Back to school part 2

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Day 274 - Monday 30 June

I arrived back into La Paz early morning, as my spanish lesson doesn´t start until later this afternoon, I watched Wimbledon with Russ. We were waiting for the Andy Murray game to start but unfortunately he was last on. This meant that I had to go to my lesson just after he lost the second set. I thought he´d lost it so was gutted to learn I´d missed out on a 5 set epic and Andy had actually won.

Spanish was ok and after my lesson I waited around for Russ to finish his (He´s decided to learn as well), before we headed off to the night market. Theres a couple of foreign films I´m after and I also want some South American music. Pleased with my purchases we headed back to the video arcade.

Day 275 - Tuesday 1 July

I got up and just had enough time to watch about half an hour of Wimbledon before I had to go for my spanish lesson. Once my lesson was over it was an afternoon spent doing homework and more studying.

After Russ had returned from his lesson we sat down and came up with a plan of what to do for our last 3 months. I hadn´t realised we´ve so little time left. Three months sounds a lot but theres so much to see its not nearly enough. Were going to have to get moving next week and unfortunately we don´t have any time to visit Colombia or Central America which will please my mum.

With a rough plan we went back down the video arcades before watching on of the dvd´s i´d bought.

Day 276 - Wednesday 2 July

After getting up and watching a bit more Wimbledon I got up to date with all my emails and stuff before Andy Murrays game with Nadal. With my Spanish class this afternoon I thought I might miss half the game but there was to be no repeat peformance of Monday and Andy lost just before I had to leave.

It´s Jamel and Heidi last night in La Paz so after Spanish, myself and Russell went to join them for dinner and a farewell drink. Its also the second leg of the final of the South American version of the Champions League. I´ve watched it pretty much all the way through so was a little dissapointed that it wasn´t on in the resturant. I thought I´d missed it but when I got back to my hotel the match had gone to extra time so I could watch the end after all. A small team from Quito, Ecuador ended up winning on penalties. Apparently it was a bit of a shock.

Day 277 - Thursday 3 July

Another usual day of watching an hours Wimbledon when I got up before heading off to Spanish class. Once class was over I met Russell and we booked our flights home from Los Angeles. I now know when I´m coming home which on the one hand, is a little sad, but on the other, there are some things I´ve missed and looking forward to doing again.

After a brief walk around the market it was back to the hostel to do some more swotting up on the Spanish. Once Russ had finished his lesson, we went to the video arcade once again before catching a film at the cinema.

Day 278 - Friday 4 July

Thankfully its my last day of Spanish lessons and after getting tonnes of homework to do over the next few weeks (we´ll have to see), it was all over. It feels a little bit like the last day of term and i´m definitely in the mood for some beers later.

After getting lunch at Burger King (thats the fourth day in a row now so much for my budget), I spent the afternoon searching for and booking a flight from Quito to Mexico city. Unfortunatly theres no budget airlines in South America so it´s quite expensive but I don´t really have any choice. I´m out of time.

For the remainder of the afternoon I decided to learn the last of my Spanish before going once again down the video arcade, and then on to Ollies for dinner. Its friday night so Im hoping to show Russell what hes been missing out on by spending all his time with Pa.

We started off slowly having a couple of pints in the english pub talking to the barman. Hes english and just finished uni. It turns out he gets paid 50 Bolivianas (about 3 pounds thirty and thats a good wage),for working an 8 hour shift. Why would you bother? As its expensive in there and I can get a beer for half the price in a local bar (I also think there better and more fun), we moved on. We ended up in a local bar we´d been to before. After another beer we felt we were to sober so decided to move onto the cocktails. As they were all the same price we ordered a jug of the strongest one. Half a pint of vodka, half a pint of beer, half a pint of tequila and another half pint of some other spirit I cant remember and a dash of lemonade. All for 2 quid. A jug later and we were in high spirits and chatting to a group of Argentinian architects sat next to us who are working here. They too were on the cocktails and hammered, so not to let the side down we ordered another jug. The barmaid who was quite nice also gave me a free shot which was a bonus.

Halfway through Russ announced he couldn´t carry on. He said he was absolutely smashed and left. I was thinking he was a bit of a lightweight having spent the past three months not really drinking because of Pa when 5 mins later it suddenly hit me. It was pretty much instantaneous. Once second I felt sober the next the room was spinning and I felt out of it. It took all my efforts to keep it together and I had to tactically visit the bathroom.

Somehow I ended up in a taxi with one of the Argentinian girls. She spoke some english and had asked me back to her place so she could practice her english. Fair enough I thought. However halfway through the journey everything was spinning again and I had to get the taxi to take me back to my guesthouse. I only just made it back and to the toilet in time. Damn i´m dissapointed I missed a great opportunity tonight.

Day 279 - Saturday 5 July

It was lunchtime before I woke up and quite surprisingly I didn´t have a hangover. I felt as though I´d been out last night and didn´t want to rush into things but I didn´t have a hangover. Quite amazing really considering how I was when I returned home last night. Russ was also up and about. He too although a little delicate was in good shape and busy cleaning up a pile of sick in his room.

We´d missed the Wimbledon ladies singles final which was a bit of a shame but were up in time for our planned visit to San Pedro prison. We´ve arranged to meet one of the prisoners in there. Its a notorious prison and houses the biggest cocaine refinery in the world. I´ve promised not to talk about my visit so wont mention anything else, but if you´ve read the book Marching Powder you´ll know a little about the prison life there.

Once our visit was over we were both a little tired. Its saturday night and i don´t have that many left but after last night I´m not really fully in the mood. Instead we stayed in and watched a dvd.

Day 280 - Sunday 6 July

As I hadn´t gone out last night I was up quite early. I got chance to watch the last 20 laps of the British F1 grand prix before settling down to watch the mens final in the tennis.

That went on all day and I only left for half an hour during a rain break to sort out my trip tomorrow. Its time to move on so were going to mountain bike down the worlds most dangerous road to the town of Corioco. Or so we thought, we were watching tv after the tennis when the guy came round and told us that the roads shut tomorrow can we wait until tuesday. Looks like were stuck here another day and that road being shut sounds like a load of rubbish, but at this time of night theres not much we can do.

Sunday nights are dead here so with not much to do we spent the evening watching tv.

Day 281 - Monday 7 July

After surfacing and doing my emails we went to the electronics market so Russ could get a new camera to replace the one he had stolen in Buenes Aires.

After lunch we went back so he could pick up some rechargeable batteries, before going down the games arcade. With not much else to do I was actually pretty bored for the first time in ages. They better not cancel the bike ride tomorrow.

We headed out for dinner then decided to go to the cinema. Unfortunately the only film that was in english was the one we watched last week. Not to worry, dvd´s are only 50p each so we picked a couple of them up instead.

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