It’s been a crazy week here in South America. On Sunday, we were supposed to fly from La Paz, Bolivia to Santiago, Chile but our flight was cancelled due to the protests and riots in Santiago. They started because of a metro fare hike, but it sounds like the people there are tired of all of the economic inequality and the fare hike was just the last straw. Not knowing the extent of things, we rebooked our flight for Tuesday, which ended up being cancelled as well. On Monday, our Airbnb host in Santiago told us not to come because things were getting worse. So we ended up cancelling our trip to Chile and stayed a couple more days in La Paz before travelling to Santa Cruz, where we are now.
Things in Bolivia aren’t going so well either. They had their presidential election on Sunday, which basically shut down the city of La Paz. All public and private transportation were forbidden unless you had a special permit, and pretty much all businesses were closed. Since we were supposed to fly out that morning, we weren’t too worried about it, other than having to pay double for a taxi to the airport. With our flight cancelled, we were luckily able to extend our Airbnb reservation a few more nights to give us time to figure out our next move. We stayed in our apartment all day trying to cancel reservations and book new ones but eventually went out for dinner. After being in La Paz for a week, it was actually nice to be able to walk around with no traffic. Our Airbnb host said that after 6 PM everything would go back to normal, but mostly everything was still closed. Thankfully, we eventually found a pizza place that was open.
After leaving a day earlier than expected from La Paz, we arrived in Santa Cruz late Monday night. Naturally, our flight out of La Paz was delayed a couple of hours, and the airline didn’t feel the need to give any flight status updates, so we showed up at the airport on time.
At this point, news about the election in Bolivia started to take a turn for the worse. Apparently, after initial results showing the president in the lead, but not having enough votes to claim victory, they stopped giving updates. In order to win, you need to have a ten-point lead over your opponent, otherwise, they would have a run-off in December. But then after a day with no updates, the president’s lead increased and he now might have the ten points. The opposition, and countries around the world, have accused the government of election fraud and now there have been protests and riots. It sounds like it’s bad in La Paz, which is the administrative capital of Bolivia and where the president lives. Here in Santa Cruz it’s not as bad, but we’ve basically stayed in our apartment for the past couple of days since Therese has been working. Since we’ve been here we’ve heard fireworks throughout the day and night. Last night, I wasn’t so sure that all of the sounds I heard were fireworks (Therese says that’s only because we have been re-watching too many Breaking Bad episodes), but there hasn’t been any news of anything to say otherwise.
Earlier today, I tried to go to the grocery store, but I soon found out that all businesses were closed. Our Airbnb host said there was a transportation strike here and I guess everyone just decided to shut down for the day. All of the major intersections were blocked off by residents. They set up chairs and were hanging out in the middle of the street blocking the roads, with rocks, tires, broken glass, and rope. However, they did let some cars pass and it was all very peaceful. The main street was packed with people walking and riding their bikes…it almost felt like I was back in Boulder.
We’re supposed to be in Santa Cruz until November 3rd, but we’ll see how the next week and a half go. I assume that things will get worse once the final election results are in. We’re scheduled to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina next so we might have to go earlier than expected.
Of course, our problems are nothing compared to what the people of these countries are going though, so I just hope that things end peacefully.