LAZING AROUND

SUNDAY 17th JULY

  Stayed in all morning working on the computer, and then phoned Adam, whom amazingly enough I caught at home.  He went and turned on his computer so we were able to continue our chat Skype to Skype.  It was apparently the weekend of Leia's birthday party, so Bridie was there.  I'm glad that my misadventure of being booked from the wrong La Paz is causing so much hilarity in the ranks, at least it wasn't all in vain!  There wasn't much I could tell Adam as he had read it all on the blog - I'm glad to see that I have faithful followers on more than one continent!

  I decided to go for a stroll down to the beach in the late afternoon, but I never made it that far.  My attention was caught by an outdoor restaurant that sported a plasma TV with the Copa Cup Final on between Brazil and Paraguay. I asked the waiter if they had an English menu, and he pointed me to a man sitting there eating.  I eventually learnt that he was the owner, and spoke English.  He gave me his recommendations which I followed and settled down to watch the match.  A bottle of beer did me for each half, whilst the garlic steak and spaghetti were consumed by half time.  It was a good match, which quite frankly Brazil should have won by at least 4-0 if not more, but the Paraguayan keeper had an inspired game and pulled off some magnificent saves.  Paraguay hardly had a shot worthy of the name.  However after extra time it was still 0-0.  The first Brazilian pently went about 6' over the bar and the first Paraguayan penatly was 2' wide of the upright.  We could be in for a long night here, I thought!  The second Brazilian penalty was saved, then Paraguay scored.  The third Brazilian penalty missed, easily clearing the crossbar. Paraguay scored again!  The fourth Brazilian penatly cleared the post by a foot and the Paraguayan element in the stadium went mad!  Brazil for all their superiority and slick football, failed to score once in a 120 minutes of football plus four penalties!  The owner was highly critical of Neyman (a young Brazilian footballer who according to him earns a million reals a month), and who apparently is wanted by Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

  Anyway on the way home I stopped at what I had previously thought of as a cafe up to now, but in fact turned out to be quite a large food and drink store.  I purchased a bottle of "Sapupara" Curo for the princely sum of £2, which I think is an alcoholic drink made from cane sugar if my translation of "Aguardente De Cana Envelhecida" is correct.  There again I could be totally mis-guided in my translation - I have got enough things wrong in South America not to be overconfident!  Anyway I toasted Paraguay with this 39% by Vol alcoholic tipple, and think I might just have another one, hic!

  No photos today as I didn't take any.