1137 about to leave hotel. Slept fairly well. Was awake from maybe 8ish in a semi drowsy way and probably kind of got up 9ish and been dithering with onward plans. I think the booking last night was for the wrong dates but I can't cancel it, haven't done yet, have made another booking elsewhere. Have after much dithering booked the event for fri and sat (not sat and sun as I had been thinking) and current plan is to go to santa Ana for three nights, then come back here, then maybe Berlin and after that come back (some double backing but it isn't terrible especially given the relatively small diagancea) and so ruta de las Flores via santa ana but not necessarily spending too long there on second vist in a relatively leisurely way. That should see me in the prime pre-mid Feb nature window and after that I can think about where else to go and what if anything to do about nicaragua.
It feels a bit wasteful not to have done or do much today but I think it's fine. Yesterdays puttering was a bit warped by the two meetup attempts (amply repaid by the successful one, but still) and I will likely be in a dorm next three nights (and if I am lucky there will be a washing machine at the san Salvador Accom for thu-sun nights so i cash stuff properly, uw done last night is mostly dry and will probably risk doing tops tonight so I shouldn't need to wash at dorm hostel.)
I can hardly believe yesterday was my first full day here. Things feel surprisingly eventful.
Anyway, less waffle, more going out
1725 been back at hotel 10 mins, just called parenta. Got a bottle of sugary coke which is so cold it has chunks of ice inside.
1833 had hoped to write the day up but been faffing with eg copying photos between phones. Fwiw reminded by some photos I took that I did listen to athlete "el Salvador" song (and probably the rest of the album iirc) on flight from colombia to here.
Done a wash of two tops and since I figured wth a separate wash of today's underwear as well. So with modest luck I have a nearly full set of cleanish clothes when I leave here tomorrow.
Got some cash out not long before coming back to hotel, another atlantida machine which again (this time in English) just said "no applications" with my chaw card but did work with barclaycard. So got another wodge as though I sort of don't want too much on me, I also didn't want to get caught short.
1922 booked 3 nights in Santa Ana at recommended hostel via booking. Com, as Juan never gave me the WA details and tbh probably cleaner and I get to pick dorm size etc myself.
Fwiw I think I only booked a single room at this hotel but I have a double bed anyway.
Finally heading out for bit of a wander round centro historico at night, may just wander, may have a coffee and or a beer and or a snack.
2344 so I got back maybe 15 minutes ago but I've been having some fruit and nuts. I thought I'd probably had enough to eat today, I mean, it was a bit weird, those two pupusas and that, well, I've not talked about it yet, have I but erm, a smallish cake thing, erm, flan caramella and that bottle of sugary coke, er, anyway, obviously not a great diet and I did start to feel a bit hungry so I thought, what the hell, I'll have the fruit and nuts.
I seem to have so many mosquito bites even though I put some spray on before I went out tonight. I didn't put any on this morning because I wasn't sure if it could be day or night. Maybe they're not mosquito bites. I've just put some hydrocortisone cream on them. I had to crack it open. It's not absolutely necessary but there's no point carrying it and not using it. I really have no idea how they're biting me so much. Maybe it's in bed.
So it's a bit late so I should maybe try and push on and maybe skim the details to do tonight first because it's fresh in my mind I walked over to the main sort of Centro historical area Streets were very quiet on the way over there, but it didn't really feel unsafe when I got there It was quite busy and there was some guys singing in the front of the Palacio Nationale and the Chinese Gif National Library thing and I spent Probably two three hours watching him sing and his mom came on and did a load of cumbia That was actually actually very good. I've got his name written down on my other phone, which I had with me.
My feet were killing me a bit but it was okay so anyhow that I came back it was a teeny bit edgy on the street just because it was so quiet once I got out of the center but didn't really feel unsafe I'd seen a couple of street dogs on the walk out which I hadn't seen before they were very unthreatening as such but just seeing them gave me a bit of a worry I didn't see any street dogs on the way back but maybe it's an excuse that was something I was on the lookout for anyway it was absolutely fine no problem at all my alarm was going off in my room when I got back I hope it hadn't been driving people crazy it must have been gone on about 15-20 minutes maybe half an hour anyway it is what it is
So before I went out, after I got back from the day's walk, I was sorting out accommodation for Santorana tomorrow, so I booked in for three nights as I think I said. I don't really know exactly how to get the bus, except that Juan said the Occidente bus station, which I think I do know where it is. There's a... Rome to Rio mentions one company that does it, it says every ten minutes. You go on their website, you can see that they do the route, but the bit where it's supposed to show the timetable is just a huge blank empty scrolling bit. Even if I turn off all the privacy type features on the browser, there's just nothing. So I'll probably just have to wing it tomorrow. I might ask at reception, I don't know, but it's probably fine. I have to check out by 11, but I think that'll be okay, and maybe try not to be up too late. I haven't packed yet, I'm gonna do it tomorrow.
So this morning after faffing around trying to make future plans and everything until the point where I left quite late about what was it? 10, 11, coincidentally I don't think they came in and did my room because I was out so late but it doesn't really matter I was just gonna put around today I thought and I didn't even take my swimming things I just thought oh I'll pick some swimming pool shown on organic maps and go over there So I wandered over there and I went past some sort of children's play park Didn't go in but I did see it was like a train going around in there through the railings and there was some little prints, things in the local language Put quite cool illustrations around the side I took photos of a few of those.
I think quite a lot of the swimming pools shown on organic maps are literally there is a swimming pool here and it says nothing about whether it belongs to a building or a school or a university but anyways it happens the ones I picked might have the names in a photograph but there was a woman's name and then there was a Don who were next to it and I think that's also the name of the big quite impressive looking church with an enormous bell tower. I did wonder if you could go up that but I didn't see any obvious signs I didn't like to ask anyone nearby which I did poke my head in afterwards but I'm getting ahead of myself. So I did go to this area and there's just an open air no ticket office not even anywhere to just watch you. There's three pools they all look very shallow they're very clean though no one was in them there were some young people playing instruments it's almost like there was some sort of band rehearsal or practice or competition about to start because there seemed to be so many not kids kids but you know like late teens or whatever with a brass instrument. No one in the water but the water very clean all very shallow I must admit I don't know whether you could swim in there as an adult but and there was like a half tumbled over sign with all the rules and something that don't go and there's no lifeguard and I even wandered round and I went in like the changing rooms which was a bit dirty but not particularly it's not deserted but someone must be maintaining that water to keep it clean maybe sometimes they have like swimming lessons for kids there it was just so weird. One bloke spoke to me he seemed to say something about the alcaldia and I had to say oh sorry I'm a tourist I don't understand and I asked him if you could swim and he said something like I suppose so but I'm not really sure it was all a bit weird.
So after that I went into a little restaurant place I'd seen on the corner of that street by the big church I was gonna have some purposes but they didn't have those and everything else the menu was really expensive but I'd already ordered a coke so I thought I ought to have something so I had a flam caramello which was nice enough but it was only a little thing at $2.75 plastic tub and I got free coffee with it I suppose but it is amazing something seems so cheap here and then something seems super expensive but it's also like even in places that aren't obviously fancier some things that are normally cheap can be really expensive it just feels a bit odd I suppose it's not really that strange but it does feel slightly odd
So after that I wandered across to that church and I put my head in the door and then some guy, because it turns out I got in a side entrance without realizing it, and some guy came and politely asked me to move so he could shut a gate and I said oh sorry and I wandered off down the stairs and he told me no no no I'm close the gate or so you have to go around the other way so I did walk through the church a little bit and I came out and that's when I saw the bell tower and then I walked basically a little bit around but I went down Avenide España back into the Centro Historico on the way I came across Mercado San Miguelito and I went in there on a whim and I spent quite a while in there wandering around and just having a look and I went out on the terrace and took a lot of pictures and was a bit meditative and then I realized there was another terrace on the other side so I went down to get across to that and then I finally saw somewhere that was doing pupusas that looked nice so I think it was a la pupuseria mexicana so I went there and I had a couple of pupusas with queso and I made sure to ask and that lettucey stuff is curtido and I had some of that it's very nice very hot a bit messy with my fingers eating it to be honest but anyways after that I went across to the other terrace and spent a little bit of time there not quite so much.
So then I carried on walking down Avenida España into Centro Historico, I just wandered around a bit, I tried to find a cash machine and eventually I did and I got some money out, I think I already noted that earlier, so maybe that's roughly cut up, oh I did go into a supermarket at one point, the selection of cold drinks wasn't that great, but I got a rather expensive root beer and a bottle of water which was quite cheap.
Did have a tiny bit of a chat just about the order but nothing major with the woman at the pupus area in the market which was nice I guess. Tonight was really good I really enjoy the music and the atmosphere you didn't really speak to anyone of course but it was nice and you know part of my feet were killing me and I was a bit worried about getting back here and writing this off and the fact that I don't know what time the bus goes but it was fine I'm glad I stayed till the end it's like some of the songs really made me think of different people and like it was it was good.
So if I have it right the singers were Diego Carranza and his mum, they had several people going round with multiple phones on gimbals etc and I think it might have been live streaming on Instagram (d.carranza02?) So maybe he/they are bigger than I might have thought and/or it just night be possible to watch this live stream or even download it later on.
I'm a bit apprehensive about tomorrow not just getting there like there's obviously the minor dorm stress and I'm also thinking like well am I gonna be able to go and go to this lake and swim and ditto be able to do this volcano climb I mean can I do them on my own, am I gonna meet people I can go with, will I have time I don't have to do both because I'll probably go back but and the swimming kind of obviously raises all sorts of other issues in my head I mean and like am I gonna be able to talk to them on there and is it gonna be friendly and is it gonna feel weird and it's fine all these things the normal things to worry about at least for me and they don't matter because I've got this weekend coming up and I've been doing pretty well so far and there's no reason to think there will be a problem I'm just saying because these thoughts have gone through my head you know.
I should say the weather was really nice out tonight, sort of really perfect summer night kind of thing, a little bit of a breeze sometimes but not enough to be annoyingly cold. I was just wearing the red t-shirt, so a t-shirt tonight, so yeah really nice. I didn't sit down or see anywhere that I would obviously want to have had a coffee or a beer so I didn't drink or eat anything while I was out by the way so the only expense was putting a bit change in the collection tin for the music. And since I am sober etc I'm going to cancel that accomodation I booked incorrectly last night so you know it's the polite thing to do then they can resell that ASAP I've got another day or two but that way I don't have it hanging over me so let me do that now and then I'm probably going to go to bed.
0019 okay I've done that and all the checkout check-in dates seem to line up as well so that should be good as to what happens after the event this weekend I'll see who I mean what happens and play my next move by ear. I've sprayed myself with some insect repellent before I go to bed. It's maybe a bit of a waste as there is no malaria here and I probably haven't got enough to do that every night but I can only assume I'm getting bitten while I'm in bed. I'll try and leave the fan on high tonight as well on the off chance that helps that I guess if they get under the sheets they're protected from it. Anyway just to note I'm just letting that dry on and now I'm going to go to bed. I'm going to send this now while I'm just doing that.
It feels a bit wasteful not to have done or do much today but I think it's fine. Yesterdays puttering was a bit warped by the two meetup attempts (amply repaid by the successful one, but still) and I will likely be in a dorm next three nights (and if I am lucky there will be a washing machine at the san Salvador Accom for thu-sun nights so i cash stuff properly, uw done last night is mostly dry and will probably risk doing tops tonight so I shouldn't need to wash at dorm hostel.)
I can hardly believe yesterday was my first full day here. Things feel surprisingly eventful.
Anyway, less waffle, more going out
1725 been back at hotel 10 mins, just called parenta. Got a bottle of sugary coke which is so cold it has chunks of ice inside.
1833 had hoped to write the day up but been faffing with eg copying photos between phones. Fwiw reminded by some photos I took that I did listen to athlete "el Salvador" song (and probably the rest of the album iirc) on flight from colombia to here.
Done a wash of two tops and since I figured wth a separate wash of today's underwear as well. So with modest luck I have a nearly full set of cleanish clothes when I leave here tomorrow.
Got some cash out not long before coming back to hotel, another atlantida machine which again (this time in English) just said "no applications" with my chaw card but did work with barclaycard. So got another wodge as though I sort of don't want too much on me, I also didn't want to get caught short.
1922 booked 3 nights in Santa Ana at recommended hostel via booking. Com, as Juan never gave me the WA details and tbh probably cleaner and I get to pick dorm size etc myself.
Fwiw I think I only booked a single room at this hotel but I have a double bed anyway.
Finally heading out for bit of a wander round centro historico at night, may just wander, may have a coffee and or a beer and or a snack.
2344 so I got back maybe 15 minutes ago but I've been having some fruit and nuts. I thought I'd probably had enough to eat today, I mean, it was a bit weird, those two pupusas and that, well, I've not talked about it yet, have I but erm, a smallish cake thing, erm, flan caramella and that bottle of sugary coke, er, anyway, obviously not a great diet and I did start to feel a bit hungry so I thought, what the hell, I'll have the fruit and nuts.
I seem to have so many mosquito bites even though I put some spray on before I went out tonight. I didn't put any on this morning because I wasn't sure if it could be day or night. Maybe they're not mosquito bites. I've just put some hydrocortisone cream on them. I had to crack it open. It's not absolutely necessary but there's no point carrying it and not using it. I really have no idea how they're biting me so much. Maybe it's in bed.
So it's a bit late so I should maybe try and push on and maybe skim the details to do tonight first because it's fresh in my mind I walked over to the main sort of Centro historical area Streets were very quiet on the way over there, but it didn't really feel unsafe when I got there It was quite busy and there was some guys singing in the front of the Palacio Nationale and the Chinese Gif National Library thing and I spent Probably two three hours watching him sing and his mom came on and did a load of cumbia That was actually actually very good. I've got his name written down on my other phone, which I had with me.
My feet were killing me a bit but it was okay so anyhow that I came back it was a teeny bit edgy on the street just because it was so quiet once I got out of the center but didn't really feel unsafe I'd seen a couple of street dogs on the walk out which I hadn't seen before they were very unthreatening as such but just seeing them gave me a bit of a worry I didn't see any street dogs on the way back but maybe it's an excuse that was something I was on the lookout for anyway it was absolutely fine no problem at all my alarm was going off in my room when I got back I hope it hadn't been driving people crazy it must have been gone on about 15-20 minutes maybe half an hour anyway it is what it is
So before I went out, after I got back from the day's walk, I was sorting out accommodation for Santorana tomorrow, so I booked in for three nights as I think I said. I don't really know exactly how to get the bus, except that Juan said the Occidente bus station, which I think I do know where it is. There's a... Rome to Rio mentions one company that does it, it says every ten minutes. You go on their website, you can see that they do the route, but the bit where it's supposed to show the timetable is just a huge blank empty scrolling bit. Even if I turn off all the privacy type features on the browser, there's just nothing. So I'll probably just have to wing it tomorrow. I might ask at reception, I don't know, but it's probably fine. I have to check out by 11, but I think that'll be okay, and maybe try not to be up too late. I haven't packed yet, I'm gonna do it tomorrow.
So this morning after faffing around trying to make future plans and everything until the point where I left quite late about what was it? 10, 11, coincidentally I don't think they came in and did my room because I was out so late but it doesn't really matter I was just gonna put around today I thought and I didn't even take my swimming things I just thought oh I'll pick some swimming pool shown on organic maps and go over there So I wandered over there and I went past some sort of children's play park Didn't go in but I did see it was like a train going around in there through the railings and there was some little prints, things in the local language Put quite cool illustrations around the side I took photos of a few of those.
I think quite a lot of the swimming pools shown on organic maps are literally there is a swimming pool here and it says nothing about whether it belongs to a building or a school or a university but anyways it happens the ones I picked might have the names in a photograph but there was a woman's name and then there was a Don who were next to it and I think that's also the name of the big quite impressive looking church with an enormous bell tower. I did wonder if you could go up that but I didn't see any obvious signs I didn't like to ask anyone nearby which I did poke my head in afterwards but I'm getting ahead of myself. So I did go to this area and there's just an open air no ticket office not even anywhere to just watch you. There's three pools they all look very shallow they're very clean though no one was in them there were some young people playing instruments it's almost like there was some sort of band rehearsal or practice or competition about to start because there seemed to be so many not kids kids but you know like late teens or whatever with a brass instrument. No one in the water but the water very clean all very shallow I must admit I don't know whether you could swim in there as an adult but and there was like a half tumbled over sign with all the rules and something that don't go and there's no lifeguard and I even wandered round and I went in like the changing rooms which was a bit dirty but not particularly it's not deserted but someone must be maintaining that water to keep it clean maybe sometimes they have like swimming lessons for kids there it was just so weird. One bloke spoke to me he seemed to say something about the alcaldia and I had to say oh sorry I'm a tourist I don't understand and I asked him if you could swim and he said something like I suppose so but I'm not really sure it was all a bit weird.
So after that I went into a little restaurant place I'd seen on the corner of that street by the big church I was gonna have some purposes but they didn't have those and everything else the menu was really expensive but I'd already ordered a coke so I thought I ought to have something so I had a flam caramello which was nice enough but it was only a little thing at $2.75 plastic tub and I got free coffee with it I suppose but it is amazing something seems so cheap here and then something seems super expensive but it's also like even in places that aren't obviously fancier some things that are normally cheap can be really expensive it just feels a bit odd I suppose it's not really that strange but it does feel slightly odd
So after that I wandered across to that church and I put my head in the door and then some guy, because it turns out I got in a side entrance without realizing it, and some guy came and politely asked me to move so he could shut a gate and I said oh sorry and I wandered off down the stairs and he told me no no no I'm close the gate or so you have to go around the other way so I did walk through the church a little bit and I came out and that's when I saw the bell tower and then I walked basically a little bit around but I went down Avenide España back into the Centro Historico on the way I came across Mercado San Miguelito and I went in there on a whim and I spent quite a while in there wandering around and just having a look and I went out on the terrace and took a lot of pictures and was a bit meditative and then I realized there was another terrace on the other side so I went down to get across to that and then I finally saw somewhere that was doing pupusas that looked nice so I think it was a la pupuseria mexicana so I went there and I had a couple of pupusas with queso and I made sure to ask and that lettucey stuff is curtido and I had some of that it's very nice very hot a bit messy with my fingers eating it to be honest but anyways after that I went across to the other terrace and spent a little bit of time there not quite so much.
So then I carried on walking down Avenida España into Centro Historico, I just wandered around a bit, I tried to find a cash machine and eventually I did and I got some money out, I think I already noted that earlier, so maybe that's roughly cut up, oh I did go into a supermarket at one point, the selection of cold drinks wasn't that great, but I got a rather expensive root beer and a bottle of water which was quite cheap.
Did have a tiny bit of a chat just about the order but nothing major with the woman at the pupus area in the market which was nice I guess. Tonight was really good I really enjoy the music and the atmosphere you didn't really speak to anyone of course but it was nice and you know part of my feet were killing me and I was a bit worried about getting back here and writing this off and the fact that I don't know what time the bus goes but it was fine I'm glad I stayed till the end it's like some of the songs really made me think of different people and like it was it was good.
So if I have it right the singers were Diego Carranza and his mum, they had several people going round with multiple phones on gimbals etc and I think it might have been live streaming on Instagram (d.carranza02?) So maybe he/they are bigger than I might have thought and/or it just night be possible to watch this live stream or even download it later on.
I'm a bit apprehensive about tomorrow not just getting there like there's obviously the minor dorm stress and I'm also thinking like well am I gonna be able to go and go to this lake and swim and ditto be able to do this volcano climb I mean can I do them on my own, am I gonna meet people I can go with, will I have time I don't have to do both because I'll probably go back but and the swimming kind of obviously raises all sorts of other issues in my head I mean and like am I gonna be able to talk to them on there and is it gonna be friendly and is it gonna feel weird and it's fine all these things the normal things to worry about at least for me and they don't matter because I've got this weekend coming up and I've been doing pretty well so far and there's no reason to think there will be a problem I'm just saying because these thoughts have gone through my head you know.
I should say the weather was really nice out tonight, sort of really perfect summer night kind of thing, a little bit of a breeze sometimes but not enough to be annoyingly cold. I was just wearing the red t-shirt, so a t-shirt tonight, so yeah really nice. I didn't sit down or see anywhere that I would obviously want to have had a coffee or a beer so I didn't drink or eat anything while I was out by the way so the only expense was putting a bit change in the collection tin for the music. And since I am sober etc I'm going to cancel that accomodation I booked incorrectly last night so you know it's the polite thing to do then they can resell that ASAP I've got another day or two but that way I don't have it hanging over me so let me do that now and then I'm probably going to go to bed.
0019 okay I've done that and all the checkout check-in dates seem to line up as well so that should be good as to what happens after the event this weekend I'll see who I mean what happens and play my next move by ear. I've sprayed myself with some insect repellent before I go to bed. It's maybe a bit of a waste as there is no malaria here and I probably haven't got enough to do that every night but I can only assume I'm getting bitten while I'm in bed. I'll try and leave the fan on high tonight as well on the off chance that helps that I guess if they get under the sheets they're protected from it. Anyway just to note I'm just letting that dry on and now I'm going to go to bed. I'm going to send this now while I'm just doing that.
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