London-Riga

thu 0402 at relocated coach stop (signed, but ticket bought yesterday still said stop g, despite the change having started 1 Oct). all ok. had two steak slices, did sleep a bit. not feeling too bad, bit jittery but also an adventure etc. and it will be nice to sleep properly tonight and to come home. :-) a nat express staff guy is here at the stop, only realised he wasnt just waiting when a guy asked him about the alternate coach service.

weather is cool but not cold. wearing ss tshirt and zipped up fleece.

0411 on coach, it pulled up a couple of mins ago. have a double seat to myself at the moment.

to some extent touch wood things are semi-sorted now. the flight may be shit/stressy with bad seat etc but having made it here with my bag, both phones and my passport, the major (not to jinx it) scope for fucking up and the "early morningness" is mostly sorted. the journey to hostel is in daylight and the return leg should be too. it will be dark when I get back into London but (not that it was intimidating this morning actually despite being fairly quiet most of the way, not deserted though) it will be earlyish evening.

fingers crossed.

0518 here!

0522 let's try the voice typing, I'm inside the terminal, things seem okay, I was a bit surprised when the bus pulled up, we weren't due in until 5.30pm, obviously they built the safety margin in, first time ever at Stansted I think. The flight seems to be on time, as I say, I assume I just go through security, I feel really bloated after those two steak slices as well, that's an exaggeration. But I didn't really want to try shoving one in my bag and I thought I ought to eat something this morning and that was what I got. I'd had a big-ish dinner around 9pm last night, quite late, and I had some extra toast for reasons, so I didn't really want to eat desperately, I wasn't terribly hungry but I thought I'd better get something in that way, I don't have to worry about it later, especially because I've no idea what the food situation is going to be like in Riga with the language issues and my quirks. Anyway.

Didn't really sleep on the coach, I didn't not sleep, I just wasn't trying too hard to sleep or to not sleep, I just had my headphones in with no sound on, to muffle the engine noise a bit. It was okay, I was probably semi-drowsy towards the end, but I don't think I really slept, which is good in a way, because I'm yawning a touch now, increases the chances that I might manage to sleep on the flight, which would hopefully diminish any stressiness about it. Anyway, let me stop waffling.

0529 the free wifi seems to work alright, I've just wandered over to departures and it looks like the liquid's limit is 100ml so that business at Gatwick, I think it was in January where you're allowed to take a litre of water through, doesn't seem to apply here because rules and reasons and stuff. Anyway, not a huge deal, I'm probably going to hang around a tiny bit landside, drink my bottle of water, it's only about 500ml I think, and maybe see if I can find a toilet. I had a cup of black instant coffee this morning with the steak slices, it was all a bit hurried, it didn't really trigger anything which is fine. Luckily I wasn't particularly wanting to go on the bus, I probably could go now and give them the water and not worry about myself, too sick by necking it. I don't want to waste time, but it should be fine.

It was a bit stuffy on the coach, I kept my fleece in anyway because I didn't have room to shove it in the bag and I didn't want to risk losing it and it was okay and practicing a bit of discomfort is a good practice of the flight. It was fine, it was just a tiny bit stuffy, it's not so bad here at the airport. Anyway, I've not really got any point, I'm just waffling as I always do all these things.

0601 airside, no real problem, except annoying slightly ride woman directing people to different standing spots for the security belt who said "what's the problem with understanding numbers for me sir?" when I didn't realise 2 was a place by the belt not a belt number. meh. not end of world but still felt a bit off.

went for modest dump and drank my water landside before coming through, I suspect security was like 10 mins and my bag didn't get shunted aside for extra inspection.

0614 it's really surprisingly busy here, I'm now in the main area with all the restaurants. There's a weather spoon, I've not even checked the prices, there's a very slight temptation to have a beer but I really don't want one. The main reason to have one is to help me sleep on the flight or maybe to take the edge off if I feel a bit stressed but I think I'm probably going to sleep anyway and I've had a few beers the other day and I really don't want one frankly so I've not even checked the prices I say it feels really busy here but it's not unpleasant I mean at least there are bars and things it feels a bit nicer than Gatwick in some sense anyway just waffling I think I maybe said earlier that there's some ATMs that appear to offer free free euro withdrawals they just feel kind of like you know there's going to be some hidden charge somewhere so I'm not going to use them I'll get some euros out I mean either at the airport although the bus apparently you have to pay on a card anyway or in your town centre it's not like I'm arriving late all that I can't pay on card but it's still nice to have some cash even apart from the fact that I prefer to use it and I'm just waffling walking around and voice typing probably looking like an idiot

0620 mega queue for the water dispenser (I think one is out of service) but it isnt as if I am in a rush.

0626 found a seat. modest screw up in that my disposable water bottle has a sort of narrow drinking nozzle but not a proper removable cap, so I has to fill it up through that and water sort of splattered down the sides a bit  hardly critical but minor point to try to remember in future.

yawning. very slight temptation to have a beer but I really don't want one and while I don't expect problems, if there is any minor iffiness with staff during boarding re eg bag size I don't want any worries.

I see there is a shuttle to gates 1-19. ibdont have a gate yet. but finally the "little trains" mentioned in black books which always springs to mind when I think about stansted.

0635 just posted the prep blog entry from P7 and it seems to have gone fine.

0649 gate info apparently 7.25, I've come for a bit of a walk because I was sitting down on the plane and there was some drunk guy near where I was sitting, it's fine. Called nom for quick call, not very much to say really. Yeah, everything's okay, I'm slightly bored, it's like, I just don't know where I'm, you know, it's like, everything's fine but I'm just not quite sure what's going to happen when I get there, but I'm not mega stressed and it's fine, it's fine.

There were some people sort of sprawled around, sleeping on the floor and stuff, landside. I've not seen anyone doing that airside, I don't know whether you are not allowed through that far in advance of your flight or people just don't, or what, I mean not a problem, just making the observation. But anyway, I did see the little trains going past, so it's fine, snapped the odd photo out the window, the plane's out on the tarmac, which I didn't realise was just beyond there. Yeah, I'm just killing time, I'm just a bit bored, obviously not super happy about the seat on the flight and whether it's going to be massively round, but I'm not overly stressed, and it's like all the getting there is just routine, right, or is it going to be a bit, what to say, I'm just wandering around, probably looking like an idiot, but it's like, you know, when I get there, I've got to get the bus, but it's not a big deal, and it's sort of an adventure, it's just, it's just, you know, it's got to be done, hasn't it, so to speak. Anyway, it's all fine, I'm not upset or anything, it's just, I say bored, and things have got to be done, but not complex things, hopefully, anyhow, I'm going to shit up.

And yeah, the voice typing, perhaps because I'm sort of muttering as I talk to my phone in public, but it always does it. It's slightly mangling, what I'm saying, that some of the tone of that last sentence, the phrasing is not right. Anyway, it's fine, it is where it is.

0702 had a walk now sitting in main central busy area. vaguely fed up. there's something about the shopping centre on steroids with a captive audience and high prices vibe that is a bit "travel novel" because it is so airporty but also kind of depressing. especially all the at least allegedly glam/lifestyle aspect of it, the perfume, the slightly fancy food, the marketing pretense this is a fun environment. I am just being a bit bitter I guess. I am yawning a bit which is maybe no bad thing.

0726 Gate 52. might go for piss first.

0746 quick piss. in big queue at gate. I sneaked off to a random empty gate and checked my bag in the sizer, it is absolutely fine, no need to even squeeze. snapped a photo just fwiw.

yawning a bit.

0814 on plane in seat, all ok. fingers crossed for sleep though.

737-800

thinking of HN "weekend in Riga with heavy drinking rugby pals". probably only song I know of with Riga connection.

1015 possibly over kalingrad oblast if gps to be believed. did sleeping, put (accidentally) some fell in stony ground in on lop and did keep waking up and dry mouthed and right leg a bit stiff but not too bad. it is very warm, not wearing fleece, sun coming in from window (I am in middle seat on right side of aisle) and it almost feels weirdly tropical in a stuffy sort of way. felt a tiny bit borderline edgy about being in nob aisle aeat at first but not huge. ears just popped so maybe we are starting to descend.

some gas coming out intermittently but that is semi normal on flights. wouldn't mind a piss and perhaps more but I think I can wait no big seal til we get off. not 100% chill about getting to hostel and so on but also not deeply worried, and in some ways that feels achievable and mildly adventurous rather than just the discomfort of the flight.

1301 it's all gone amazingly well, really. Got off the plane, no real trouble with the passport. The airport bus was there right outside when I got there, just, you know, paid the driver with the cards. The contact was didn't work but it never does on my cards. Fine. I also got 90 euros out of the cash machine inside the terminal. One of them wanted to charge me a 4 or 5 euro fee but the other one probably didn't so that's alright. I got to the hostel no problem. The city looks really nice, actually. I think I got quite lucky with the weather. It's only about 15 Celsius and it's pretty sunny. It feels very nice. Not sure that weather's going to last if I remember the forecast. Conker's just dropped down in front of me. As I'm walking along the river, I've walked across one of the bridges. I'm going to try and walk across the others. I'm probably meeting Samuel for a drink in the old town, nine-ish. I hope my energy lasts but I have warned him. Anyway, yeah, I mean the hostel doesn't necessarily look super social but I didn't really expect it to. Who knows? It's very early days yet. I got a lower bunk. It's all the cubicle locker underneath it. I left my passport in there.

OK, so I typed some more and then I pressed the power button to take a photo and it cut off, which is a bit shit, but anyway, I just said they let me check in early, they didn't make a fuss about it, they didn't ask about payment, I'd already paid, obviously. There's a filter tap in the kitchen for drinking water, I don't think you're supposed to drink the others. I've been told the city water was safe online, but maybe that's their building, it is very old. Very attractive building, very nice mural at the top of the, not mural, sort of stained I think, at the top of the staircase, and quite a nice sort of clock photo thing in the dining room. Anyway, yeah, I can't remember what else I said, but let's just finish. I've actually walked down this sort of little island bit and I thought I'd be able to get onto the asymmetric, cably bridge, but it looks like it just ends in the middle of nowhere, so I'm going to have to turn around and walk back, but it doesn't matter because I'm only here for the exercise, right?

1640 in dining area with cup of instant coffee which seems be unlabeled so wth. knackered and a bit tired but not too bad.

walked round in a huge loop, the bridge I had targeted was rail only so walked further on and although I was sometimes unclear I'd there would be a route through there generally was, there are sort of parallel lower pedestrian tracks. very quiet  didn't really feel unsafe though.

called into centro station on way back for a quick look but not much to see.

food has been the general worry though I had noticed the place on ground floor of hostel did e.g. veg ramen for 12 eur and in the end I came back to hostel for piss, went there and paid 12 for the veg ramen (remember I did already have the two steak slices this morning) and 3 for a tiny coke zero and I also gave a perhaps ott 2 eur tip (it is order at the counter, and the rest if the tip jar is full of copper).  I asked if woman at counter spoke English and it was fine. food not bad either and now I feel I have eaten and have this place as a fallback at worst.

came back to hostel, has a shower, wold sort I'd like to shave but since it would be with a non electric I would likely get cuts that might blee all over the bed so I will try to shave mornings and aamuel will just have to put up with stubble tonight. :-) incidentally my long term travel cap and day to day wear cap is London is looking a bit shabby now I think about it so maybe need to get a new one for next trip.

youngish woman came into dorm whole I was there, I said hi, it was fine, no real interaction. first person I have seen in my dorm and while there are a few people around either everyone is out or they are not that full.

have come down to kitchen and dining area for this coffee which I had seen earlier when getting water from filter tap. I figure this will pass a little time and the caffeine won't hurt then I may go for an evening wander round old town (prob not going in anywhere and certainly not for beet) to see what its like and kill time and get a bit more exercise til Samuel is free. it is nice to be seeing him tonight but I hope I am not too tired and time doesn't hang too hewvy before we meet up. But edgy but sure the meeting will be fine.

a chap is intermittently around in dining area and may be going to cook, I said hi, he is not around right now. all this just a note stuff, I am not expecting to chat nor given tiredness and fact I am going out later too concerned about it. not averse to it either.

swapped phones when went out for dinner and left pu uploading most of today's photos. this is reassuring as a backup I'd anything happens to phone, but is not the master copy if I still have phone when I return.


0323 iin bed. an oss nir foos ifjtm. ffs auto rypong. an odd but a good nignt. in bed.

Riga preparation

Wed 9th Sep 2352 Booked for 5 nights in Riga early October. Much agonising over this over last few days. The primary motivation is to visit Samuel but this trip is also a semi-carefully calculated attempt to balance flight prices, the Ryanair bag pricing (I decided to go for the basic price with just an under-seat bag, and treat it in part as an experiment in travelling light for this style of trip) and not wanting to be away too long. £118 with half-decent flight times, the outbound leaves Stansted at 0825 but that is just about doable without too much pain via Stansted Express (and the alternative was to land a bit before midnight and navigate an unknown city and get to hostel and risk not being able to get in - plus this early flight means I'm much more likely to get the well-publicised bus from the airport into town instead of a taxi) and the return is a pretty comfortable 1655 so I'll have the morning there if I want it (at least I don't have to rush out of bed or to check out or pay for a taxi to the airport at 4am).

Thu 15th Sep 1929 Have done a test pack, not paying over-much attention to which travel tops I have taken (mostly the long sleeve lightweight ones I normally take, but not picking out "good" ones at this point). I'm preferring lightweight non-cotton travel clothes even though I don't intend to wash anything during this trip (so quick drying isn't relevant), because they're still probably lighter and less bulky. Warmth - I don't expect it to be that cold in Riga in early October compared to London - will be handled via fleece, wearing a pair of relatively substantial cotton jeans (which I just won't wash - I'll just take a lightweight travel pair as a second standby pair and maybe never wear them) and (should I need it) my lightweight shell jacket thing. I've got all this and a basic selection of toiletries and other minor supplies which is *probably* complete (except for a USB charger and if needed a Euro adapter) in the Bag Bag drawstring daypack. Including a 500ml bottle of water. The bag measures about 40x30x12cm and it's obviously pretty squishy, but even measuring as-is this ought to be well within Ryanair's limits. Its weighing in at 2.8-2.85kg, which seems fine, I don't think there's a formal limit anyway. It's full-ish but not crazily so, there's room to squash the fleece in the top without the bag utterly straining (I don't know about Ryanair dimensions at that point, but I can obviously wear the fleece onto the plane), so this feels reasonably promising even if there's still the USB charger and maybe a powerbank and maybe a packet of something like fruit/nuts to eat at the airport or to have with me for "I can't find anything/anywhere to eat" type problems when I'm over there.

Wed 16th Sep I dug out my old UK USB charger and a Euro-to-UK converter plug and have borrowed the UK-to-Euro converter plug from my Euro-spec Wii (a Christmas gift my parents acquired via someone when Wiis were brand new and relatively short supply) so I can do an adapter stack and test this charger and converter plug work. I'll leave it in use to charge the phone by my desk for a few days, but it all seems to work fine. Not worth the expense of buying a Euro USB charger for the amount of European travel I do, and the cheaper ones seem to be 5V 1A only which is likely fine but still, all else being equal nicer to have a 2A unit.

Tue 6th Oct I have been a bit slack about preparation (sort of not wanting to think about it) but have intermittently done stuff. I just installed the Ryanair app on the A06 and as guest (I don't *know* if I have an account just from booking, but if it's offering guest let's just pick that) can see my booking. I don't see anything obvious about uploading documents, I assume that shit will all happen from online checkin probably tomorrow morning when I also see I have been randomly allocated the shittiest seat ever and start to pre-stress. ;-)

Had some WA chat with Samuel yesterday, am both looking forward to the visit (seeing him and just maybe doing a bit of solo hostel chat and/or some solo sightseeing) and a bit stressed. Need to book travel to/from airport in London, unless price has soared since I looked the other day I will likely book the coach both ways, it is't that much worse and it's way cheaper.

I don't know if I noted this here - I did have some private notes - but I booked (paying extra, annoyingly) for a free cancellation dorm a few weeks ago and re-booked it to a non-cancellable slightly nicer dorm (cancelling the original booking) at the same hostel the other day. Nowhere at the cheap end was perfect but I found a place with "capsule"/"curtained" dorm beds which felt like a good compromise between being in a hostel environment and having some limited possibility of social interaction vs a cheap private room somewhere that might be more isolating.

I went over my travel tops etc the other day and washed them and the fleece and the underwear and the grey travel trousers from the January 2026 trip (the black ones had a broken zip on one pocket) and I think this should all be OK. Technically I don't need "travel" clothes because a) it's a colder place than usual b) I am not washing anything by hand, but the travel gear is likely lighter. I am wearing a normal "good night out in UK" pair of jeans for the trip and planning to wear them almost all the time, the travel trousers are just an emergency spare and thus lightness/compactness is valuable because of the constrained bag. I just might decide to mix in some regular socks/underwear instead of the travel ones, we'll see, but there is still an element of lightness/compactness.

Wed 7th Oct Feeling badly unprepared even though I'm not really. I have just checked on booking.com and my booking is stil there.

1339 OK, I just did the online check in and I have the bloody app with my digital boarding pass. It looks like I got a middle seat, it's fine, I deliberately resisted the upsell. I can always pay for a seat on the way back if I have a really torrid time of it, I don't expect it to be a massive deal (e.g. I didn't have an aisle seat on a short haul flight during 2024 trip IIRC) and if I just buckle now without any really strong reason to do so I would feel weak and I will keep having to worry about this when maybe I can save a lot of money and stress in future by accepting a small amount of discomfort now.

It's kind of weird, I just feel like I want to eat. I'm not saying I don't do comfort eating at all, but it's not generally something I think I do, and maybe it's not related to vague pre-trip jitters, but I really just feel like I could stuff myself with junk right now.

1356 OK, booked coach return. £21.50. Not too bad. Fingers crossed. It's an insanely early start whatever - I need to be at Liverpool St about 4am - but getting the train would have made negligible difference and this is a significant potential saving and worthwhile doing to help with any future trips too.

1404 I have printed some stuff out, technically not necessary but it makes me feel a bit safer against device loss etc. The booking.com site says I have paid, the PDF it generates does not. Looking at my credit card account online, I can see the payment there. £81.84 BTW.

I still feel a bit out of control, sure it's just the usual nerves.

FWIW the costs so far are:
£21.50 airport return coach
£117.98 return flight
£81.84 accommodation
So £221.32, plus spending money on buses/trains/admission/food/drink when I am there. We'll call it a 6 day trip (5 nights), so that's already a whisker under £37/day. Maybe £50/day with luck if the spending brings it to an arbitrary £300 total. I don't know how I feel about this. It isn't cheap, but it's not insane either.

1732 I have re-packed, albeit the non-clothes stuff is a bit "just what I packed before" and time permitting I will look later tonight. I bought 500g of mixed fruit and nuts as a snack for tomorrow and/or for during the trip if it gets that far. With that and perhaps slightly bad packing of some other stuff, the backpack feels a little bit bulgier and overfull, although obviously that and the water can/will be emptied out over time.

2200 It feels fucking crazy that I basically need to be *getting up* in 5 hours. I basically need to just accept that while I might lie down in bed, the chances of me getting to sleep are slim, and maybe it's not even a bad thing as I will maybe sleep on the bus or the plane, and I have no huge plans for Thursday so I can just wander round Riga and do some light touristing and try to find somewhere for dinner and maybe have a coffee and probably go to bed early and hopefully sleep like a log despite any first night weirdness etc.

2206 I feel my packing has been a bit slipshod but it's fine. I did put some moderate attention into the "pre-pack" last week or whenever and really as long as I have (which I should) money and I already have the basics like accomodation, flights, transport, clothes, it's not like it's a huge long trip to somewhere without facilities.

2215 I should probably vaguely try to move towards bed but I don't feel quite ready and it also feels a bit silly. FWIW I probably need to be leaving the flat about 0330 to be "safe", in reality 0340 would be fine but still.

El Salvador/Nicaragua post-mortem

Thu 15 Sep As always I forgot to actively finish this and I recently noticed it hanging around on my PC waiting to be posted. I am going to do minimal tidying up on it and post it as-is rather than risk pointless observations which are no longer based on fresh memories of the trip.

Thu 26 Mar 1659 FWIW I got no e-mails telling me to do online check in for the return flight and no suggestion from anyone to do Colombian Check-Mig and I didn't and it simply didn't come up at all.

Notes based on reading over older blog entries:
- Loss of 128GB stick (and other stuff) - process/storage improvements needed
- Over-loose trouser waist, exacerbated by the hook fastener instead of button
- Just maybe worth taking some of that chemical for gut bloat after travelers diarhea etc - although I could *probably* have got some at a local chemist had I thought about it once I was sick, even in El Tunco, so depending how cheap etc it is and how much you need to take, it might be something I should consider adding to a mental list of "tools that are worth bearing in mind and buying on the road" instead of actually taking it (and perhaps also writing up this "tools to buy as needed" list might be useful in general).
- The process for backing up to microserver (set up a clear folder on phone, pre-defined a simple Termux shell script to rsync with no deletions at the far end which I can easily run whenever) and making photos available to family (use sigal on the microserver) worked really well overall.
- the way I did (albeit imperfectly) copy files from each phone to the 128gb stick and then to the other phone meant that subject to laziness, the 128GB SD card inside the A06 had a full backup as well, which was reassuring (if imperfectly) when I lost the stick and also adds an extra layer of reundancy. It would be *slightly* nicer if both phones had enough internal storage to keep all photos, but not a huge deal and probably not worth paying more to get a Pixel with 256GB for - the microserver was the first line of backup, then the 128gb stick, then the copy on the A06 128gb internal micro SD card, so I already had some backup redundancy
- I got very little or no use out of the wireless bluetooth keyboard. I continue to think this is in some ways a good/clever idea but I do need to be careful not to blindly burn the weight/space on it on a future trip. In practice it never seems convenient to use it and this includes when I have had private rooms.
- Probably need to be stricter with myself about shoving random unimportant papers like supermarket receipts into blue folder and lugging them round for the whole trip and then keeping them as pseudo-souvenirs back home - in moderatation one or two such things might in theory be interesting to stumble on in future, but still.
- Small plastic bags continue to be a problem, e.g. I didn't have any non-ziplock ones to replace the passport protecting one inside my flip belt, and in that constrained space you need a non-ziplock to avoid bulk/discomfort. Even the ziplock ones weren't in super plentiful supply. There might even have been some somewhere if I had really ripped things apart but one way or another I just never had or couldn't find any.
- For once, perhaps because at least one supermarket chain seemed to give them out for free, I wasn't short on carrier bags and in fact had slightly too many with the ones I'd brought out (some of which are at least stronger and worth having for emergencies) and the ones I accumulated.
- Having some colour coded carrier bags to stash varying levels of clean/dirty clothes in (in part if I need to free up the dry bags for other uses but not exclusively) would be good.
- In hot places with the right tourist kind of vibe wearing flip flops and no socks around hostel or even (as I did a bit on Ometepe) out and about was a good call for comfort and reducing sock laundry. It might be worth investigating (and there's probably some conflict in these requirements) something a bit more substantial and/or with a strap to make it more of a sandal and/or some sort of water shoe I could use on rocky-ish beaches etc.
- To a lesser extent I think I also did wear swimming trunks as shorts sometimes in hot places, definitely not so much, but probably sometimes and this did work fairly well.
- I'm probably going to unfold all my stashed and cling film wrapped US notes and try to flatten them under some books over a month or two. AFAICT this is probably the least damaging in the long run (vs leaving them folded up permanently) and when I know where I'm going next I can make a better judgement as to whether I should re-fold these already slightly damaged ones or rotate them into a "try to spend" pile and rotate some other currently crisp bills into the emergency stash role, and whether my emergency stash has to come from my home supply of USD or if it can be obtained locally.
- The water purification tablets weren't frequently necessary but were a good idea and probably better than the lifestraw (even ignoring the considerations as to whether the lifestraw was any good at the right kind of purification for my uses) in terms of weight/volume. While in a push I could have used e.g. a 600ml bottle with a tablet it would have been wasteful (this is safe, they recommend something like 2 tablets per litre in some cases so this is below that, but wasteful as a tablet is good for a litre of water normally), I found myself carrying around a mostly empty but crinkly and hard to squish (volume being the concern) plastic disposable bottle in case I arrived somewhere and suddenly needed to use the tablets to get "emergency" drinking water, and if I could get a moderately robust but truly squashable non-disposable or "semi-disposable" litre bottle that might be worth it, as long as it's not so expensive I'd feel deeply chagrined at losing it (beyond the "damn, I lost that thing and now I don't have it and I obviously had it for a reason" type annoyance).
- Probably have note on phone but really looking into maybe doing laundry in a dry bag and/or getting some quicker drying socks (the bottleneck on self laundry in general), and/or maybe some of those silver ion type socks which might (do they affect wearing comfort or just make them less obnoxious to other people?) be capable of being worn without unpleasant smells for longer without being washed.
- I really should make it a habit to check curfew/need for keys/codes at hostels where there is any doubt, so I don't find myself unexpectedly out a bit later than necessary (and in some places the cut-over time might be 9 or 10pm, so you don't have to be out mega late) and worrying about it or unable to get a key I could have had if I'd just asked etc
- I did take 2xsmall bottles of sunblock with me, right now one still has 41g of content (using the other empty bottle to zero the scales). It's hard to say whether I needed to take two or not, because I did also have to buy that biggish tube while I was on Ometepe. Because (I think primarily) the kitesurfing meant I was using a lot more than I otherwise would, albeit maybe not because after first day I only put stuff on my head as I would normally, but I suppose I was probably putting that on twice a day because of lake water/shower after probably washing it off, maybe I didn't always bother but I suspect consumption was increased. Anyway, the point is that I did take two with me (because I always dither when packing, and that's what I did do this time).
- Wet wipes are possibly of value in pseudo-camping type situations (e.g. any situation where you can't shower), not necessarily worth taking out from home given you can buy them out there if you need them, but something for the mental toolkit.
- Travel sim in P7 and local sims and my main home sim (for bank texts and general identity theft type awareness) in A06 worked pretty well, despite some initial glitches in El Salvador getting the A06 a local sim. Need to be careful to explain situation when buying and ask if they have test sims, i.e. prefer some kind of more formal/calm shop than a street kiosk. The latter would be fine if the phone was really "very international" but for a budget model like the A06 with limited bands a bit more caution is needed.

Equipment notes from unpacking bag more carefully:
- I probably ought to buy a replacement for the Bag Bag drawstring type daypack. It has worked really well and I'm very happy with it, but it is showing signs of wear and while it might last for another trip or more, it might not.
- I did use the replacement bandanna and it worked fine. I did sometimes find myself twisting it on as a makeshift head covering and ending up with a bare patch in the middle but this was my carelessness. I do wonder if it's perhaps slightly smaller than the old one and that's why I was doing this more often but it's not a big deal. For pseudo-swimming cap purposes it (like the one I lost in precisely this way) is vulnerable to coming off from impact after jumping in, but that's probably unavoidable unless I were to wear an actual tight swimming cap. Goggles worn carefully so the elastic at the back goes over the bandanna fabric do go a fair way towards preventing actual loss. That said, there is a minor element of constant "need to remember to check I haven't lost this while swimming" stress which it would be nice to remove, but I am not super keen to buy or wear a proper swimming cap (and the one I got free and did take with me but didn't use does not really fit, being a bit baggy "on top" (I guess it's design to accomodate voluminous hair) even if it fits tight round the forehead). Bandanna seems to be in solid physical condition and usable for another trip.
- I am pretty sure I didn't wear the gloves but did wear the beanie hat (at Conchagua volcano), but I probably took the gloves up with me and it's not inconceivable I could have worn them. I am not going to wash the beanie or gloves, they had sufficiently little wear that they are not really dirty and I will wash everything I take on a subsequent trip shortly before that trip, so no point adding wear to them (the gloves in particular are very cheap and thin) with an extra wash now.
- The green and blue pairs of socks (which I've already washed, hence treating separately) appear to be in reasonable condition. I've waffled more generally about socks and I do feel that getting some quick dry or silver ones, even if they're a bit expensive, might be worth it for another trip. Other pairs from this batch do seem to have worn a bit too much so maybe these particular socks were a bit low quality or I just put too much wear on them.
- The Quechua socks seems to be in fine condition. I have a vague idea I did psychologically prefer to wear the other pairs when it was warm (as it nearly always was) unless I was expecting to do a lot of walking (and the Quecha socks weren't always clean when I might have wanted to wear them for walking anyway), but I do have a fair idea that actually they were not really more uncomfortable than the perhaps thinner socks I had four pairs of anyway.
- One of the orange socks and one of the grey socks both have a small hole in (all this is based on shoving hand in, not putting them on properly) .
- I've washed the PackTowl and although the corner "hole" where the loop attachment bit is supposed to be has torn and I don't think (but haven't tried yet) I can reattach this, it's generally in decent condition and I wouldn't have any concerns about using it on another trip.
- I didn't need it but I kept some toilet paper in a sealed plastic bag (and ditto a laminated credit card sized passport copy) in the small inner drawstring bag in the Bag Bag daypack and it appears to be dry (not that I'm sure the bag ever got wet, albeit I did have wet swimming gear in it e.g. during kitesurfing lesson stretch on Ometepe) and in decent condition, and this feels like a good contributor to "trying to have toilet paper available without it being too inconvenient".
- Red short sleeve T-shirt definitely got a lot of use during the trip and my strategies for using it to eke out wear on longer sleeve tops when I don't need the long sleeves etc worked fairly well (not perfectly, probably scope for tweaking). It appears to be in decent condition but although I'll see how I feel when I come to pack for the next trip, given how cheap they are my usual plan of putting it into general rotation (which in practice means it never gets worn but whatever) and buying a new one is probably what will happen and maybe better in terms of guarding against sudden failure and looking scruffier than can easily be avoided during a future trip.
- all underwear seems to be in decent condition and was reasonably comfortable (as reasonably as can be expected given heat etc) during trip IIRC
- I had toilet paper in IIRC (but not sure) one of trouser "knee" pockets in a smallish plastic press-to-seal bag and it was perhaps a touch annoying but but probably less so that in the back pocket and having it folded up quite small and thus the bag not being too big and obstructive probably helped
- The laundry soap I brought back weighs about 9g - it is pretty dry so shouldn't be any water weight in there. Almost certain I never opened any of my spare pieces. I did a moderate amount of hand washing but not excessively, partly due to dorm-ish considerations. Not exactly a problem but the possibility of improving my own laundry using another dry bag might increase demand here.
- I did use my six clothes pegs (e.g. hanging stuff on the somewhat crowded lines at Zopilote), more might have been nice but would be extra weight and bulk, equally I could just maybe have got by with less but six didn't feel extreme and I was slightly struggling at times even with those. Admittedly I didn't use them a lot as having a line is relatively rare, but they certainly did get some use, and they may have other uses, and they don't weigh that much.
- I did use the hydrocortisone cream (sweat rash type stuff, stings) and I did use the antiseptic cream (cuts). I did use the insect repellent at times but not all that much, but to some extent this depend where you're going and what the local insect life and mosquito risks are.
- Fleece appears to be in good condition and OK to use on another trip
- I have USD57 in the bag at the bottom of my tube cube, this is probably exactly what was there when I went out, this includes 7x$1 and 4x$5 and at least one $10. I think part of the idea here is that this gives me some hope of making exact small payments in dollars if I need them at e.g. a border crossing where change might not be available. I could potentially add or modify this stash to have more small bills, but I haven't done it yet.
- I am setting 885 cordobas from the cash I came back with aside to go into my collection and that leaves me with 630 for a future trip.
- I don't think I ever used my waterproof jacket or trousers, but I will almost certainly have taken them with me e.g on Conchagua hike and they are worth taking unless I somehow specifically know they won't be needed.
- Main backpack seems to be in solid condition, I have given it a wipe down with a damp microfibre cloth inside and out to generally try to clean it up a bit (just normal dirt accumulation from floors etc) and I haven't examined it inch by inch but it seems to be fine and I certainly wasn't noticing anything looking frayed or worn during the trip.
- I am fairly sure I did use the home-made head strap for my torch - at the very least (without checking blog) I used it to hang the torch from the hook in the tent at Conchagua, and I might (and if not I probably should have) have used it to hold the torch while e.g. cleaning teeth there (and I didn't but definitely should have done at El Zopilote).
- I have 148g of "miscellaneous paper" accumulated during the trip, mostly shopping receipts etc. This weight includes a not particularly thick carrier bag I've put it in. It doesn't include the blank bits of paper I took with me or my printouts of flight tickets and hotel reservations or the rubble sack or the passport copies which tend to live in the same blue folder during the trip. Some of that 148g is borderline "decent" souvenir material - a newspaper sheet, some (admittedly tattered) wrist bands, a paper map I got at El Zopilote reception. Most of it is basically junk though, albeit a random sub-selection of it might have "oh look, a receipt from the Ometepe supermarket" type novelty/nostalgia value to look back on. I suppose while not great, this is actually not as much surplus weight as I might have expected from the bad pack rat habit. There is of course the modest question of bulk but since I think it makes some sense to take the A4 wallet with me anyway this isn't perhaps that big a deal in reality.

Although nothing really came of it on the few occasions I gave it a try, booking via Hostelworld in order to get access to the associated chat rooms on their app is probably worth something, if not much. (It isn't clear to me how long access lasts after your formal booking finishes, but maybe you don't always need to have booked to get this. ISTR having access to at least area-level not hostel-level chats after my original booking had passed.) And to some extent I was using it on Ometepe when I was kind of fully occupied with the lessons, so I was ignoring messages with people saying "we are doing hike X tomorrow, does anyone want to join?" either for purely social reasons or to split the cost of a guide or whatever. (Let's ignore here the "would it be weird at my age, or a social stress even if I were 25" aspects.) So if I'd been personally less busy or booking with them and using their app earlier in the trip, there might have been some more value. This is needlessly waffly, but the point is that this is an option to bear in mind and a "hidden" reason to considering using HW.

I have basically been through my whole bag "unpacking" and checking to see what I did and didn't use etc and as I expected I haven't found the missing USB stick or USB OTG cable. I haven't been over my packing list to check for other stuff missing, I don't think there is that much and it will be natural to go over this when packing for the next trip anyway.

I'm not generally very good at doing this but I have run my power bank down to about 50% charge before putting into storage before the next trip to maybe help the batteries live a bit longer. (But it's already old-ish and has had some use and it may make little difference at this point.) I've put it in a drawer as I just might want to use it for something at home and thus don't want to pack it away inaccessibly.

Intermittently tidying up photos and bits of travel stuff left lying around and have just scanned my Nicaraguan tourist card (just a slip of paper). AFAICR I was never asked for this once. I am fairly sure they didn't want it when they collected my passport for the group exit (and I put it loose in my security pouch to keep it safe and stop it falling out of passport and getting lost while it was out of my hands), but not 100% on that.

Sep 2026: FWIW I happen to have weighed a pair of the bamboo socks (which seem a little thinner) from the 2025 trip against the more substantial socks from 2026 and the former are 42g vs 69g for the latter. Both almost certainly washed and left to dry before being put away. The 2026 socks also feel that little bit bulkier. Not saying this is a huge consideration (though it adds up a little more, both in terms of bulk and weight, over 4-5 pairs), but interesting.