Police Christmas Action!

Christmas Day 2014 will never be forgotten.

We had really hoped that we could've volunteered in a soup kitchen or at a homeless project but every door we pushed ended up closing. 

Our next hope was that we'd meet some people and cook a good old traditional Christmas dinner for them but that didn't happen either.

So Christmas Day started off with both Lauren and I feeling really homesick but after we pulled ourselves together it turned into a fantastic day.

We had been to the local market in La Paz on Christmas Eve and bought eggs and bacon for our Christmas brunch.

When we arrived back there was a lovely surprise. A beautiful bunch of flowers and bottle of bubbly from Stuart & Carole!

We had our brunch and settled in to Skype friends and family.

We decided to have a Christmas drink/toast with everyone we spoke with which had to be paced well due to the fact that we started toasting at around 10am our time!

We took screen shots of everyone we chatted with so we could remember this very different Christmas.

Some pictures are better than others as our Wi-Fi connection was weak at times. At the time of writing (7pm Boxing Day) we have had no Wi-Fi at our apartment all day (thank goodness that didn't happen yesterday!) do we're sat in a Dutch restaurant using their Wi-Fi. Done of the pics are on our iPad so we'll update them as soon as we can, please check back.

Andy & Sarah

Mum and Howard

Colin, Debbie, Josh & Zoe

Merrick, Lucy, Katie and Bella

Angela and Donald representing the Lattimores, Crowes and Staverts. 

Oliver, Nay, Louis, Leah, Stuart, Carole, Elliot & Carla

Di

The Baxters made our house in MK look very festive.

At 4pm we went out for our Christmas lunch at a local hostel called 'Wild Rover'.

They stuffed us with a 3 course Christmas dinner and we stayed afterwards and chatted into the early hours with new friends, Andy, Dave, Eliot, Colin, Michelle, Louis and Dylan. 

Some people were in fancy dress and I couldn't help saying happy birthday to this fella!

We ended up getting a cab to experience a local La Paz club afterwards and were delayed for ten minutes as our young taxi driver got pulled over by the police for speeding! 

Whilst he was getting a grilling from the sergeant outside, we all thought it was comical to chat with other taxi drivers and his control by using his CB radio! I tried my best lines I could remember from old 80s movies "breaker, breaker. Anyone out there for a copy?" and, "Roger, that's a big 10-4". Whilst Lauren thought it was necessary to explain to anyone listening that the driver had been a naughty boy!

When Bolivian Nigel Mansell got back in the car, he was treated to a rousing rendition of 'We wish you a merry Christmas' from the four of us to which we received a round of applause!

The club was ok and we left after an hour and headed home to bed.

Lauren's thoughts:

Well I have to admit to not particularly looking forward to Christmas as I was really missing friends and family but having the chance to Skype a lot of our loved ones felt so special. It also gave  Gareth and I the chance to remember what Christmas was all about.

The hostel dinner was just what we needed and met some really genuine lovely people. Gareth stayed awake until 3am, this must be a record (apart from his one crazy night with Geoff). A top, albeit very different, Christmas!

Not long left in La Paz but we've got some amazing things coming up, including Lake Titicaca and Machu Pichu!! Exciting!