the fighting winds

(this picture is from a butterfly garden where we visited a few months ago and has nothing to do with the rest of this entry, I just thought I'd keep up with the picture posting!)
Greetings from chilly Santa Cruz! And when I say chilly, I mean 60 degrees. Yes, I have been here long enough that 60 degrees feels chilly to me, and, like everyone else, I put on a long-sleeve shirt, a jean jacket and sometimes even a hat. The summer here in the lowlands goes between 80+ degree days and below 60 degree days (I think it’s gotten down to around 40 while we’ve been here…it’s been considered a cold winter). It’s said that the whole season is a fight between the north winds and the south winds. The north winds bring a dry hot bluster that makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the desert. The southern winds are humid (thus making 60 degrees seem particularly brutal) and, as locals refer to it, “it gets into your bones.” Last week we passed through several days of north windy days (which is particularly ugly in our neighborhood since all the streets are filled with a dirty sand) when in the middle of the night, I woke up to a sweet breeze coming through the window…then not too long afterwards it began to rain! It only lasted about twenty minutes, but it was enough to wet down the dirt roads for a more plesant day the following morning. Bolivians tend to dislike the winter. Some say that babies are in danger of dying when they’re born in the winter (imagine a 40 degree night in a shack with gaping holes and no source of heat). With such drastic changes in temperature, it tends to drive people with allergies crazy, as well as bring on colds to those of us whose immune systems are not working at their best. But for me, it is a welcome respite from the scorching hot that one experiences about 9 months out of the year.