When we landed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, I was certain we had left far behind Miami. If someone told me five years ago that I would be on vacation in Bolivia, I would have laughed. After all, my idea of vacation is shopping in Paris or seeing the sites of Prague, but travel in the Third World? Thank you to my partner, Russell and his Bolivian-American family, I have had a wonderful experience in a charming country still very poor, and I'm looking forward to a trip a year there. Add the beauty of seeing a country through the eyes of people who live there and you have a moment of relaxation and cultural moisture vacation.The humid summer in February in the southern hemisphere was tangible as we left the airport and I tried to catch my breath. The landscape of Santa Cruz is tropical in appearance with a slow rise in the foothills of the Andes, a perfect complement to moisture and heat. As a resident tropical, I saw that this region of the tropics is much more green and lush from our house in Miami, the image of the subtropical forest I always had in my mind. My first impressions of Santa Cruz are probably the same as the first impressions of a traveler of the Third World: we are in a different place. As we drove toward the town of La Guardia, a suburb of Santa Cruz, where the Russell family home is located, I noticed that traffic was very different from the States, not only in the driving style, but in appearance. Many cars are old and even newer models are sometimes in the form of less-than-perfect due to road conditions and skirmishes. The city of Santa Cruz uses a roundabout, where a reckless driver can find himself in the path of several cars at once. The method to handle this situation is simply to stop, regardless of the speed at which the pack of cars is traveling. I also saw a number of people walking and noticed that on some points cows take up less road space as much as cars and people. On a particularly scenic route, I had the pleasure of seeing a simple model to be driven by a pair of oxen, a first for me. Roads are decorated with storefronts and cafes in various pastel colors, rinse with time, weather, and lack or repair, which give the charm of a landscape that might be shocking for a first visitor time. The center, or El Centro, Santa Cruz, around Plaza 24 de Septiembre, is completely colonial feel, with old Spanish-style houses dating from different periods, red-tiled roofs and long porches overlooking the streets, an atmosphere that caused me to expect a machine adapted tobacco plantation owner with a big cigar while walking through the palm trees in the Plaza. Most homes in Spain, characterized by being outdoors concentric, are now companies, including one of them belonged to Russell-grandmother, who is now a bank of micro-loans. Below the verandas, the traffic moves frenetically through the narrow streets and stepping down off the high curb to hail a taxi must be done very carefully, not only in danger of being hit by a car with brakes screeching, but also threatens to become a muddy mess. These scenes stay with me as part of the colonial charm still hectic that I found in Santa Cruz.Obviously the landscape in a country like Bolivia tells you that the lifestyle is different. The harsh reality is that many people have a standard of living is much lower than some of the poorest in the U.S. On the other side of that, people with enough money can live a very comfortable life. Russell family has lived on an estate of several acres in a house that is supported by a maid, a cook and a guard, but the cost in dollars of the United States is not about what you expect. The idea of having a maid service and who do not need to clean up after me was great, but getting used to it took a couple of days. To understand this, we should consider that being a domestic worker in Bolivia is not a "bad" career as a good-paying or cook can have room and board, food, and even a nap after lunch some of his work. In fact, the nap is normal for everyone in the house, a lifestyle that I was not too hard to get used to. When I got home I had the urge to close my door every day at the office after lunch and snooze for a few minutes. Once I got used to the interior, I also realized that the vision of Latin time is especially true in Santa Cruz, where six hours could mean six fifteen, half past six or seven hours and yet seems to be in a hurry. As I wrote before, all Americans can learn from this point of view of time and slow. Another interesting aspect of lifestyle is the composition of the population, with approximately 55% of indigenous Bolivians, and the remaining 45% of European descent or mixed race. Aboriginal sports charming dark eyes, features and skin, which tends to be a gringo blue eyes stand out. After a few minutes walk from downtown Santa Cruz, I realized that people stared at me. When I asked Russell about it, he simply said, "It looks gringo" even if I was sure I could have been gringo the first time that some people had never seen. In addition to the population, the language is different from what one might expect. I am reasonably fluent in Spanish and can follow a conversation fairly well, but the dialect spoken in and around Santa Cruz, what locals call a "country" dialect is very difficult to understand, with missing consonants and very rapid speech patterns. After a few days in Santa Cruz, I could easily notice that the region was not simply because I could understand Spanish. Since we made our trip during the second week of February, the Carnival celebrations were in the final planning stage. One of the biggest events of the year in many Latin American countries, Carnival begins with a parade and lasts three days, with an abundance of music, dancing, drinking, partying in general, and in Santa Cruz, spraying celebrants colleagues with paint. Everyone in the family Russell, and Russell, are former celebrations of Carnival, and they offer advice to new revelers, as you cover the baby oil to make sure the paint does not stick. As the week progressed, I knew with certainty that the celebration of Carnival is a big part of many lives and brings a lot of fun and companionship once a year. Unfortunately, the weather has been a slowdown right before the big parade of the Carnival of Santa Cruz, the rain for several days straight, and the parade organizers decided to postpone the event. This decision became the toast of the town for several days.I have briefly discussed the economy that I have met, but the best way to show that this is the value of the items I bought. I am a customer and can consume always find good deals here and there, but every shopping experience I had in Bolivia has been a godsend. My prized acquisition was made to tailor smoking, for which I paid $ 150 for fabric imported from Italy and $ 140 for sewing, for a grand total of $ 290. The same point in the United States would have cost hundreds if not thousands, more. I bought three tailor-0925 sterling silver rings, two of them with Citrine and Peridot, Pitti of Rafaella, a local jewelry designer, for a total of $ 160. We also bought items handmade folk, including a table runner crochet for my grandmother, for less than $ 10 each. One of the highlights of our shopping trip was a foray into the market at La Guardia, inside a large warehouse. It really is a country market, with open sacks of grain, ducks and chickens hanging from the rafters of skin stand, and a number of elements of the straw market. In one booth, run by a very nice elderly gentleman, we found Havainas, Brazilian-made flip flops, fashion with the trendiest of trendy South Beach $ 20 per pair for about $ 3 a pair . In Bolivia, I discovered later, this fashionable shoe is strictly for the girls to fly to do their daily cleaning. The beauty of finding such markets everywhere you look is pure heaven for a shopaholic like me. The problem with this in a country like Bolivia is the feeling that you're really in the economic elite, spending very little of your own money freely when so many people do not have a very high standard of living. This juxtaposition I felt a bit out of place.Food played a big role in my vacation in Bolivia, like a vacation. As I said, having a cook in a family home is a fantastic thing. The food in the house of the Russell family was a delicious mix of traditional American cuisine and typical local dishes, with fresh fruit for the backyard every day. I had the opportunity to sample many regional items in various forms, including Salten, which are similar to empanadas. The trick is that for Salten juice fillings stay inside the dough, even after cooking. To eat, we must stand up, take small bites, and suck the juice as you go. Anyone with marked difficulties in this competency is found quickly because of the dirty towels and nail, and the amount of juice flowing chin. Barbecue is a staple in Bolivia, as in other countries of South America, where sausages and various cuts of meat are grilled to perfection on the large brick gates. Barbecues do not allow me to sample two items, the bump on the back of a Brahma cow, known as Hiba, and sweetbreads, which are essentially glands of the cow. The taste of the roast hiba meager pot that I had already tried a great flavor with less fat, and sweetbreads, despite the gruesome description were a bit salty, but absolutely delicious with a good piece of bread. For the most demanding gourmets, Santa Cruz offers cafecitos, what might be called tea houses, where you can have tea, coffee and various pastries. On one occasion, tea, we had CuNap, which are light, pasty, pastries, cheese and empanandas de queso, sweet, fried pastries stuffed with cheese and slightly sweet. To wash it all, I've tried mocochinchi, a refreshing drink made from boiling apricots, sugar and cinnamon. One of the most unusual dishes I could eat a llama, which looks surprisingly like a regular steak, but is much lighter in taste and has much less fat. The economic equation plays in food as well: the meal with the llama was a dinner for eight, appetizers and a bottle of Moet-Chandon for under $ 200. Experience affordable culinary and cultural Bolivia is one that I will certainly enjoy and look forward again.I was slightly worried about this trip due to many factors, my first trip to South America, my first trip to a country Third World, a country where the political situation is unstable and the dislike of Americans is growing. I even fear the possibility of picking up nasty intestinal bugs or perhaps malaria. I became much less apprehensive after realizing that I was in good hands between Russell and his family, further proof that the best way to see a country through the eyes of people who suffer every day. In Bolivia, there are obvious problems with the distribution of wealth, the bureaucratic system, and the country's infrastructure, but the culture is warm, friendly, and certainly a change from the American brand of pandemonium. The graceful charm of Santa Cruz, Bolivia attracted me and keeps me looking forward to my return.
