And a little more from here...

Just a few random things I've found out about the country so far. They say Bolivia is practically a one word joke here in South America, probably because it’s the poorest country on the continent, with an unstable economy and government. The whole city of Santa Cruz went on strike (the Thursday we were there) to protest the government refusing to return 20% of the tax to the city. I don’t know how it was supposed to help anything, but in any case, all shops were closed and no one could drive safely without a special permit from the mayor. Yep. Crazy stuff.