This is from our second day here... so two days ago now. It is a part of an email to my parents but i wanted to share it with more than just them... it is a bit long, but hopefully not too boring.

The trip was ok in the plane... we couldn´t sleep much from miami to la paz.... it was amazing seeing the andes from the air as the sun was rising. it was hard finding vegetarian food in miami airport. Seeing the Andes from the air as the sun was rising was amazing and probably not something I will ever forget. I just thought ´wow I am really in (or at least over) south America!!!!´

So.... soo much to tell you it seems... Patricia´s parents (Elva and Germán) are great... they have been really nice to us and they took us to expo cruz ( a bolivian and hypercommercionalized version of the stampede, but minus the rides as far as i could tell). There were these highly disturbing humpbacked cows there with very short hair that were about the size of a hippopotamus ( some weighed 1250 kg or more!!) There were all tied up on display and we thought they looked sad. i don´t know if they were genetically modified or just their feed was, but there was lots of agribusiness advertising around them and the word ´genetico´ was very prominent....

Santa cruz is a very nice city with, for the most part from what we´ve seen, clean streets and a very safe feel overall. It reminds me a lot of Playa del Carmen, mexico except much less touristy (very, very few people speak english) oh, and it is far from the caribean... although, it should be noted, we mostly have been downtown.

We had a positive experience with a street vendor from the highlands yesterday when we (eventually) bought a small wallet from him while we were chillin´ in the central plaza. He then took a break on the bench beside us and played an andean flute for a while before starting a conversation with us about where we are from, where he is from, and how we like Bolivia etc... we shared some bread that Janaki and I had just purchased from a bakery (2 croissants and a HUGE loaf of whole wheat bread for about 1 cdn dollar), and then he was off to continue his work.

Another note about Santa Cruz is that there is no secret that Evo Morales is not liked here..... there are many examples of grafiti saying Evo: Dictator or Evo: hijo de pierra (son of a bitch). There are also lots of ´Autonomia Si´ banners and a party called Podemos that appears to be seperatist. It is like alberta on steroids in that way: lots of mineral wealth, no tolerance for a national government who dares to ask them to share with the rest of the country. However, i have only been here for a few days and will eventually make an effort to get the opinions of some of the people from santa cruz on the situation. maybe it isn´t quite so simple??

I think the reality of Bolivia set in when we rounded a corner to be confronted with a young woman in beautiful hand-woven indigenous clothing and a baby on her back politely asking for our spare change. We gave $1 US to a little girl with her (her daughter? i think this woman was younger than me). Within a couple of blocks the story repeated itself only a more middle-aged woman with even younger children, and then a second group only a few meters away... they appear to be indigenous folks from the highlands here to try to find a better life in the richest city in the country... instead they get stepped over in the streets by the Cruceños (citizens of Santa Cruz) as they go about their daily affairs...

What is really bugging me is the contrast between the poverty stricken indigenas (indigenous people) in the streets, and the arrogant ´our wealth we don´t have to share it´ attitude of the Santa Cruz autonomy movement.

Janaki and I have decided that we will give change to people here because they really seem to be on the brink... we are going to budget for a few dollars a day... and when we see young families on the street we are going to give the mothers $1 USD or 10 bolivianos becuase it is at least something, enough to get a reasonable amount of food here if nothing else. I know we can´t help everyone but I want to do something... at least to let people know we acknowledge them as human and have empathy for their situation even though they are indigenous.

anyway, i don´t think that anything could have prepared me for that experience, even though it is to be expected in a developing country, of course.