Some Random observations about the streets of Santa Cruz

1. Roads, especially intersections, are crazy...
I think the streets of Santa cruz de la sierra are proof that anarchy works... at least sometimes...
In the downtown areas where traffic is quite busy, the intersections are generally completely unregulated.. no yields, no stopsigns, no lights... nothing. The rule seems to be that whoever gets to the intersection first gets through first... but with narrow streets it is not easy to tell if someone is coming. So, people just honk their horn as they approach the intersection in the hopes that other vehicles have the time to and are willing to stop. Needless to say I have seen several near accidents where people have slammed on the breaks, or, more often, swerved around a vehicle to get through the intersection. However, amazingly, I haven´t seen anyone actually crash yet, and traffic flows much better than it would with lights or stops... so there you go... the lack of system works. On top of everything else... in the few, randomly dispersed, intersections where traffic lights are present, they are often ignored...
crossing the street as a pedestrian is always a challenge and best done in pairs so that there are two opinions about whether or not the next oncoming car will hit us.

2. In the downtown areas it is normal to see women walking unaccompanied at night... this gives the impression that the streets are quite safe, and is not something i remember seeing often in downtown calgary.

3. the graffiti against morales and leftists in general seems to get harsher further from downtown (in quasi-residential areas) e.g. - ´death to the communists´

in other news:
It looks like we will be in this fair city for about another 10 days before we leave to the village... much of that time will be spent preparing ourselves for the task at hand.