Happy 30th Birthday, Andrei!

ANDREI - I knew all along that I would be spending my 30th birthday South of the Equator,away from my best friends.  An ominous milestone and I was a tad worried it would not live up to what I wanted it to be.  I was 50% correct.

The day started with a 90 Sole phone call from Puno (Peru) to my parents back in the UK at midnight Peru time.  Next was the bus ride with our intrepid tour group across the border to Bolivia, a quick stop off at the Tiwanake ruins on the way to La Paz to hopefully catch the replayed footage of the blistering FA Cup Final between Liverpool FC and West Ham United FC.  We had to endure profane complaints from the nutcase girl on our tour group who objected to the footy!

En route, the birthday cake was cut on the bus, then a few beers were had at "Oliver´s Travels" in La Paz.

  Perhaps it was the altitude that then spawned the idea that we were to go out in the evening in fancy dress!  We duly met for a champagne reception in the ornate suite in our hotel, all looking surreal!  We moved on to a good restaurant called "La Comedie", where I intended to pay for the whole bill but the majority of the group went back to the hotel for some sleep.  I wasn´t too pleased, so the credit card didn´t come out.  On a brighter note, Stu & Phil, our buddies from the Galapagos Islands trip made a welcome appearance for the meal.  Also, we provided some amusement to the staff as we rolled in our costumes!

The hard core batted on to "Mongo´s Bar", where my sunflower outfit elicited a standing ovation from everybody in the place!  3 or 4 rounds of beverages later, it was time for bed, without a sortie to any dancefloor, unfortunately.

I mentioned before that I was half disappointed by this birthday.  This was mainly because we wereaway from home, not many of our tour group stayed out, and 4 of my closest friends from home didn´t even send me a birthday email at all to acknowledge my milestone.  Outof sight, out of mind, eh?  I hope you guys know who you are!

The flip-side of this was that it was such a unique birthday (in manner and location) and I was touched by the greetings I got from many other people.  Many thanks to you all.  Apparently, 31 is when you really start to feel old!