Boats, beaches and Tequilla

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We caught the bus to La Paz, a small seaside city which derives most of its income from a combination of aquaculture (fishing), tourism and the oil refinery. During the day I wandered the city took some photos, went to an Internet café - $1 an hour and as fast as anywhere I've used yet. Lunch at a café - club sandwich and some great nachos. Matt disappeared without making an impact on his club sandwich - Montezuma had his first victim.

Montezuma's Revenge is the Mexican equivalent of Deli Belly, and after over a week in Mexico we were surprised that no one had yet had any trouble. Our last night in Cabo San Lucas had involved a lobster dinner for Matt and Robbie. I'd had a steak. Matt had had bbq ribs with the lobster... he'd had complained about them being too salty from the start - I think we can blame them.

I wandered the city some more and looked for somewhere to buy ear plugs (I'd lost one), sunglasses (I'd lost my latest pair) and a Spanish to English dictionary. Robbie spent the afternoon on the telephone trying to get his air miles ticket rearranged - giving him more time in Mexico.

At around 7pm we all met up to get ready for an evening out. Matt chose to sleep off the illness rather than risk further discomfort. So Boghen and I departed to start the celebration of him successfully extending his trip. We got a bucket of beers just before the end of happy hour and watched the sunset over the bay. We toured many of the bars looking for a combination of cheap alcohol and a lively scene, some had neither, some had one or the other, but only a few had both. I can't remember the names of the bar but they were all in a row starting with Carlos and Charlie's and ending with the bar with beer at less than a $1 a bottle during happy hour.

At 11pm the evening had really started to hot up with the locals, lots of groups of people wandering, a live music stand where you could listen to guitarists and singers, lots of cars driving around the sea front. We asked the waiter where a good club was... next door funnily enough, La Paz Lapa. Well it would do. La Paz Lapa was absolutely heaving - so many people, so few non-Mexicans, at last we had found true Mexican nightlife. The music was a combination of hits from back home like Kylie Minogue and Mexican music. There was a dancing competition on stage to win some beer - the guy with the biggest belly won - he was the better dancer. We got talking to some girls - they were from La Paz and had loads of friends in the club. I met loads of people, danced a bit, had a great time, got more and more drunk, dropped my beer, went to the toilet, came back and everyone had gone. Wandered around and around looking for them, after about 15min gave up headed back to the hotel - about 2am. At the time I was annoyed with Robbie, fine, go on to another club but let me know about it. It turns out that they had been looking for me as well - but I was just to drunk to find any of them - which is probably just as well.

In the morning I woke with a hangover, and a sound in my ears that was like the roar of a jet plane taking off. The air con for some reason resonated in the exact same spot as my pillow. The rest of the room was noisy but acceptable. I need to find a second ear plug.

I spent the morning recovering and searching for a supermarket. I couldn't find one, eventually I found a chemist that sold yoghurt and water, but not ear plugs. Yoghurt would do.

In the afternoon I made my way to the cultural museum - which was closed, found a shop which had an English/Spanish dictionary in the window - which was also closed. Bumped into Boghen outside the hotel - he was just about to go to the beach with some new friends, did I want to come? Beach vs. Seista, OK beach.

I got into a car with Robbie and his new friends. It turned out that if I had been (unlucky) enough to find the guys last night I would have been drinking beer and tequilla until 8.30 in the morning. Robbie had managed to drink from sunset to sunrise - well it was a celebration after all. Robbie's new friends had a boat, I recognised Bere and Chema from the evening before, but the other guys had been at the other club... the one that shut at 5.30am.

Mike's boat turned out to be really impressive - about 30ft, with a couple of turbines that sped the thing along at about 40 knots. The best boat I've been on. I met so many people, some were studying at a university in Gaudalajara (Luis and Javen) - Diego and his girlfriend Chistine (Diego was hungover too) - Chema - working at Monterra, Mike, Bere and Pika (I think) were still locally based, all the guys had grown up in La Paz. Two girls from Equador, Cristina and Lorena - just completed degrees and had been working in La Paz for a month - their last few days were to be a holiday.

The boat pulled up to a packed beach, dropped anchor, and we all dived in. So many times I had seen this happen, people pulling up to the beach in their big boat, dropping anchor and playing in the sea. This time I was one of the guys in the big boat. I was wearing my zip off shorts as my crashing of the party had been so haphazard. I ate some of the best squid salad I have ever had, made by Chema's father, a chef. We played football on the beach, my team lost and I cut my foot (again).

After the sun had set we headed back to town, had hamburgers and hotdogs on the seafront, got everyone together for a photo, exchanged email addresses, and turned down another crazy nights drinking and partying till dawn. We arranged to meet them the next day for a barbecue. This meant delaying our ferry ride out to Mazatlan for another day - but sometimes it's great to have no fixed plans.

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