Day 12 Buena Vista

Happy New Years!  We woke up excited to be leaving Santa Cruz, which neither of us liked very much.  As we had traveled along, we heard of many people who were intentionally travelling to Santa Cruz to partake in the New Years Celebrations.  Jo and I were intentionally leaving it.  We left our stinky hostel a little early because I wanted to grab some of the same vegetarian saltenas I had had the day before.

Jo grabbed a saltena for himself along the way.

We took a taxi to Buena Vista and arrived midmorning.  About five minutes after arriving in Buena Vista, we found a starving dog on a doorstep.  Really.  Who knows how long the poor thing had been there, but it was just skin and bones and clearly close to death.  We gave it a saltena I had brought along and walked away, but just couldn't leave it there in that pitiful state.  Just minutes after leaving it, Jo suggested we find a veterinary hospital so that the poor thing wouldn't have to suffer any longer.  We quickly found a hostel that was close by, set down our things, and headed back to where the dog was.  Luckily, there just happened to be a vet office near by, so we carried the dog over and the vet kindly euthanized it, ending its misery.

Now, we saw our fair share of street dogs in Bolivia, and although most of them were on the ragged side, for the most part they appeared to be doing alright for themselves.  I've never seen a creature so starved and close to death as that dog, and it saddens me to think of how many people must have passed it and seen it in its miserable condition without bothering to help.  Bolivians in general do not place as much importance on their pets as Americans do, but this level of disregard for the suffering of an innocent creature shows a callousness that I think is inexcusable.  I'm sorry that our stay in Buena Vista began on such a sad note, and am glad to be with a man who simply cannot be witness to needless suffering without doing something about it.

Luckily, the rest of our stay in Buena Vista was extremely pleasant.  Jo found a restaurant whose owners agreed to make arrangements for us to get into Amboro.  Rene and Cynthia, the owners, turned out to be a perfectly lovely couple who invited us back that night for a New Years dinner they were having.  We did have to make one quick trip to a neighboring town called Montero since Buena Vista doesn't have ATMs and we were running low on cash, but other than that we took it easy until nightime, when we headed over to the restaurant to get some din-din.  Turns out that Cynthia was an awesome cook, and we both enjoyed our meal.

After dinner, Buena Vista rang in the New Year with fireworks at midnight.  Happy New Year!