My first week in La Paz, I was hiking out and about with Joanna, my short term roommate, looking for the vegetarian breakfast restaurant El Quinto Sol, Joanna being a vegetarian afterall.

We walked in the hot sun 10 blocks or so, trying to make sense of the terrible tourist map that I had the restaurant circled on, squinting our eyes in the hot morning to see any nonexistant markings designating street names or numbers.

With my wealth of knowledge, I declared, "Any place with a huge Tecate sign has to be a restaurant."

So we walked over to a little beer stall under a huge Tecate sign and gave up on the idea of breakfast and instead bought 2 ballenas of Tecate, about a liter in each, the Mexican equivalent of a 40oz.

I told Joanna that it's against the law to consume alcohol on the street, but she said "it's Mexico" and drinks right on the sidewalk. I ask the Senora of the beer stand if it's illegal, she confirms, advising us that we can sit and drink our beer, hiding it down in the bushes if the Police drive by.

What's more that it being illegal, the Senora says, the police will take all of your money, your passport, anything you have. They are really only looking for a little profit from your infraction.

In La Paz when you leave bars, discos, clubs, they always have plastic cups sitting by the door so you can leave the container or glass and take the rest of your beverage with you home, on the walkhome, in the car for the drive home. I havent really figured that part out yet.

Last week when Harry Potter and the other Ingles, Jim, went out they left a club and were walking with these plastic cups full of beer. Harry was quite sloshed and when they came across the police, Jim had enough sense to ditch his beer but Harry didn't. "Dump your beer out!," Jim said, but it was too late.

The cops came over and much confusion began. The cops wanted some money, Harry was drunk and didn't have any money anyway, and Jim doesn't understand any spanish.

Luckily for them, the two swiss cheeses, Felix and Roman, were crossing the other side of the street and saw the trouble their friends were in.

Felix helped out by communicating to the Mexican police in Swiss Italian. Harry didn't help anything by putting his hands together as if they were handcuffed and demanding to be arrested. Jim tried to stop Harry from making things worse.

In the end, it was understood that the police only wanted at 150 peso fine. Felix in his most eloquent Italian somehow haggled the cops down to 100 pesos. Jim paid the fine for his fellow countryman and Harry Potter managed to stay out of Mexican Jail for another night.