I'm going to not find any of your pain through the nose, and we'll see. You'll see which answer practice must vanish with some of the souvenir shops. Yes, that last sentence is a brilliant transliteration of, we'll see what happens, at least it will be some practice speaking Spanish with the souvenir shops, or words to that effect. To be screw-perously fair, I'm probably muttering a bit because of how I'm out here on my own. There could be people listening to me from the nearby inside kitchen. I'm not saying anything ridiculous, but, you know, there's an actual tendency to murmur and mutter, which probably doesn't help.
I was also thinking, as I probably said, when I was in a supermarket probably a few weeks ago now that maybe I will take a packet of drinking chocolate back with me, it comes in these sort of things, these long solid sticks, a little bit like the panella I got from Colombia, so I might try and buy a packet of that. I'd like to get the souvenirs, not from Cancun, the chocolate I could maybe buy in a supermarket in Cancun and I wouldn't have to carry it from here, but if I see anything sort of cheap and convenient, then I might buy that. I don't want artisanal stuff I just want from a Mexican supermarket stuff.
I do feel a bit guilty about not trying more like tacos and quesadillas or even new novel Mexican foods lately. I've been going for the easy and comfortable option of pizza and noodles and stuff. It's not a big deal. I have eaten some of that stuff. I've got my own quirks with the food and sauces. I might try and get an empanada or something later. Anyway, we'll see. No pressure, no need to get worked up. It would be good to try a marquesita as well, but I haven't seen anyone selling those here in Valladolid.
"Zeta gas" is pronounced "Zetta" BTW, I believe this is just "Z gas" with Spanish pronunciation but ftr.
Fuck me I'm feeling hot sitting here in the shade and it's nine o'clock in the morning. But, you know, I maybe gradually get used to it. I'm not going to die, there's air con. Cancun will, I don't know, be better or worse. Haven't checked the actual forecasts or the geography, but maybe being on the coast makes it slightly cooler there. Anyway, it is what it is and the trip's nearly over and I'll probably be missing the heat when I get back to London. I havent check the forecasts there either, actually. If I had to guess I might say London was going to be peaking about 10, 12, 13 during the day, I don't expect it to be super cold, unless there's a particular unusual weather going on now, but I also don't expect you to be super warm. I'm kind of looking forward to going back. It probably will be a smidge on the over-cool side, but then it will be, even if that's true, it will be nice to get a bit of that and then work through into spring and summer myself rather than going back from here and it's already hot without seeing any of the kind of... early spring weather myself.
0914 As always, I didn't really sleep super well. It wasn't terrible. I think I woke up in the night, maybe I was a little bit mentally uncomfortable, just worrying about minor-ish shit. Also, it was a little bit cold, not ridiculously so. I'm trying to hide under the sheet, and then I'm trying to read myself back to sleep under the sheet, and the sheet's flapping down so it gets between my eyes and the phone, and all that kind of stuff. Nothing huge. Didn't sleep terribly. I'm not feeling knackered, and I woke up. Fine, and I got up without the alarm, because i thought I might as well get up if I wasn't sleeping. Anyway, it's fine, it's fine.
Not really a travel thing, but the fingerprint unllck on the P7 is shit, I don't know if it's the screen protector or the increasingly knackered screen protector, though it looks fine over the fingerprint sensor. It feels like at least half the time, I try three times and I have to type the bloody password in. The password's too long and I ought to change it, but I daren't change it while I'm abroad because if I get it wrong, you know, and there's a mistype both of the re-entries, then that's it, all my data's gone. So I don't want to change the password without being at home and making sure I've got a solid backup of all my data first.
I think I'm going to have another coffee in a minute and then go. I just went in and topped up my water bottle. Someone was, I think, doing some new coffee, so I've got to wait for it to drip through into the bowl, you know. And then, of course, I need to do my teeth and put some sunblock on, and then we'll go out, probably getting some cash as the first order of business, and then we'll take it from there. I might make it 3,500, actually. It's like... it's... it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter. The inflationary losses, even if I lose the whole amount, the inflationary losses over 5 years, it's going to be 10% of what, 75 quid or something like that. It's at £7.50, it's nothing. I mean, alright, maybe the inflation's going to be worse than that, but you know, it's fine. And I hope we're out in 5 years and it's good to have some. Anyway, it's good to have it here as well now for mental feeling safe reasons as well.
I'm being lazy and I'm also trying to show what it's like, obviously I could totally tart up what I just voiced typed to get rid of some of the ums and errs and reword it but I'm sure some of this is even worse and maybe the conversational style is not too bad. I do think what I used to just type conversationally was a bit more to the point but you know it is what it is and although the Bluetooth keyboard is by no means useless and I have had some value out of it. It just doesn't have the convenience of the key one being here right in my pocket at the hostel.
I'm going to see how it goes and we'll see what happens tonight etc but my current feeling is very much that I'm going to Cancun tomorrow rather than leaving it till Monday, but that's just the current thinking I'm not booking anything till tonight or probably tomorrow morning and at some point probably I'll come back here either before after the swim but before I go out and I'll do some serious research on booking.com, look at privates and dorms and sociability-ness and see what I think.
Just check the London weather forecast. Tomorrow (Sunday) it's low 8, high 19. But then Tuesday is low 4 high 11. So maybe we're having a warm spell right now but My broad feelings and recollections of what it would be are probably not too far off.
For what it's worth no one is in either of the pools and although there were a few people sitting around on the sun lounges yesterday morning, as I think I said, I haven't seen anyone in the pool at all except for those two guys of unknown nationality last night who jumped in a couple of times and swam around for a minute and then got out and jumped in a bit later. Doesn't matter, just an observation. It is quite nice hostel. I would kind of like to be more sociable. Maybe that's just me not doing it right, but also to some extent if it was really busy obviously the pool would always be rammed and it wouldn't be the same. Anyway, just some wafflings.
0928 Okay, annoyingly the FUTO keyboard itself, not the extra voice typey thing. I think it's the keyboard one I'm using. It won't show you which model you have, but I think I'd set it to the medium 70-ish model. I've just on a whim gone and downloaded the highest model available, so now that I've got a lot more experience with the voice typing, we'll see if that is delivering extra quality in return for being slower, or whether it makes no difference. I'm pretty sure I wasn't on that top model before. I may have been on the default lowest or the intermediate one. I suspect intermediate, but I have no way to really know. Yeah, this one is visibly much slower. It's a little annoying perhaps if I want to write a longish post too slow to be really usable, so I definitely wasn't using this top level 2-4-4ish. I'm not sure I can't see the name anymore, one before. Hard to say if it's obviously better. I think it's still putting commas in strange places, although maybe that's my diction. Anyway, I'll try and stick with it for a bit and see how it goes, especially since I don't need to write a lot right now. Okay, yeah, it just chopped off a bit of my last sentence after transcribing a little bit. I was saying something about, let's form a judgment over time and see how it goes. So it's clearly not perfect, although I guess that kind of meta what to transcribe and what not stuff is maybe not a property of the model. Maybe it is, I don't know. Anyway, we'll give it a go. I could see myself going down to the 70 Werther, that's what I was on before, or Werther I was on the 39 before. But we'll stick with this for a little bit at least. My brother would like that. It's not transcribing my pronunciation of the word whether correctly because I don't say it correctly. Family quirk, I think. Anyway.
I kind of feel I ought to be rushing off to take advantage of the relative coolness and to get stuff done but it's fine, nothing is urgent, just need to chill, have a relaxed-ish kind of day, I really hope I can swim later because that's the last chance for the trip and if I can swim today then that would probably go a long way towards getting me back on the bike, ready for going home. I don't have to go crazy though, probably won't swim tomorrow morning unless I can't swim tonight because it'd be a bit rushed and crappy and there might be people around and feel a bit embarrassed and then I'm stuck with soaking wet swimming trunks on the bus, not soaking wet but you know I don't like traveling with really wet clothes. Anyway, fingers crossed I can swim later today, just don't go getting worked up, take it all easy, nothing really matters in a getting bent out of shape way.
Just for the record, and because I'm waffling, because I'm slightly bored, I'm using the FUTO voice typing, because I like the privacy. Obviously, with this actually being my blog, it wouldn't matter that much if I was using some sort of internet-based voice transcription. But I'm not, because I want the voice typing for other stuff, and it's still good not to be giving extra samples of my actual voice to random internet organisations, if I can help it. You know, consistency and all that.
There's not much yet. I must admit, although it is very slow, maybe this higher parameter voice model is doing a better job. Hard to say. Let me just throw in a few random things which mention Spanish-y words and see if that helps, although it is an English model. So I'm here in Valladolid and I'm going to Cancun tomorrow, probably, and I was in Merida and earlier on I was in San Cristobal. Yeah, it did get those right. I think it missed out the word experience in the first sentence in that paragraph, but maybe I didn't say it. Anyway, let's persevere. Everything's fine. I don't know if people think I'm a nutter, but it's not really any different to being on the phone call to someone with people potentially listening. No one really cares, as I say. It's not like I'm saying anything terribly juicy in any sense of the term, you know. So it's fine. It's fine. Obviously, if I did have anything juicy to say, I would use the on-screen keyboard. I have, indeed, sometimes thrown in a paragraph or so of keyboard typing in the middle of voice dictation for precisely that reason. That might explain why the style of errors and weirdnesses varies.
I have wondered briefly, partly because the voice typing makes me think about it but also just in the past, in theory obviously now and indeed years ago, I could have done an audio blog which would probably not have been postable but you know for myself and just like dictated notes to myself but there is a general privacy concern some of the time so pure audio isn't great also even if we imagine 20 years later there is super intelligdng AI transcription and my crappy audio notes from the last 20 years of travel can finally be turned into something readable it's a bit late by then and it's probably never going to be as good as me writing something properly in the first place because writing does force you to pay attention and do it properly. Obviously I'm not doing with these knobs to some extent, but can't be helped. Also, in the meantime, I'd have a much harder time just dipping into my old blog for entertainment or to remind myself something. It wouldn't be searchable. I don't like the sound of my own voice either, so, you know, I think it's much better to go for written, however I get that written stuff. But written now rather than transcribe something later, at least with the voice typing, it's instant transcription and we're throwing the voice away. And I get to, if I'm not being lazy, review the text on screen and fix the most obvious mistakes and waffles, if I can be bothered, blah blah.
0940 Jesus, Mason just turned up!
1212 Voice dictating in the otherwise empty super pizza, bite me. I had a bit of a chat with Mason. Lewis might be around. Anyway, I think I can probably do something with him tonight, so that would be nice. He did also invite me to go to some cenotes with him and his friend today, but I was genuinely tempted, but apart from the fact I had things I wanted to do, I thought it was best, as I said to him, not to go to these kind of unofficial or really low-key cenotes with no life jacket and my current swimming abilities. Best do it in future, you know, something to look forward to, remind me why I'm actually learning to swim.
So, I trogged off over to Santander Cash Machine, I double checked on Google Maps, this one was in a Willys supermarket and with both First Direct and Chase cards it wanted 74 pesos fee, I played around with the amount and receipts and no receipts didn't make any difference, so I thought fuck it and I don't really have that much to do do I, so I trogged over to another one that was also on Google Maps, I'd checked before I left but on Organic and I got there in a sort of mini shopping mall and they didn't seem to have a Santander machine, I looked around and there was a Benorte one which would do a fee of 54 with either of those cards, so I withdrew 3500 there, there was also a Chinese Express buffet type place in there and I was a bit tempted but it was a bit early and I thought I'd leave it.
So I came back into town and I spoke to a couple of slightly fancy looking souvenir shops and I explained about these little tortoise things with the wobbly head that I'm looking to buy and the guy was quite nice actually and he said they're called Semillas I don't know if that's true but like seeds anyway and he said oh four blocks down that way so I went four blocks down that way and wasn't really sure what I was looking for and there was a sort of little market around the square but nothing really promising but there was a kind of slightly brick-a-bracky shop and I I went in there and I thought I'll chat to the staff after I had a quick look round. And they didn't have them, and they looked at me a little bit funny, but I think they understood what I meant, and they suggested I try the mercado minicipal and that's on the opposite side of this super pizza place that I had had half a mind to come to anyway, so I've stopped in here, and now I'm going to trogg over to the macado un monicipao, see how it goes. It's something to do, it's an experience, maybe do some Spanish, didn't have anything else I desperately wanted to do, so, and then I'll go back to the hostel and hopefully swim.
Oh I did get myself an ice cream (masapan) from that shop I like on the way over to the first cash machine by the way.
I did see a couple of like little cafe food places. I could have maybe got a quesadilla or something But I kind of figured that especially if I might be out tonight with Mason and his friend and Lewis or something like that That if I get a pizza now, I've indulged my craving for that and I've had something to eat You know, it's a solid base even if not super healthy and then either with them later on I can have a little snack of some kind depending on where they might go or I can maybe treat myself to a quesadilla Or another ice cream or something this afternoon as I'm wandering around being careful with regards to the swimming that sort of thing.
To some extent, obviously this tortoise souvenir thing doesn't matter, but like I think I read years ago, it's sometimes nice to have a kind of goal that gives you a reason for moving around the place and talking to people and doing stuff and just seeing stuff as you go around. You know, I think the example they gave was find the best cup of coffee in the city. So, my little quest for wobbly-head tortoises, you know, it's forcing me to talk to people, you know, it's getting me around. It's something to do and it doesn't almost matter what the thing is, right?
I don't know if I could in theory make an effort to avoid these kind of vocal tics like saying right and you know if I thought maybe I could dictate more in the classic businessman recording on the dictaphone style but you know I'm just trying to bash stuff out and I'm in a noisy pizza place so whatever.
Sun 1235 At the ADO terminal I'm going to voice dictate this because there's probably some English speaking people around but it's reasonably noisy and I'm speaking right next to the mic and I can bash something out so what the hell I think the bus goes at 1310
So after the super pizza, I went over to the Mercado municipal and I did find some of those little tortoise things. Someone even called them alabrijes so you know that's interesting. The first ones I saw, my god, they were really shoddy looking and they were like 25 or even 30 but I wandered around a bit more and there was like an adjacent block and I went in there and there were some people sending them at 20 that were, if anything, slightly nicer quality. I don't think as good as the ones I've got at home but anyway, so I bought like four tortoises and two fish things from three different places each at 20 pesos. I got them to wrap them. When I got back to the hostel I wrapped them inside my beanie hat and some waterproof trousers and caught them towards the bottom of my bag. I have no idea if the heads are gonna stay or the spring wobbly bits are gonna stay intact during the trip from here to home but we can only hope.
Mason and I think apparently a couple of Chichen Itz tour guides and maybe the owner and some other people were having a bit of a party in the enclosed area by the pool. I popped back out and having another ice cream with coconut this time at that place. I came back, Mason invited me to join them but I said I was going to swim and I'd join them afterwards so I did have a swim so that's something probably in the water about 32 minutes. Better than nothing I think. Anyway I then went and had a shower and got changed and I rinsed a couple of tops in water and I think I ended up, I can't exactly what happened, I didn't join them outside because they'd sort of stopped by then but I ended up having some water and I made an effort to chat with that Brazilian woman who is like staff volunteer as well as a guest and we chatted a bit in English and then I ended up chatting to Mason and subsequently to Mason and that woman the Brazilian woman and then later to with Mason and the oldish Asian looking woman who turns out to be from London and is called Tina. She is actually going to be in Cancun on Monday night but I decided in the end to jump ahead that I wouldn't stay in the hostel I had been toying with which is the one she was going to stay in.
There was some idea that me and Mason and Alex, who was the friend of the Canadian-Mexican guy, would go out but I think Mason had a lot to drink, no judgement, I'm not blaming him, and he went and sort of collapsed on his bed about quarter past nine. I could probably have gone out to see some kind of light show with two Swiss women and Tina but I decided I wouldn't, I wasn't sure if Mason was going to be out at that point. I wandered through Plaza La Candidaire about nine and just to jump ahead subsequently about 11, 1130 and it was really dead both times so maybe there was something special happening when Mark went there, maybe I was way too early but I doubt it, I suspect it was just some strange unusual event when Mark was there rather than it being routinely lively on a Saturday night.
I did briefly toy with going to St Patrick's for the live music again, but I thought it might be a bit repetitive and I'd been talking earlier with Mason and sort of also with the Brazilian woman and like they were like oh you know you could have gone in that cantina it would have been fine if you're not the arsehole tourist people really like to see you and make an effort and you know and they'll be talking to you and stuff I mean I don't think it's guaranteed and maybe else you can sit at the bar which I didn't do but anyway since I wasn't going out with Mason I thought fuck it I toyed with going to la officina but I didn't
So I went in the bar I hadn't gone in that had had the two waiters outside near just off the square yesterday and it wasn't or it wasn't too big a deal it was I felt oddly drunk despite only having had one can of beer like two hours earlier maybe I was just nervous anyway I went upstairs they sort of seemed to want me to and I sat at a table on my own and I had a couple of draft beers it was quite nice and then I thought and it was about 11 by this point so I thought okay well I'll go out I'll walk through Candelaria in cases anything there or I can get a taco or something in the street I couldn't either of those and then I went to Tres mentiras or Mil heridas it seems to be called both nearer the hostel and there was a guy in there singing the waiter seemed a bit funny about letting me in it's like the door was locked and I said are you open he said yes I said can I come in and he said yes but it was a bit weird anyway I got in the end I got some quesadillas there it was a bit pricey but I figured what the hell and in the end I had three beers and there was a guy doing sort of singing and karaoke ish with some of the audience but it was it was all right I didn't feel super welcome I didn't understand everything the mic wasn't great but you know it was quite a nice experience and of course I didn't chat with anyone but I don't think you can rely on it happening every time and it's not like I was sitting at the bar and at least I made a bit of an effort
I think I got back about one half past and at that point I ate the very very sugary biscuity thing which I took a photo of earlier that I'd bought for 25 at the market after I got the alabrihares. Went to bed, woke up wanting to go for a dump about four or five in the morning. Not too bad, didn't sleep brilliantly, but not too bad. I think I woke up about eight and drifted and then maybe about nine half past I was looking at accommodation on the phone in bed and I probably actually got up about ten and had a couple of coffees and a bit of a chat with Mason and was looking at the hostels on booking. Com bit more.
So I went back up to the dorm and started packing, it was about 11 and I did book the hostel, I'm going to ramble about that in a minute. And then I came down and checked out, no problem, and I had a little farewell chat with the Brazilian woman who was just about to head out to the cenote, her shift had just finished. And I thanked Oscar and gave him the key back and I had a little chat with Mason. He actually came out with me, we met in the street after I'd left about 5 metres, he was going to buy a hat. I walked over, we came to the bus and we went to oxxo and I got some rolls for the bus, the canella things. And then I went and watched him buy a hat and then we said goodbye and then I came into the terminal.
So I was blowing hot and cold on the accommodation. In the end, I waffled a bit to mason, but it was just, you know, just waffling, right? Anyway, I decided I would splurge on a private, and I picked somewhere that's not a million miles from the bus terminal in Plaza de Palapas, and I picked somewhere that's got, there wasn't much space in the dorm, so at least there should be some people there. I'm paying about 22-ish pounds a night, which isn't great. It's about double what a dorm would be, but a lot of the cheaper places, the reviews were mixed, and I did wonder if the dorms were going to be rammed, and there were people talking about theft, and I'm sure it'd be fine, and probably Cancun just attracts a lot of bad reviews, but I thought, fuck it, I'll feel a lot more comfortable in a private just before I go, and also, in a strange way, it's not like I could say, oh, well, if this place isn't good, the next place would be better as it is the end of the trip, so I, you know, wanted to have a semi-nice time, and having a private would be nice, that means I can repack my bag and stuff like that, so it's fine. In the long run, an extra 20-odd quid doesn't really matter. It's not like I've splurged enormously on accommodations throughout the trip.
1300 on bus, as other day it was not on the screen and I just went and asked the woman checking tickets when another 1310 bus showed up on screen and she waved me at this one and the guy at the bus checked my ticket and met me on with my bag no fuss. Who knows if it would have shown up.
Aircon is pleasantly cold right now. Trip is I think 2.5h but the time zone shift makes it look like 3.5h.
I suspect oppenheimer is showing (presumably from a previous part of the journey, not from start).
I actually seem to have slightly "burned" the tip of my right middle finger on the hotback of the p7 probably from the voice typing.
1310 film seems surprisingly interesting albeit I have never really fancied watching it. But I am doing my best to ignore it, if I want to watch it I can do it from the start sometime.
1313 we are off. Loads of empty seats and as is semi usual lately I have a a double to myself.
1406 bored tbh. FWIW I switched to my second bottle of sunblock today, I could maybe have squeezed a dribble more out of the first one but it was getting tight and no point faffing. The first bottle was a nominal 50ml which I had overfilled at home, I think. So it lasted me almost 8 weeks despite at least occasional beach stuff and short sleeves etc.
Toothpaste - which wasn't quite new for the trip - has borderline run out and I may be forced to buy some here, not sure.
Razor is shot but I think I can get by without buying another useless one here.
2212 So I'm in the hotel room doing this on voice typing. There is actually a table and a chair so in theory I could get the little Bluetooth keyboard and the reading glasses out but it feels too much effort. Make of that what you will.
So we got into Cancun on time, I walked over to the hostel, no big deal, maybe 15 to 20 minutes, bit hot but not too bad. The big problem with Cancun, well a big problem with Cancun, is they've got all these major fucking roads and although to be fair they're not as bad as they could be, crossing them isn't all that much fun and it feels very traffic oriented. Anyway I got here okay, I rang the bell and someone came and let me in, got checked in, slightly discombobulated at seeing the list of rules that they made me sign and there was something in there about the air conditioning only operates between certain hours and I thought well that's kind of what you're expecting in a dorm but it's not what I expect in a private.
The woman who checked me in was actually nice enough, but maybe one of the reviews on booking had put the idea in my head, but it felt like she was vaguely amused by me speaking Spanish, but wasn't going to speak English with me or something. Maybe that was in my head. Anyway, she offered me the choice of this room or the next room, which this room I'm actually in is the twin room that I did book. The other room had a double bed and it had a window to the outside, so I said, oh, I'll have that then. And then she said, all right, let me just get someone to change this stuff. And then she said, oh, can we go to the other room because this one's reserved? That was a little bit bait and switchy, probably didn't set my expectations up too well, but I'm not strictly speaking complaining about that because this is the room I booked. I don't know whether it said there was no window or it said city view or something because booking.com don't put that kind of thing in the email they send you, so you have no real way to check afterwards, but it in of itself is not a huge deal.
So, I got checked in, and I'm in the room, and I noticed that there's no control for the air conditioning, so I'm getting a bit pissed off, because I'm thinking, not only do I not get to turn it on when I want, despite paying quite a lot of money for a private, I also can't control it at all. I called Mum and Dad, and I was probably not rude, but a little bit, and, er, yes, yes, yes, not great, but, you know, I didn't really want to call, but obviously I had to call while the time zones were okay.
So I went out and I'm feeling a bit hacked off and I didn't really know what I wanted but I guess I wanted some food and I'm wandering around the local area and it's all it's obviously sort of touristy but it's more sort of like American-ish I mean that's not even fair but you know like really big restaurants and it all looks very chain-y and you know weird and I'm feeling pissed off and I don't know where I'm going or exactly what I even want to eat even if I forget it and I go over to Parque de las Palapas because I hadn't heard that there was events on there and stuff and there was some food stalls so I thought well I'll maybe go after dark but I'll check it out now.
So I went there and it was sort of nice-ish and quite a lot of families and like probably 90% plus locals and Anyway, I went and looked at the food Court type area and I found a place to in quesadillas and I paid 40 for a quesadilla and the woman said What do you want on it? And she waved some white slop at me and I said, ah no, no salsa and she looked at me like I'd asked her for a fish or Something and anyway, I said, oh is that the cheese in Spanish? I think and then she just did it and I got it and it had this white slop inside So I maybe could have eaten it but I had a little sniff at it I didn't I just left the thing on the counter. It's like I didn't throw it in the bin. Maybe someone ate it Maybe they didn't know obvious beggars around I could have given it to him if I'd been inclined. So I wandered down the other Stalls and I found another place to in quesadillas But they had a stupid sign on the wall saying they wanted to charge five pesos for a plastic tray or five pesos for a Plastic fork to cit down on plastic use (but not AFAICS offering an alternative at no charge) and it's like well, you're already charging the 40 to start with so fuck you And then I went down the row again, and there was another one which actually charged 40 pesos for a quesadilla And I asked the bloke can I have it without sauce or without dressing (sin salsa y sin aderezo) and he was like he looked at me a bit funny and I had to repeat it and he's like no No, it doesn't have anything like that inside. (It is this variabikity in what sauces actually come with a particular food, even 20m apart in the same town, that is a big part of the problem for me.) Anyway, so I ordered that It took forever to be prepared and I wondered if they were going to give me anything at all But they did eventually give me something and well not super substantial of a 40 pesos to be honest Considering I bought at paying 140 150 ish for three in that bar last night. It wasn't too bad at all It was very hot to start with but I took it off and I managed to find a table in the kind of food court Area, they're all stony tables undercover and I ate it and it was quite nice.
And I think I'd sort of half wondered if I was hangry, really hate that word, you know, low blood sugar not eaten and that was affecting my mood earlier, but I had had, yes it's junky but even so, I had had that pankonella on the bus and a hundred grams of fruit and nuts finishing off the bag I'd brought from home. So it's not as if I hadn't eaten anything, but anyway I did feel better after eating that quesadilla as I kind of intellectually half expected I might, but I really didn't think I would have been that bad anyway, just to be honest and to tell this story in the right order.
So I wasn't sure what to do about food generally but I thought I'll go and have something else at one of these stalls so I went to a different stall and I got three tacos with arrachera for 80 pesos which isn't amazing value they weren't huge I mean considering I was paying seven at that stall in Oaxaca with Samuel the other day but you know at least that's the going rate it's not like they rip me off because I was a tourist and I asked the bloke could I have them without sauce and he's like yeah there's no sauce (because there isn't normally sauce I think, but what do i know, and i think tqcos al pastor mqybe normally have sauce bjt again far from clear) there are sauce I don't know anyway so I got those and I put some onion and an actual chilli on one and some chili sauce on the other twk and I took them off I couldn't get a stone table I thought should I ask someone if I can sit here but I didn't really want to so I ate them standing up they were quite nice as well to be honest pretty spicy if my hands a bit greasy but you know pretty nice.
And I had been thinking I'd go back to the hostel and then come back out after dark but I was thinking well I probably ought to just stay and there were signs of an event and basically I sort of hung around and there was some some guys sort of renting out those electric cars that kids can ride around in and that was surprisingly cute entertaining and then later on as it was sunset ish some bloke came up on the stage and there was a sort of echoes of carnival performance and I I basically stayed watching that till it finished at about 2115.
I told myself I'd go back to the hostel about nine but you know since it was obviously sort of coming towards an end I stuck it out to the end, not really my bag but I didn't have anything else to do and it was quite a nice thing to see on the second to last night and you know it sort of helped rescue the evening a bit on top of having had the food and some of it was quite, I mean some of the little kids dancing were quite cute and the final spectacular thing was pretty good. It alao reminded me of my niece a bit. I mean some of the gaps were a bit tedious but you know it wasn't too bad and I was thinking I'll get some beers at the oxo and I'll go back to the hostel and I'll have a couple of beers and maybe there'll be someone there I can chat with. I was also vaguely tempted to buy a bottle of that pre-mixed margarita, which I've not had since that second night in Cancun at the start of the trip, if memory serves. I have had a few margaritas, mostly with pox, but not the premixed.
So I went in three oxo's, they really are all over the place, the first one didn't have any alcohol at all, the second one had alcohol, but there were some bin bags sort of knotted through the handles of the cabinet, and I spoke to the guy in the till and asked him a leading question, and he said, no you can't buy alcohol on Sundays. And then I went to a third oxo in a petrol station as I carried on walking home, and I asked the guy without a leading question there (btw there was nothing blocking off the cabinets in the third oxxo, I guess he just wouldn't have let me buy it if I'd taken some) and he said, yeah all oxo's don't sell after 5pm on Sundays or something to that effect. I don't know why, is this some sort of decision on oxo's part, or is it somehow externally imposed. had a quick look on my phone, I couldn't see any Six branches, I didn't pass any other shop, so oxxo have got the convenience store market sewn up round here it looks like, so I didn't have the chance to try somewhere else for a beer. It was annoying but to give myself some credit, I didn't flip out too badly, it means I'd get a day off the alcohol, but you know it would have been nice to buy something, but not a huge deal. I bought some peanuts and a small bottle of Pepsi black at the third oxo just to have something for when I got back.
When I got back it was about 20 to 10 I rang the bell and it took a little bit time to get let in and some other guy came up who's presumably a guest and I said hi and then he pushed the door open and it opened but then the woman who'd checked me in was behind it so maybe she had literally just opened it. I don't think I tried pushing it but it was fairly clear it was locked and I tried turning it with my key from my room and it didn't work.
Anyway she completely unbidden gave me a remote control for the air conditioning and when I got into the room I turned it on with that and so maybe in fact the air conditioning does work whenever I want it in the private room and I got worked up over nothing. But I can't entirely blame myself because after all that's I saw what was written in the rules/advice for guests and I read it and I didn't have a remote control and you know anyway for what it's worth maybe I should have politely asked for one but then I was also keen to go out and maybe I didn't want to rock the boat and maybe I was low blood sugar not thinking straight.
I'd also, to be scrupulous and honest, been getting myself a bit worked up about whether there would actually be any breakfast, which is supposedly included, because she hadn't mentioned anything about that when she checked me in, and so when I came in tonight, she gave me the air conditioning control and this bloke got the blanket he wanted, I asked her, and she said, oh yeah, it's 9 to 10.30, so that's also probably okay. I don't think the breakfast is anything special, but the point is, when I'm told it's there, and it's included, and that factors into my decision to choose to stay here. I didn't really have any reason to expect there wouldn't be any breakfast except maybe the low blood sugary thing and the fact that she didn't tell me about breakfast when I was checking in and on top of the air conditioning misunderstanding I was generally starting to feel rather distrustful and pissed off with the hostel.
There was no one else on the lower terrace although I did see both of their rather nice cats One of them let me stroke it a tiny bit and I think some staff woman was saying to me about how it wanted feeding at that time and they were giving it some later so the cats are nice and there was no one on the lower terrace except I think that staff woman and I went up to the roof terrace (which I had a quick look at after I checked in and there was an old bloke sitting up there with a laptop then he had his headphones in and didn't even look round so I didn't say hi) and tonight there was no one up there either I sat there with my bottle of Pepsi Black and the guy who'd come up when I was waiting to be let in tonight came up just walked straight past me and sat down with his laptop at another table so I'm not complaining but I didn't make an effort to try and chat to him. I think he might have put headphones in as well so when I'd finished my Pepsi I just said goodnight and walked off not a big deal but doesn't look like it's super busy and I wonder what on earth was going on with that one bed free in the eight bed dorm maybe everyone else is out partying although if and I haven't checked and I can't remember reading it in the rules because in practice I don't care too much if there is an 11pm curfew maybe they're not out partying but who knows. Maybe all the people staying here are already asleep in their dorm because they have early flights or they just got in on a flight and they're tired anyway just saying it doesn't feel like it's remotely social tonight so not really my fault that nothing's happening that's just the luck of the draw I think.
So I had a shower and they had given me a towel when I checked in by the way which was nice and the water was actually hot so hot that I had to turn the cold on there was no soap but you know it's not a huge deal so that was nice and I'm back in the room now I've not cleaned my teeth yet but I might snack on the peanuts because there's a sign saying not to eat in the room so obviously I'm deliberately going to flout that and then I'll go and clean my teeth and go to to bed, I think. Got to do bloody Duolingo, of course.
I think the plan for tomorrow is to basically get up in time for breakfast at 9, go for a bit of a wander. I will check oit somewhere around the corner I could probably print out my boarding pass after I do the online check-in, I don't know if I need to print it but i probably have time to do on tue morning and that's fine, and then I want to go to the supermarket and maybe buy some local sweets to take home with me as a kind of pseudo gift and maybe get some drinking chocolate. Other than that it's just wandering around a bit and maybe looking for somewhere to eat and if I can find some pizza place or something I can lard out at on the final morning that will help sustain me through the airport and on the flight if I can't eat the flight food.
It's hard to say if this high parameter voice typing model is helping or not, it is pretty annoying waiting for it to transcribe when I want to write a long load of crap like this because I am sitting here for a minute or so between bouts and I can't do anything while it's transcribing. I won't switch down to the lower grade yet, I don't know if it's doing any better but you know it's just about ok and I've ground all this out now so I might as well see how it goes.
I also have semi-started to empty my bag for a repack. I'm pretty sure I have enough clean clothes to see me through the rest of the trip without doing any laundry which is good because most of the sinks here are out in public although there is one in private if I was really desperate but I don't think I'm going to need it. So I want to repack, throw any junk away to try and create space for things like the drinking chocolate and some airport air side cheap/novel spirits, so I want to do that tomorrow as well of course.
2338 just shaved - I found a half decent razor, tbh I have been bad at throwing old ones out in case ne wone's are worse and it gets confusing - and cleaned teeth. Will send this and go to bed. Don't feel too bad overall tbh.
No comments:
Post a Comment