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.