Love at first sight

Caitlin better take cover, because I have a new love in my life and her name be Churrasco. Last night a mess of us went out for the succulent and tender meal. It is no more than perfectly grilled hunks of meat. We entered a simple and smokey room, replete with plastic furniture and surly, big bellied servers. The options are only beef, prepared essentially two ways (though they looked vaguely the same to me.) Caitlin and I split the churleton, which is three, i´d say, 25 oz. steaks, served on a wooden board, with a couple french fries, mustard and no more. Oh, and it cost 5 dollars. This meal would be easily in the $50 range in the U.S. served in some uptight steakhouse with cloth napkins. Not in Bolivia, it´s all business here. If I close my eyes, I can still taste the goodness. Vegans beware, this place is not for the faint of heart. The meat is ominpresent and no frills. It´s something like Texan heaven.

In other news, the fair maiden and I will be attending a soccer match tomorrow between the local team, Wilstermann, who sport a Nazi Airplane as their logo, and my adopted club, The Strongest. Obviously, in the match between strength and faux-nazism the team with the best uniforms will prevail. I like the black and gold.

In other other news (probably of more interest than meat and futbol, though I don´t know to whom) on May 4 the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia is voting on a referendum for autonomy. They are trying to become a unique and self sufficient state in much the same vein as Cataluyna and Quebec. Of course, their reasoning is the relative wealth of the state and a reticence to sharing said wealth with the other, poorer states, as is the plan of president Evo Morales. There are rumors of coups, conspiracy and the like being bandied about in the papers. Caitlin and I will be traveling through the Amazon and potentially Santa Cruz at that time. Depending on how adventurous we are feeling it could be a prety interesting experience. Of course, all of this relies on the notion that we will have removed ourselves from the nasty and sticky grips of bureaucracy by then. Here´s to hoping.

Jaron