Permiso

Posts will be light over the next two weeks. We will be in La Paz and heard the high altitude isn't kind to laptops, so we're leaving ours behind.

FexpoCruz

Welcome to FexpoCruz, the eagerly-awaited two-week long celebration of esoterica. Sprawled across a massive fairgrounds, national and international companies use elaborate displays -- and of course, sexy spokesmodels (called azafatas here) -- to tout their cell phones, couture and bovine inseminators. Cigarette and liquor companies set up hip bars where the city's wealthy, dressed in their finest, transport themselves to Miami or Buenos Aires for a few hours.
It's a little bit agro, a little bit hip, a little bit schmaltz.
...Ever wonder where show animals spend the night? FexpoCruz puts them up in the city's best hotel, which, coincidentally is where we live. That herd of handsome white bulls is right outside our door.

Restful unrest

General strikes can be quite relaxing. Classes were cancelled. And everything -- airports, highways, bus stations, restaurants, supermarkets -- was closed. There was nowhere to go but to the swimming pool. Kind of like a snow day with nice weather. Apparently the department of Santa Cruz and the federal government have temporarily broken their impasse. So all things are back to normal tomorrow. Unless the norm has become political chaos. Then it will be going back to abnormal.

A Rite of Passage

Protestors are mounting a general strike tomorrow and nationwide highway blockades to demand more municipal control of a new gas tax. It will be the culmination of nearly a week of hunger strikes and marches by city and public university officials in Bolivia's largest cities. Last week, students from Santa Cruz's public university took over the city's tax office.
The latest protests will be the result of simmering discontent by Santa Cruz and other cities that feel as though the national government shouldn't hold the purse strings of the new tax. Conceding to mass protests from largely indigenous groups who demanded a greater share of Bolivia's oil wealth, former President Carlos Mesa in May allowed a law to pass that effectively put a 50% tax on natural gas. He then resigned -- the second in two years to bolt in the face of mass protests. His resignation only temporarily postponed the current mess.
As often seems to be the case in Bolivia, the congress wrote the law in a way that left it with more holes than a fish net. It left in question how the some $400 million will be distributed. Crumbling public universities are now demanding a 5% cut. States including Santa Cruz -- or departments as they're called here -- are demanding the distribution be determined by the number of inhabitants in each department. The booming city of Santa Cruz -- which became Bolivia's largest after the latest census -- is getting the least amount of dollars per head, according to a recent study. And Crucenos, who have long advocated greater regional autonomy, resent the fact that much of the gas being sucked from the ground comes from their own department.
How will this affect us?
Not sure yet. I will have to cancel mid-term exams for my two classes since students won't be able to get to school. We are scheduled to fly to La Paz Saturday...Still not sure if the highway will be blocked.

Scenes from Cochabamba

Here are a few photos from a long work-vacation weekend spent in Cochabamba, Bolivia's fourth-largest city. We spent much of the time swimming through the crowds of a few busy weekend markets -- that's where the chicken lady was. We also visited an important shrine to the Virgen of Urkupina a bit outside of town, where hundreds of pilgrims lined up to leave flowers at the virgin's feet. Outside the shrine a line of dozens of drivers waited hours for the local priest to bless their cars. Part of the ritual involved splashing clear liquor on the outside and inside of buffed autos, each decorated with pastel ribbons. As always, click on photos to enlarge.

Las Aguilas

I was somewhat surprised to see a man wearing an Eagles hat in our hotel hallway. We had just gotten back from a weekend in Cochabamba and I was en route to our room to dump my bags and bolt out to a nearby bar that was showing the game. Turns out the guy is Cliff, a computer technician from Philly, who is dating a Bolivian woman and is in town to meet her folks. He was frantically trying to pick up the x's and o's of the game on his laptop when I bolted by. We quickly introduced one another only to bolt off to our respective rooms after we realized that ESPN had acquired Monday Night Football and that the rooms have ESPN en espanol. So here I am right now, in Bolivia, watching the Eagles get batted around by the Falcons. Sure, Huari isn't Yuengling. Sure, lomo de cerdo isn't a cheesesteak. Sure, Sonya isn't quite as animated as Gumby. Sure, the Spanish-speaking announcers keep calling Brian Westbrook "Michael." It's still good to see Las Aguilas on the cancha otra vez.