Guayaquil-Quito

1037 In reception, they have called a taxi, coming in 5 mins. Bit tired and didn't want to get up, not too bad. Am a bit later than I'd like and cos I gorged on my 'travel peanuts' night before last and supermarket shut yday have no food, might get chance to eat at airport. Bit worried am running bit late but I don't think airport is that far away. Meh.

1044 Just hastily located hotel on OSM while sitting in reception, completely forgot to do it last night or immediately after booking.

1109 At airport (didn't leave hotel til some time after previous entry) in slightly pricey restaurant called Cajun; I expect food and an juice will weigh in about USD10 but that's not too insane. Taxi was 5, not sure I should have tipped but I made it 6. Still landside, but boarding pass says not due to present myself at airport til 12, it is v close to town so here v early, and I didn't want to make assumptions about food availability airside especially here in the domestic (part of the?) terminal.

1134 Bill 8.25, will make it 9 with tip. Food nothing stunning but not too pad and moderately healthy I think.

1145 Airside. Pretty unintrusive security, no need to take laptop or liquids out of bag (I am flying hand luggage only). Way early but better than being rushed. There is a small bar/cafe here but don't think I will indulge.

Guide book not super helpful re arrival in Quito as it predates the opening of the new airport in 2013. I don't remember any specific warnings about taxi scams at the airport so I guess I will just have to take a taxi from the airport rank and hope; it's one of those unavoidable risks. Given both lack of travel guide info and general other security concerns public transport is probably not prudent. I am at least arriving during daylight (deliberate, of course) and it will probably be OK.

Incidentally, the BA hotel emailed me offering an airport pickup for USD29. This seems insane but I need to check what it will cost to get my own. Since I am landing 8pm I am not inclined to faff with the no 8 bus as I have done (and would do again) if I were arriving in the morning. I also need to get to the airport to fly home of course. I suspect - based solely on not flipping out at the price when I flew back after my trip in 2012 - it's not mega expensive to get a cab and the hotel are milking it. On the other hand, since I am (probably) not hailing a cab on the street if the hotel want to do the same milking on the trip to the airport after I check out not much I can do. Definitely need to read up on this; no *immediate* rush but best not to leave it to last minute.

FWIW airport all very slick and modern and not crowded; there were two parallel scanning lines at security and I didn't have to queue at all. Nearly every flight is to Quito, a couple to San Cristobal and Cuenca.

1316 On plane.

I accidentally brought a bottle of water on with me. The horror! No one stopped me. I'm sitting here shaking now in case someone blows the plane up.

1420 Landed. Seems a bit silly to have taken such a short flight. But let's see how I feel when I get to hotel. At risk of jinxing things I am also tempted to say 'wow, that was all so easy'.

1551 At the hotel. That was easy but expensive. Took a while to get off plane. Went to shuttle desk but no shuttle, so I had to get a prepay taxi for USD26. To be fair it is fucking miles (some quite nice views). Taxi driver spoke to me a tiny bit, he said something about a volcano which is erupting two hours from here which you can visit.

On up side this hotel (unlike one in Guayaquil) said if I didn't want a receipt I didn't have to pay the 10% and 12% surcharges on the booking.com price, so I've 'saved' USD40 compared to what I expected to pay.

Woman on desk essentially refused to accept my passport for safe keeping, she said it would be safe in my room. I didn't insist but not super happy.

1558 Yay. Both wifi networks at the hotel show super strong signal and then don't work. It's not the password as I just deliberately got it wrong and it outright fails instead of hanging on getting an IP address. The netbook doesn't work either - at Guayaquil hotel (Re Bed & Breakfast, BTW) the phone was super unreliable but the netbook connected well.

Not very happy. Even if it were medically advisable I can't go out at night much if at all here because of the fucking safety concerns, and it's not going to be much fun staying in without a fucking internet connection. Really sick of cunts lying about this on booking.com property details.

As read on tripadvisor rooms open onto central stairwell and I can hear two Dutch SYTs (they are speaking in English, maybe I am wrong or they are not both Dutch, still, not impossible I guess) chatting on the ground floor. Not an enormous problem and I haven't tried shutting the windows.

The room is fairly nice if slightly dingy, but I can forgive a lot if the wifi works and on the flip side the fact the wifi doesn't work takes a lot of the gloss off. Yes, I can presumably go sit out in the corridor, wow. Great for Skype! It is fairly cheap all the same.

Guayaquil, Sunday

1146 At Ciro's #2, they actually have free tables for once, getting half chicken and chips. Bit lardy after gorging on super unhealthy stuff all day yday but meh. V hot in here but tis OK.

Slept v badly, woke up tired but with sort of vaguely flu-ish (dunno why I say that, not sure I can remember last time I had flu) ache in bones about 3am and struggled to get back to sleep. Hope I'm not coming down with anything. Probably not, I do feel a bit better now if not absolutely 100%. Got up about 1030-11 but Skyped parents etc before coming out.

Had look at guide book, nothing massively 'must do' but I might try a museum which shuts at 3pm and I might also see if I can get on a Henry Morgan sailboat tour. Failing that might go have another look at land iguanas (why are they called that? *are* there marine iguanas? still, that's what guidebook calls them) in Parque Bolivar.

Worrying myself a bit that I feel badly run down but I think is largely in my head plus perhaps side effect of not sleeping all that well.

Must be the cooking etc cos even with the fans and being in the shade it is much more stifling in here than out on the street.

1216 Left, paid for water, they didn't insist re food. They had warned me it would be a while, the stifling atmosphere and a slight growing sense of panic/discomfort and the sickness induced suddenly at the idea of shovelling down roast chicken and chips got too much for me. Am at Chifa Sabroso now, it's cooler and I've ordered arroz marinero. I think in reality I just need to get a bit of food down my throat and then I will start to feel much better. It's not as if I felt ill when I was in the hotel room this morning, which strongly suggests a strong psychological element to me.

1300 Some intimidatingly large chewy chunks of seafood in there but OK. I feel a bit bloated but definitely better.

1413 Went to Museo Nahim Isaias, not bad (and free) exhibit of monster movie posters oddly diverting. On Captain Henry Morgan now, waiting for the (hour long) cruise to leave. They go at 2 and 4 but when I went to buy a ticket five mins ago turned out the 2 one hadn't gone yet. Not printed boarding pass yet, will go do that after this.

1722 Back at hotel. Supermarket shut so no fruit, being super unheathy lately, meh. Went and got some crisps and bottle of diet coke. Picked up passport at hotel, not lost :-), they can call me a taxi tomorrow, I said flight at 1 (it's actually 135 departure) and they said for internal flight leaving here 1115 would be OK so (I checked) 1030 gives me plenty of time. Checkout is at noon so I can stay in room until go. Hope sleep better tonight.

Boat trip quite cool though nothing amazing, got cash after, went to net cafe and printed boarding pass, then back to Parque Bolivar which was cool - possibly best thing here - but a bit sad as I knew that would be last thing I did here and got to leave tomorrow and starting to worry bit about work etc (also a bit during boat trip) but meh. Oh, I had a (personal, but at least I knew) beer on the boat, dunno if bars would be open tonight but not even trying for multiple reasons and eg didn't go out last night for same reasons (except need to be up early for flight).

Oh, about 10-20 people sat around inside and just outside the tiny 24h shop watching a football match on big TV over counter, I felt a bit in the way browsing, one guy had to move so I could get a diet coke out of the fridge.

0249 FFS, surfing my head off (though what I am reading feels productive), need to get to bed.

0300 OK, OK, bed.

Guayaquil, Saturday

1736 Been back at hotel a bit. Stuck in sleep loop this morning, not v pleasant but still. Got up about 1130 and finally left hotel at 1230-1ish. Went over to KFC for lunch then to nearby MAAC. Free and sort of interesting though somehow struggled to capture my attention a lot of time, probably says more about my state of mind than museum. Interesting film called Cacotopia showing. Then walked down to south end of Malecon to see "crystal palace", bought some sun cream on way, then went to bank to withdraw some cash and back here. Bit lazy but meh. Might possibly go out for more food later but not sure.

2204 Didn't go out. Surfed. Forced myself to check in online for Quito flight - I have a boarding pass on my phone but don't trust it, will print paper one at internet cafe tomorrow, several nearby - and book hotels for Quito and Buenos Aires. Really is a flying visit to BA, 2 nights but don't land til 8pm first night. Tis OK, it's a Sunday anyway, spent quite lot of time there in Jan plus virtually certain to be back there again. Wrt Quito, I was torn but in the end went for a hotel in old town (which has little nightlife aiui). One hotel in Mariscal had a comment (by an Ecuadorian guy) that it was 1.5 blocks from the 'Gringolandia' bars down a well lit street so walkable, which tempted me, but since even the generally relatively laid back guide book says to take taxis at night even if it's just a few blocks I decided the reality was it makes no difference so might as well be in old town for daytime convenience. I didn't get a monstrously sociable hotel but in reality I am shit at trying to meet people in ho(s)tels and frankly at this stage of the trip I am just not desperate enough to do so to allow it to influence me hugely. Does occur to me I might be able to take that SIM into a Movistar shop in Quito (they appear to have only one in central Quayaquil, though Claro shops are on every corner) and have another go at getting it activated there. I can also take some advice on local safety from hotel in Quito. I do also wonder - F&CO advice is not specific to Guayaquil in this regard - if the "don't drink with or talk to anyone" advice I got re bars here applies equally in Quito, in which case nightlife is out anyway regardless of my ability to phone for a taxi or walk home without needing one. Have to see how it goes I guess.

0025 Bed. No huge plans for tomorrow and think I've done most of the obvious tourist stuff - I don't think you can go up the clock tower on the Malecon - and if I do ever go a Galapagos cruise I'll probably be back here for a day or two and I might well 'do' Ecuador more thoroughly in future (if I feel I can enjoy it, not that it hasn't been interesting here) but still bit good not to waste last full day too much.

Guayaquil, Friday night

2116 Am here, got table and beer, no sign of others (Javier, Elspeth, Maricella v approx), loads of people about on walk over and round here but tiny bit jittery. Old woman owner/waitress just patted me on back and said something like 'pase bien', she welcomed me in as I was peering to see if a table free but didn't understand her with being so nervous. Frankly half hope they don't turn up, I might have this beer and leave if they don't. The thing which didn't help the dithering was that I was thinking if I let *nothing actually going wrong* last night scare me off, where am I? On the other hand, I was/am not feeling like a night out.

FFS, old woman and another waitress both just warned me at length (in Spanish) not to drink with *anyone* and not to go with anyone and I think not even to talk with anyone. WTF am I going to do if those guys do turn up? I will prob say I have to be up super early for a tour tomorrow and just wanted to turn up to make my apology in person. Maybe they won't turn up. Fuck me. Really wish I hadn't come now. Still, if I just have this one it's probably not too late and the walk back will not be deserted and therefore I don't need to worry about a taxi. Wasn't entirely clear if two waitresses intended to help me get a taxi. But the thing is I really can't stay here in case those guys turn up. Maybe if last night was such a 'bust' with the cops rather than just them being helpful to a foreigner who they saw at closing time the guys won't come back in the first place. Not entirely sure what to make of this. I don't believe the waitresses said those guys specifically were bad people but it such absolute complete paranoia about *speaking* to unknown people really justified? I can't ignore such warnings though.

2150 Left about 2133, paid 3 for the beer, felt tip not undeserved. Back at hotel. Before I waffle, couple of unrelated things been meaning to say:

Despite my dubiousness as to the Peruvianness of 'roast chicken' or whatever I wrote, while looking up the meaning of 'a la brasa' (I believe it means barbecued) a while ago I found that 'pollo a la brasa', sometimes called 'blackened chicken' in English, is indeed a specifically Peruvian invention. I dunno if what I ate as 'pollo a la brasa' in all those cheap places was the same, but maybe it was, certainly very nice anyway. ;-)

Not sure, but think read in guide book or on web and owner chap mentioned it to me last night in passing that in Ecuador you can't buy alcohol on Sundays. Not a problem but worth noting.

Anyway, brief waffle. I can't help feeling there is a general overreaction here - based on past experience, some people *are* friendly to solo bar patrons, and presumably people here are the same, so I don't think you can conclude all befrienders are malicious. But it may be that the proportion of malicious befrienders is so high it's too risky to accept proferred friendship, even cautiously (while I admit I was intending to go to another bar with those guys, I was only going to one lower down the well-policed hill had one been open, was not intending to go walkabout or in taxi with them). In which case what a shame. Anyway, while it is a bit unsatisfying and I might be overreacting or (perhaps more to the point for once) I might be reacting reasonably to other people's excessively paranoid advice, I think I can't afford to ignore the warnings given - in general if not directed at those guys specifically - by the cops last night, the two waitresses tonight and (indirectly) the F&CO website.

I think Quito is worse than Guayaquil in this sense. I may reevaluate things in Bogota but broadly speaking it's probably on a par with Guayaquil. It may be that 'false friends' in bars as opposed to express kidnapping in taxis or mugging in street is more specifically an Ecuadorian risk, in which case I may be able to risk bars at night in Bogota. Dunno right now, as say will evaluate nearer time.

This means, I think:
- if I fancy the odd beer or three, I should probably do it during the afternoon instead of at night
- being a solo drinker is 'risky' in that I would be compelled to turn down any apparently friendly advances, which goes against the grain on both "politeness" and "extroversion" grounds (yes, yes, I am not an extrovert if you're assigning one label or the other, but I clearly enjoy social interaction to some extent so I have an element of extroversion, which is the point here)
- if I am to socialise any further during rest of my holiday (OK, I will be in BA 2 nights - one the night before flight home, so v tame - where things are less paranoia-inducing, but the bulk of time is Guayaquil, Quito and Bogota) it will, for better or worse, have to be with fellow travellers (harder for me to do, and less satisfying than meeting locals) - so eg getting a ho(s)tel with a bar might be more important than it would normally be to me. I don't intend to try to scrape any social contact up at this hotel, it is hostely and people sit around in common room etc but I think I've been here enough nights without trying for it to be odd to do so now (also despite possible bad aspect, last night still scratched my social itch so I'm not 'hungry' for more right now)
- frankly given how very bad I am/hard I find it to do the 'meeting people' thing in hostels, I may not even try. We will see. But it's OK, while I am sad holiday is drawing to a close I only have about two weeks left and I'm not going to go nuts for lack of social interaction over that timescale

2223 Called Metro Bank - thank God for Skype, I may not like the proprietary app but still, being able to call a UK landline for pennies while abroad instead of paying mobile roaming rates or having to find a call centre is a massive help - they had blocked my card after the previous transactions, we ran through some recent ones and they were all genuine and they've unblocked the card now. Annoying but I suppose it is for my protection. Wouldn't be so bad if the cash machines said 'your card is blocked' but the error messages always suck.

0033 Been surfing, should move towards bed soon. Occurs to me FWIW that none of the earlier stuff about going out at night really has anything to do with the safety or otherwise of taxis; even if I possessed some magical ability to guarantee I could return home safely by taxi it wouldn't significantly ameliorate the situation.

Guayaquil, Friday

1508 At Chifa Sabroso. I am fucking starving or ill, my guts seem to be contracting in on themselves, I think I'm just hungry. Saw nice place could have had roast chicken but by way of mild torture no free tables.

1801 Back at hotel. Walked round for literally hours trying to find cash machine which would accept my Metro Bank card. Not one has, despite it working the other day. As usual the messages contain zero information. I will have to call them, I do wonder if there might be an outage. I could pop out with another card but I probably won't. I am leaning towards not going out tonight but as I write this it seems a bit of a shame. Let's hang on a bit and have a drink of slightly cool Sprite Zero from the supermarket and think about it.

2055 Serious dithering but am going to go, leaving hotel now. Not intending to be out late nor to go anywhere except El Faro Azul.

Guayaquil, Thursday night

2031 At some bar on lower slopes of Cerro Santa Ana. All bars look slightly foul but better than last night. Nowhere advertises a price. I wandered inside this one, v small and just a couple sucking each others' faces off, no staff. Sat at table outside, not sure anyone is going to notice I am here. Asked woman at reception, she said as long as I walked via Malecon was safe at any time of night as there are guards.

2033 Old woman just came over, she says its USD2 for a large beer so getting that. Place is probably called El Faro Azul. Beer is 608ml bottle Brahma. She didn't hang around for any money.

Not seeking out that Latin Rock bar (prob only on jukebox not live iirc) mentioned in guidebook tonight, this is OK for a few beers and I can maybe try that tomorrow, for tonight thought I'd wing it and this is OK.

Did see few guards on lower part of this hill and some on Malecon. Fingers crossed it is OK, doesn't feel unsafe but I think it's very hard to actually judge such things even if it feels as if you can.

Did quick web search earlier and found some Hole in Donut blog thing by some 90% cool 10% smug older woman who after illness did some thinking and realised she'd been working at jobs she hated so quit to be a freelance travel writer. Anyway, she wrote about being here in IIRC 2010 and loads and loads of people including security guards warning her off walking even places like this. Dunno what to make of that. She was pretty bloody minded and did it anyway and it was fine. Can't remember what if anything her conclusion was.

2049 Two sources of music annoyingly audible, but one is playing Prince Royce's "Corazon sin cara". I had this stuck in my head half the afternoon (the phone shit wasn't all bad, it drove it out) after hearing it from a shop earlier. (Not that I don't like the song - brings back fond memories of Santiago in 2011 - but it's never great to have anything stuck in your head too long.)

2131 Woman came over as was finishing beer, I got another. I can't say it happens all the time but I do wonder if I am understanding people less easily here due to an unfamiliar accent. Hard to be sure unless I end up in conversation with anyone. I can understand the woman (not spoken much to the other two blokes, though one of them when I arrived also fairly intelligible) on the desk at hostel OKish but maybe she's posh or accustomed to speaking for tourists to understand.

2137 Meant to observe yday but didn't get round to it.

In the dear(ish) dim and distant days almost past recall when I was but a nerdy child with an interest in computers, I saw an already-slightly-dated cartoon with accompany text in a book which described an extremely un-user friendly computer whose only inputs were a hexadecimal keypad and whose only output was an electric shock if the user did anything wrong. My experiences yesterday made me think that maybe people who grew up with such devices all went on to program cash machines for a living. The user-unfriendliness they exhibit just goes on and on. 'Operation denied or PIN incorrect' (which?). 'Amount exceeds limit' (well what *is* the fucking limit?) 'Amount is not a multiple of n' (when it damn well is). 'Amount exceeds limit *ejects card*' (it's OK, I'll just start all over again) The somewhat tempting and confusing distinction between the 'cancel' (the whole operation and eject card) and 'correct' (an error in entering the PIN) buttons. Bunch of bastards the lot of them.

2226 On third beer, just been in for piss (not my first), bog is small and a bit grotty and has what looks like a shower in though didn't dare pull curtain aside (was at back of my mind some joker might suddenly lunge at me from behind it while pissing, but not paranoid enough to view possible dirt or invertebrate horrors behind curtain to eliminate that risk) and someone has puked in the sole urinal (no sit down bog). The inside of the bar has this slightly cheesy aroma which I can't place, glad I am sat outside. Decidedly not heaving but busier, a few people dancing inside and a few more outside.

The night is pleasantly warm, on walk over just a smidge muggy but still pleasantly tropical nightish, here there is a slight breeze and it's very nice out indeed. (Didn't bring jacket out, wearing T-shirt and combats. The latter have developed a small tear on lower leg which seems to get worse every time I wash them, but I have worn them nearly every day for two and a bit months and I think they'll last out the trip. The smarter trousers are OK but unless I wear jacket I end up with the two pockets uncomfortably stuffed, so haven't worn them much, mainly odd night out when just washed combats and when I could go out with my jacket on.)

0035 Back at hotel. What a fucking weird night. More shortly.

0042 OK. As I was getting my third beer a group of one bloke and two women invited me over to their table. We chatted and I even joked/discussed with them about drugged beer or whatever. I shared a beer with them - lots of incomprehensible chat when they paid but they wouldn't let me pay for beer. We were maybe going to go to another bar down the hill as that place was closing a bit after midnight. We had sort of agreed to meet tomorrow night at 9, this sort of finalised as we were leaving. Before we left about three cops turned up and I was all like 'oh shit' and the cops called me over and 'insisted' on escorting me down the hill. I spoke to them - they spoke a tiny bit of English but they preferred Spanish, I asked - and they were warning me about dangers. I said about what receptionist had said and they sort of seemed to agree about safety of walking back via Malecon but they also seemed keen for me to get a taxi. I asked directly if they thought those guys were bad and if I shouldn't see them tomorrow but if they replied that fell within my 20% misunderstanding Spanish bracket, 'obviously' I was rather intimidated talking with all these cops. They put me in a cab (a totally unofficial non yellow thing) and I went home in that for USD3 and it was fine.

I really really don't know what to make of this. Were those guys dangerous? I really don't think so. Am I going to meet them tomorrow night? I don't know. I was kind of thinking - I even *told* them I don't carry any cards on me so am a poor victim ;-) - that I would feel more confident if I met them tomorrow as surely robbers would want a more immediate payback. (I don't know if the bars lower down were still open, maybe not given the cops turning up, but I felt that was OK if they were open as was still on this super-patrolled hill. I wasn't going to get into a cab with those guys tonight for sure.) The cops certainly didn't say they were bad people, but how fucking bizarre they turned up to escort me out. I really really don't know what to make of it. I might ask reception for advice tomorrow. Right now gut feeling is I might well go back there tomorrow at 9 and happy to meet them but won't go on anywhere with them. Maybe I'm naive but this feels excessively cautious, but rational or not having three cops escort me down the (little bit of, the bar is not right up on the hill and I understand the area is safe) hill and those guys saying goodbye to me as I left was just freaky as fuck.

In a way I'd have loved to have clarified when I didn't understand the response to 'are those guys known troublemakers?' but there's something strangely intimidating about dealing with cops ;-)

Guayaquil, Thursday

1246 At Zhen Sheng (Baquerizo Moreno 1115) for lunch. Got up about 1130, drowsed a lot, only left hotel 15 mins ago. Can't get a coke light despite it being on the menu, having a water and pollo saltado con curry.

Plan is roughly to head down to Plaza Bolivar (which I sort of tried yday) and see the land lizards, hopefully stumble on that market and buy another microSD card from same stall since the one I bought yesterday seems OK from my testing, head down to south end of Malecon to see some stuff from guide book there then maybe head up Malecon to go to museum at north end which I passed yday but didn't go to. I may instead/as well buy a local SIM, not sure, but I think having one will probably be valuable for peace of mind if nothing else.

1558 Livid. Went to three Claro shops to buy SIM. First had 70s DSS atmosphere and four miserable customers sat waiting for attention. I said I'd come back later. Another had a woman in uniform on a headset, a cleaner and another bloke. They all stared at me when I went in, though no one asked me what I wanted, the woman was on phone for all I knew and it wasn't obvious the two blokes were customer facing and they didn't *say* anything. Anyway, they didn't have any. They pointed me to another Claro down the road. They had a SIM at the rip off price of 7USD inc 3 credit. I was going to buy it but while the guy went off and failed to have change for a 20 it turned out that was a full size SIM *and a micro SIM costs 10*. I said I'd not bother then.

Oh, an internet cafe en route had sign saying had Movistar SIMs but they didn't.

Then found a Movistar shop. Paid 7 for a SIM (no idea about credit). Instructions don't say how to check balance. Anyway, you need to activate it. I struggle to do this sat in middle of shop. As I go over to type my new phone no into the 'take a ticket' machine, a chap comes over and offers t help. He dials *001 as per instructions on my phone and it says invalid code or connecton problem. He reboots it, same. Cunt me phone is not unlocked and just sort of lets it hang there. Really shitty customer service. I know full well it is unlocked, I have happily used Claro SIM in Peru and IIRC Entel in Chile, not to mention it's Verizon branded but it works with my EE SIM in UK. I walk out swearing, the cunts have taken USD7 for nothing. I call the 'from any phone' number shown next to that *001 while in street and that works, except I can only register with a RUT (which I don't have) or a phone number (which I don't have, what might be the phone no on SIM cellophane doesn't get accepted, obviously I have no other phone number). You fucking robbing useless fucking cunts.

1755 I tried to register with Movistar's website. It kept trying to SMS me a temporary password. Yeah, that'll work when the SIM isn't activated. I filled in the contact form and almost instantly got a message back saying I would have to go into their shop if it doesn't work. Where presumably they will just claim my phone is blocked again. Also because I walked out swearing I feel I can't go back; on the one hand maybe I should have controlled myself better, on the other maybe they would have been totally unhelpful anyway and at least that way I got a microscopic amount of satisfaction. I could have asked for a refund or for them to activate the SIM in another phone (Claro in Lima did that as a matter of course, the chap had a non-smart phone in his desk) but at the time (and even to some extent in hindsight) I could not imagine them cooperating. I don't think I was in a foul mood before this went wrong but the whole atmosphere in all these shops just seemed so fucking surly.

It perhaps didn't help that I resent buying these local SIMs which I never use and the whole taxi uncertainty here gets on my wick. I don't think it's sour grapes to say I was never actually going to phone for a taxi myself anyway. How would I manage the language? Also in case of Cerro Santa Ana where would it pick me up? The taxi rank at the bottom makes it hard to see how I'd identify my taxi, especially when they're all yellow. Would they tell me the number of my cab? Would I remember it when I had nothing to write it down?

If there is a 'personal growth' (puke) lesson here, it's that I need to deal better with surly cunts who just tell you something's wrong and then leave it there instead of trying to resolve it. If I hadn't started to lose it then I could at least have tried asking for activation in another phone or a refund, or I could have fiddled with the thing myself in the shop, found the 1800 number worked and then asked for help at that point. I am certainly not taking all the blame, but still.

1946 Will head out soon, will ask advice at desk but probably just make things worse. Will send this now anyway...

Oh, after lunch went to Paque Simon Bolivar, land iguanas very cool, then to nearby national museum which was not bad, and free. Then the phone epic started.