Once we had settled in tour room we opened the lonely planet again to see what food and drink options we had nearby, the most obvious choice was a pub called 'Oliver's Travels' which quite unashamedly described itself as an English style pub which showed football. This was perfect for me as I was hoping to catch the Tottenham game the next morning. We wandered around for a short while and eventually found the pub after I worked out which way round to hold the map. The pub wasn't typically British but it served beer and they had the games advertised for the next morning which was perfect. After a quick drink we headed back to our room to get ourselves ready for the evening. Advertised in the lonely planet and on the back of a tourist map was an Indian restaurant we thought we should try. We found the restaurant without any problems and started browsing the menu. One dish very quickly came to my eye as if you finished the dish you won a free t-shirt. Sue wasn't too keen on me trying to complete the super hot Vindaloo challenge so, after consultation with the waiter, I opted for the Balti instead. The food was really good and I left vowing to return - just so I could win the t-shirt. We headed back to our room and settled in to bed. The following morning we were up early to head back to the pub to watch the football match. We ordered some English style breakfasts and I got a pint of Tetley's. The Tetley's tea was great and lasted much of the first half until I moved on to the more traditional football watching beverage. After the game Sue and I decided to walk around the local area to get our bearings and an idea of the city. We were lucky that our accommodation was right opposite a street called the witches market. They sell all the usual tourist tack but also sell some of the traditional remedies made from herbs and some animal products. They also sold Llama foetuses which are meant to bring good luck as far as I could find out. After the witches market we wandered around some through the other streets markets which were populated by the locals more than the tourists. It was quite interesting seeing people doing their weekly shopping on the street and in all honestly there was nothing that you couldn't buy if you looked hard enough. Our walking tour took us a long way in to the evening so we had a small snack at a Dutch run place called Sol Y Luna. After the quick snack we headed back to our room before heading over to Oliver's again to meet with our Dutch friends. After a couple of drinks we headed back over to Sol Y Luna so the Dutch contingent could get some food from home. They introduced me to 'Bitteballen' which is a meatball snack they eat with mayonnaise as a starter, I then ordered another Dutch dish but I won't embarrass myself by trying to spell it. The six of us got rather merry over the course of the meal and so the desire to dance grew inside all of us. We had heard of a secret nightclub where you have to press a bell outside the black door to be allowed in. It was so secret that apart from one bar man we were the only people in their all night.We had control of the music and a personal bar man so we threw some shapes for a couple of hours, including some terrible YMCAing and a screeching rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. We eventually dragged ourselves off to bed in the early hours agreeing to meet in the pub around lunch time day. The following morning we were all nursing very sore heads as we settle around a table I Oliver's. I distracted myself by watching more football and by drinking more pints of tea. After some food I started to perk up a little so we played some raucous cards games for most of the afternoon. Whilst together in Oliver's we decided to we would meet for dinner next door where one of the Dutch guys friends was now the manager. Before dinner we all decided to go home for nap so that we would be able to make it through the evening. At the steak house we were treated extremely well and all had a really good meal, everyone must have felt the benefit of the nap as the wine and beer started to flow rather freely as well. Sue's dish came with a garnish of a red chilli with a plastic sword through it stabbed in to the top of her Aubergine dish. I for some unknown reason picked it off and popped the whole thing in to my mouth without thinking. I tend to think that when it comes to spice I am normally fairly tolerant but this chilli was the hottest thing I have ever eaten in my life. I had tears running down my cheeks as I tried to retain my composure, I ate bread, drank beers and even (on dutch advice - and it does work) ate sugar from the pack. After about 20 minutes the pain started to subside, everyone thought that I had been over reacting so another chilli was ordered. Sue, Linda and Erwin had a seed each, Erwin insisted that although it was a little bit hot I had been acting like a big girls blouse. I told him to eat a piece (not even the whole thing) which had flesh and 3 or 4 seeds in, I have never seen a man in so much pain in my life, the poor fella had to leave the restaurant for about 15minutes and for a good hour or so his eyes were still running. On reflection I was glad I didn't go for the Vindaloo the night previous as the Indian and the steak house were run by the same people. The next morning was going to be our last in La Paz as we booked a night bus to take us to Sucre. Booking the bus was a bit of a problem as we booked the cheapest option in the morning only to find out later in the day that it wasn't going to go as not enough people had booked on to it. We had the option of staying another night or getting the more expensive fully reclined bus. Eventually we settled on getting the posh bus rather than spend more time in La Paz. We did fill our last day with a few sights though, first we headed off with Maarten and Linda to the 'Valley of the Moon' which was a site which is meant to represent the surface of the moon. It was an incredible landscape and we wandered around for a couple of hours before heading to the Mirador (look out) over the city. The Mirador itself was closed but we were still able to get a good view as we walked along a raised walkway back down towards to the city. Along the way we stopped in a nice park where families and couples were all playing and relaxing. We then ended up at the bottom of one of the main roads in La Paz so we walked all the way up it until we eventually got back to our area of the city. We had about an hour to kill before we had to leave for us bus so we had one last visit to the pub before catching the night bus. The two pints of larger and the out of use toilet on the bus were the least of my concerns in a fairly eventful bus journey that I will update you on soon. Hope everyone is well.

John