Translation of fenómeno in Spanish-English

I arrived there but could not find a hotel immediately, so that I took my luggage with me. I know that this is very provocative to thiefs. One should not walk on the street with a big backpack.
The sky was dark blue and this is what my sister had told me many years ago when she was there. One of the reasons for that was the altitude of the city, I recall to be it above 2000 meters.
We changed to another room which was slightly better and stayed there one night. The next day we moved to another room again before finally leaving for a better hotel. It was important to stay in a good place.