The UK Foreign Office has advised travellers of disturbances that are expected to take place in Tarija, Sucre, La Paz and El Alto between the 16th and 23rd of November.

The full bulletin can be read here.

Bolivian truckers and farmers are facing problems with their businesses as a result of fuel reforms, according to this article on the BBC News website, and they are blaming President Evo Morales and his reforms.

They say that the reforms, which included nationalising refineries last year, have cause shortages at the pumps. Hence a trucker cannot get enough diesel for one day’s work and farmers cannot get enough to run their machines.

One theory is that the fuel is so cheap, that it is being smuggled our of the country. The report claims that armed border guards are not trying to prevent this, whilst fuel is having to be imported from Venezuela to meet demands (or not, as the case my be).

A petrol station in Sucre – without the queues – in July 2000

In the past, Bolivia has benefited from pipelines exporting resources such as gas to other countries in South America.

What has gone so terribly wrong, that it is now unable to provide enough fuel for it’s own people? The knock-on effects are simple – if a farmer cannot harvest his crops and a trucker cannot deliver the produce then it is only a matter of time before there are shortages throughout the country in the shops and markets. At that point it will be traders and consumers who also start to suffer…

If you go into a shop in Europe, then the prices of the items on sale are usually on display. They are fixed an non-negotiable.

If you take a taxi in Europe, then the price is shown on the meter. It depends on the distance travelled and maybe the time of day.

In Bolivia, things work a bit differently. For a start, taxi fares are agreed in advance, and are normally a fixed price for anywhere within the local town, but per person. It is, however, possible to arrange a discount when travelling in a group and you fill the taxi up.

Then there are the shops and the markets – you can bargain with the vendors and arrange a lower price if, for example, you want to buy more than one item.

This obviously takes some getting used to, and is made easier if you can speak Spanish well enough. If you don’t, then your efforts will be less successful.

It is a fact of life in Bolivia, that tourists who speak Spanish (or at least attempt to) get a better deal when buying products and services.

But there is another factor in the buying equation that should not be ignored – being accompanied by a Bolivian. This can often knock the price down a little more.

And if know exactly what you want and can get a Bolivian friend to go into the shop on their own and buy it for you, you may even save an extra Boliviano on top.

I remember that a taxi ride in Sucre used to cost 3 Bolivianos per person, regardless of distance. For 3 people I could knock the price down to 7Bs, if one person was a Bolivian, they might even get it down to 6Bs.

In Cochabamba our Bolivian friends even stopped the taxis to ask them to take us for 1Bs/person. There were so many taxis in the queue (and we were 24 people in the group) that if a driver wouldn’t agree to the price, then they would just ask the next one. It worked!

So it really does pay to speak Spanish!

Yahoo! reported yesterday that the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia is to be asked to explain why he was photographed next to a convicted criminal. He already made himself unpopular by criticising one of Evo Morales’ quips about moving the U.N. away from New York.

Of course, the ambassador represents his or her own country in an official capacity. Normally it is inappropriate for such people to criticise a country’s leader.

The photo is interesting because it also features Gabriel Dabdoub, a businessman who opposes President Morales. Is it really the criminal on the photo who’s the problem?

I guess for the U.S. media, standing next to a criminal from Colombia is actually more of a scoop than a businessman would be.  But since the criminal is now behind bars, perhaps the Bolivian Government is getting a bit worried about who the U.S. ambassador is socialising with?