So for the last week or so we have gone off the radar a little as we made our way to the amazing east of Bolivia. With beautiful scenery, summer weather and lovely people we managed to relax completely and recharge our batteries for our one month travelling together anniversary 🙂 As we spent so much time relaxing and enjoying life we didn’t really have much time for photo taking so what we lack in pictures I will attempt to make up for in words.

For those that don’t know about the east of Bolivia, the area around Santa Cruz (the largest city in the east) was extremely poor until the region struck oil. Now the resource rich area is the richest and most successful in Bolivia. According to them their area occupies over two fifths of the countries territory, represents more than a third of its industrial activity and produces in excess of half of its exports. The cruzeños also pride themselves on the fact that many of the inhabitants are of European decent (see a pattern emerging?!) Evo Morales with his movement towards socialism is eager to get the region to share the love but funnily enough the cruzeños don’t agree. They believe no foreign companies will be able to invest in the region once the government gets their dirty mits involved. And referendums on political autonomy almost always come out with a universal yes. As one author says its time to leave the highlanders to their llamas and their Leninism.

From our personal perspective we had a wonderful time in the area. In Samaipata, a village near Santa Cruz we stayed in a beautiful eco-friendly hostal, where you share a meal by the campfire in the evening, sleep in clay huts, get woken up by hippies singing and playing the bongos and spend most of the day relaxing in the hammock. With recharged energies we are now ready to move our way south towards the salt flats.