Cruising the sierra

Trip Start Apr 30, 2007
1
23
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Bolivia  ,
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Santa Cruz de la Sierra was the object of my four day bus adventure across Bolivia´s low lands. I arrived to cool weather with a recent shower of rain. Checked into a hostal and wandered around a bit. There isn´t a huge amount to write about Santa Cruz, its Bolivia´s richest and largest city founded on the wealth of natural resources such as gas and farming.. and possibly the coca trade.

The city is pleasant, with nice hot and humid weather (just like Hong Kong) and is quiet and relaxed for a city of 1.5 million, the center has some nice colonial buildings and good food, very different to the mountains. While in Santa Cruz I met a couchsurfer Viviana who was at the time hosting a girl from Germany. She took us out to the same kinda cool bar night after night because it was her ¨second home¨ this was in between struggling with the German embassy to get a visa for Europe...

Santa Cruz does feel a lot richer and more European than the rest of Bolivia, it really feels like a different country and was a great change from being in the mountains. There´s lots of wealthy people about in nice clothes, eating in nice restaurants and driving mainly 4x4s and utes.. it also had more Hummers than I´d ever seen.. I think there is a proposal to change the name to Santa Hummer!

We really didn´t do a lot, just hung out a bit, I met her family and her little brother Freddy (diablo) and on my final night we went to watch a rally about the upcoming Bolivian Constitution vote. The new and first indigenous president Eve Morales was voted in on the platform of improving the position of indigenous people and taking back control of Bolivia's natural gas resources.

Most of the highlands of Bolivia being dominated by indigenous groups is strongly in favour of the Constitution with EVO written everywhere, while the lowlands where more of the wealth and the more European looking people live is strongly against with NO written everywhere!

It is sad to see a nation so divided and from my limited understand of the politics it seems Evo is relying on this division to keep him in power (the new constitution will allow him to serve a second term) while making much of the population quite unhappy and disenchanted.

Because of the election Bolivia was to come to a standstill over the weekend with businesses closed, no alcohol sold and no buses running. So Friday night I made my escape and hopped on a night bus to Sucre, which being Bolivia the bus broke down for an hour before we had even left the city limits!
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