The last days of Loki (La Paz)

(Photo: L to R- With Oliver the owner of the local Mexican resturant, me, Gemma, Jack the manager of Wild Rover, Ross and Ed)

And so I returned for the jungle to work 'one' final shift behind the bar I had come to love, leaving me just enough time to spend a day shopping with my new friend Gemma, which aside from being an absolute brilliant laugh led to the two of us puchasing MATCHING LLAMA TOE RINGS. My personal favourite purchase of the trip so far. Other highlights of my last four days in La Paz included a delicious dinner at a local restaurant called Sol y Luna, where my friend Shaun is about to become the manager (and therefore cost almost nothing) with the gang who went to the jungle together and my friends Gemma, Ross and Rebekah from behind the bar at Loki. Primarily notable for the fact that we managed to consume several bottles of gorgeous Chilean red wine before returniong to Loki for what was supposed to be a quiet evening and instead saw a packed out bar and Gemma and I stepping up to work the remainder of the night shift tooooooootally sober. Luckily we sobered up pretty fast, and the attention of the night was rather off us when our manager got unbelieveably drunk and started experimenting with the idea of flying ashtrays. Not a success, and with the help of Hans the chef Gemma and I managed to get Cam safely into bed and away from the unsuspecting punters. The next day saw a football match against local rival hostel the Wild Rover, which Loki was sorely defeated in, but with three girls on our team to the none on theirs I consider it a win of principal, equality and all that jazz...
And that night saw my actual final shift, and ladies night, where all the young men in the hostel are encouraged to dress up in order to obtain free drinks. The night was mainly lost on me, retiring to the other side of the bar at about half ten after the 'dream team' of staff working with me had each bought me a different alcoholic beverage and I deemed myself unfit to keep serving. After that however, there was still a Loki La Paz tradition to be had. On the final night of each bar staff's service it is traditional to be 'Tommy Knockered'. A drink invented by Cam of the 'flying ashtrays' fame, the Tommy Knocker has been banned in every bar in La Paz, apart from Loki and even then only for leaving staff. The drink consists of a pint glass containing a double vodka red-bull, with a shot of Tequila balanced against a shot of Jager on the top (see photo below of Zoe doing hers on her last night). The idea being that you pull out the tequila shot, causing the jager to drop into the mix below and then you down the lot. I did mine in the fastest time recorded at Loki La Paz (not suprising for those of you that have seen me down a drink before), however (also not suprisingly) I was in bed a mere half an hour later, which to be honest was probably for the best.
My last days in La Paz (I had left myself a 24 hour buffer before my bus left in case I was really sick) passed with revisiting my favourite places in the city and saying goodbye to friends, and before I knew it I was on my 8am bus on my way to Lake Titikaka.


Things I learned in La Paz:

• The name is ironic
• One year olds are not only cute, they are amazing
  
• Drinking at altitude is dangerous
• Running at altitude is almost as dangerous
• The most unusual people can become your closest friends
• If you enjoy what you're doing working a 50 hour week becomes much easier
• You can make a network of friends very fast
• Tattoos are contagious (No mum, I promise I haven´t got one, just everyone else did)
• Where you come from is irrelevant (unless taking the mickey out of someones accent... Eh?!)
• Few things in life are better than a REALLY hot shower
• Beer tastes better on a roof
• English people will NEVER tan properly, its time to give that dream up
• Mashed carrot gets everywhere
• Six weeks is a long time when you're travelling, and leaving is hard...

But... time for a new adventure...