MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all! We desended into the town of Cochabamba, Bolivia's 3rd largest city, for 4 days which was enough time to relax and enjoy the festivities that Christmas brings. Cochabamba is not reknowned for tourists however it has a great cafe/bar scene where locals flock to play cards and dice games (one which is reminisent of Yahtzee). Christmas Eve saw Bron and I descend on the 'Zamorano'- a cousin of Tatianta's who lives in Bolivia. We were invited to celebrate Chrsitams the South American. The family had a couple of young children (3 &4) so they hired a Santa Claus and gave him all the kids presents so at 8:30 Santa knocked on the door with a sack full of presents. I tell you if that happened to me there is no way I would have stopped believing in Santa Claus. Then we sat around drinking wine, scotch, pisco etc, ate christmas cookies and chatted with the family until the champagne was popped at midnight followed by the roasted turkey, pork, salads etc. Yep that's right - middnight. So after having Chrsitmas dinner on Christmas Eve we choose to stroll around the sights of Cochabamba. Caught a cable car up to the top of this massive sculptor of Christ (Cristo de la Concordia-the biggest statue of Christ in the World) that overlooks at the city. It was really nice because loads of other families were doing a similar thing on Christmas Day, enjoying the view, the weather and a day off after celebrating Christmas the night before. In the afternoon we headed off to the cinema to see the release of Lord of the Rings, with every other teenager in Cochabamba. I don't think i have ever been in a cinema that was sooo packed and soo noisy everyone was so excited for the new movie (i think)...it was a fun experience!! Then that night we finished off Christmas day with a nice dinner. Once again lots of uni students out having dinner, drinking with friends. So it really felt like Boxing Day rather than Christmas Day, I guess we were insinc with what was going on in Oz.