La Paz

Part 2

We rolled up outside Route 36 and the guards played their part well, pretending to look for Police before lifting up the steel roller shutter to let us inside.

Up a couple of flights of stairs and then past the biggest bouncer in the world in to the smokey den.

We were greeted by a man in a tracksuit and sat down and ordered some drinks.

It was not as busy as I expected. I had planned on every western backpacker being in there, but there was just a couple of groups of people, of which ours was by far the noisiest.

We kicked back and relaxed and then a woman came over and started to talk to us, in particular to a very pretty Dutch girl in our group.

She said the Dutch girl could make good money as a hooker and that there was a Japanese guy sat with her right now who was interested and would she be interested.........

Talk about upsetting your customers. So basically it all kicked off from that point and we left quickly and went to the Rock Cafe night club instead.

We staggered home in the early hours, and a good night was had by all and we proceeded to spend most of the next day in bed.

So Monday was my first day at school. I sat in the corridor and waited for my teacher a little nervous.

I was hoping for some super hot latino babe that was in to older men, especially English......

Well anyway my teacher arrived and we started the lesson. My brain was totally fried after an hour. It really was like being back at school, as I was just looking at the clock praying for it to go faster. Only this time I was paying for it. I put it down to the first day and decided I would do some homework when I got back to the hostel.

Full of good intentions I arrived back at the hostel only to bump in to Gabriele who had booked in for a night on his way back to Peru. Homework was soon replaced by lots of beer and some table tennis.

Next day back at school I could not remember a thing. It was just not going in.

So basically this repeated itself all week, intended to do homework, something happened, got drunk, struggled at school.

I was so relieved when friday came, no more needing to feel quilty at not doing homework. Oh well, at least I had given it a go and I could now expertly ask for chicken and chips to take away.

I had been sharing a dorm with Will and Carley and a nice Australian girl, but then she left and we got quite an old strange woman. She did not say much, but that first night I decided to have another Jeremy Clarkson shouting session in my sleep. Will and Carley laughed it off and the woman had left early in the morning.

That night it was just me and her in the room. I tried to be all pleasant and said hello as I walked in but she just stared at me and never said a word.

Perhaps she thought I was a lunatic and scared her?

She would get up and just leave in the morning and not say a word when she came in....

She scared me more than anything. This went on for a further three days, she was weird indeed.

I had acquired a few souvenirs which were getting heavy and taking up space and wanted to get a few alpaca bits and pieces so decided to buy a few things and then send the whole lot home.

I had heard stories that most parcels get stolen by the locals, but decided that potentially each country was as risky as the next.

I headed off down to the main post office and you have to go downstairs in to a dark basement. In a corner is the small room with a single dimly lit light and an old couple who deal with it all.

They were really helpful and knew the tourist routine. I needed a copy of my passport to send with it, so left everything with them and nipped over the road to get a copy.

As I came back they sealed it up and the women leaned over and said cocaine and pointed to the box and winked.

I panicked, what did she mean. Did she mean she had put cocaine in it and she wanted me to traffic it?

Then she burst out laughing and the old man burst out laughing. She started to read through the list of contents....

Clothes,

Souvenirs,

Cocaine!

And laughed again.

This was obviously her little joke with all the tourists.

I laughed with them then cried at how much it was going to cost. So much for saving money on buying it from over here.

So, missions accomplished it was time to book my next leg of the tour which was a trip to the jungle.

There were so many companies to choose from I had spent ages umming and aahing which one to go with, so figured just like the Bolivian tour they were all going to be the same anyway and booked the cheapest. I was done with s***ty long distance bus rides so decided to fly as it was less than a hundred quid return.

So all booked, I set my alarm for the next morning.....

Next stop......the jungle.....