Journal
Sunday,May 13 2007, 07:25:49 PMMay 2007
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May 2 2007
(32 photos)
Wednesday, May 09, 2007 9:42 AM San Xavier
Yesterday the first Sur of the year came in so it is really cold. It was raining, cloudy, and about 40 degrees, which may not seem that cold but for people used to temperatures in the 90’s most of the year 40 is really cold. I got back last week from going out near the Brazilian border to help Donovan teach some video editing techniques in his site. Donovan lives in Roboré, which is on the train line that runs to the Brazilian border. The only way to get out that direction is to ride 9 hours in what lonely planet calls the “death train” or you can drive in a private vehicle which takes even longer. Currently this is the only way for Brazilian goods to be imported and for Bolivian goods to be exported to this side of the country. Luckily though, the European Union is funding a new Concrete highway that will one day run from Corumba at the Brazilian border, all the way to Santa Cruz. I think the train actually averages about 35 miles an hour because of the bad conditions of the tracks. So after we finished our work out in Robore I decided that I was going to try and visit Ashley and Jenny in nearby San Jose de Chiquitos because it was their town festival on the 1st and I might as well take advantage of being somewhere close. I figured I would try my luck hitchhiking from Robore to San Jose as the highway has recently been completed between the two towns. Because the highway is completed the 5 hour train ride between the two towns has been cut down to a 2 hour drive. The other problem with the train is that it only leaves at 10pm and gets in to San Jose at 3 in the morning. So I marched with Donovan out to the highway and waited, waited, and waited. Eventually I gave up trying to catch a ride after 3 hours of waiting. I guess the death train was going to be the option of the day. So come 10PM I got back on the death train for the 5 hour ride to San Jose. In San Jose I got to see Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, again. He was in San Jose to commemorate the opening of a hospital that the Cuban government has supplied with most of the equipment and several of the doctors. Check out the photos to see the Cuban flag flying at the same level as the Bolivian flag. So things other than that are going great, I am coaching the 17 and under boys basketball team amongst other things that I am involved with in San Xavier. Geoff