Today is my six week mark. September 1st i stepped off the plane into this crazy country. Bolivia is a place like no other that i have seen, not even in pictures. Highways consist of two single lanes carved out of the dirt and covered in asphalt (only on the "nicer" highways), each lane going opposite directions. Cars pass on the shoulder when they can't get the opportunity on the road that is how scary it is. speed limits are around 80Km/h but i don't think i have ever seen a car going below 110km/h. it is terrifying, especially since the conditions of the roads are, lets say less than idyllic and there are so many cars that you are lucky if you have a meter between cars. Seat belts?...non existent, and the amount of seats you have in the car does not mean that is the max amount of people you can fit in that car. I think my record has been stuffing 9 people into a taxi, 10 if you count the driver.
I know that driving was the first major difference that I noticed when i got here, it took me about five seconds to pick up on that one and about ten to figure out that parking is almost as bad as the driving. as long as there is not a driveway that you are blocking, people here park wherever they like, including in the middle of the street, cars have to weave through open spaces in order to make it down the road and usually it ends up being a one way street just by the amount of space left.
although Santa Cruz de la Sierra is the largest city in Bolivia, it is nothing like a city i expected to see. there are hardly any big skyscrapers and it is not very dense, well that is just me comparing it to Canadian cities and what i have seen before. the city functions in rings, there is a plaza and the downtown area in the middle and the main roads are called rings, they make circles around the plaza and go out into the country. there are 5 rings considered to be inside the major part of the city, after that you get into really poor areas and that is where there starts to be gangs and problems. Even in the safest neighborhoods in the city, all the condos, apartments and houses have huge locked gates on them and all parking lots have security guards watching them.
Im still getting used to this city, the poverty and the begging, the amount of security measures in place to prevent car theft and burglary, the caution you must use when hailing taxis or going on the micros (buses). Every day i learn something different or try something new. Im discovering more about myself all the time and im taking it all in stride. Being in this country has its challenges but in the end it is overcoming the obstacles that makes the successes even greater.
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