Reunion

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Day 243 - Tuesday 20 May

Yet another long bus journey ahead. Today I'm moving on to the border town of Corumba. Its an eight hour journey by bus which is a shame as the weathers fantastic outside, but I want to make sure I got there in plenty of time for the Champions League final tomorrow.

Not much happened on the bus journey until about 2 hours from Corumba. The bus stopped in some small village in the middle of nowhere and who should get on but Russ and Pa. They've just finished a three day tour of the swamps. After catching up on the bus, we ended up checking into the same place and then went to get some dinner and have a walk around.

The one thing I've noticed about when travelling with Russ and Pa is they seem to be able to sniff out the cheap places to eat. We found this great street stall doing a bbq for only 1 Reis (30p) an item. After stuffing our faces we went and had a drink at the bar/cafe across the road from where were staying. Its a strange town because of the climate the locals seem to spend the whole evening sitting on the street outside their house in just a pair of shorts. I guess its more sociable than staying in and watching tv.

Because we were all a bit tired we headed back for an earlyish night. The place were staying in is a family home and on returning we were greeted by the family pet. They don't have a dog or a cat but have an anteater. They're huge as big as a large dog but very docile. I want to get one when I go home.

Day 244 - Wednesday 21 May

Champions League final day today, but first of all I had to get the chores out of the way and do my laundry. Yet more handwashing (Not sure why I don't just wait until Bolivia).

A scouse bloke called Gary staying in the same place as us reckons he foud some bars last night so we went down early with him to see if they were showing the game there. They were but it was a couple of hours before kick off. As its a hot day and were by the town square we decided we might as well start early as the beers cheap and its a good place to people watch. I dont know if its because of the hot weather but theres certainly a lot of good looking girls about.

Im not sure what the unemployment rate is here, but it must be high. All day we stayed in that bar and the locals spent all day eiher in a bar like us, or just sat in the plaza. We ended up watching the game with three other English lads who were all big Man Utd fans. After the game had finished unbelievably they went back to their hostels as they said they'd had too much to drink. I couldn't believe it, if Preston ever won the Champions League i'd be celebrating for a week. The youth of today!

Myself, Russ and Gary however decide we might as well carry on so we walked down to the river which all our guidebooks tell us is where the action is. Maybe its a little early but it looked pretty quiet to me. After a few more drinks and ten hours after staring we were all pretty hammered so stumbled back to the guesthouse. It might get lively later on and the girls in the town look good but with the amount i´ve had i´ll be no use.

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