Nice to see you back blogging again, Jim, and hollfuepy with batteries recharged or better yet, replaced with lithium ion new ones for even more power. Though we at times disagree, I welcome your well-written perspectives.Regarding the highway am I understanding correctly that it will end in Chapare? Villa Tunari? And is supposed to go on to Cochabamba? With how many large trucks per day? Unless things have markedly changed recently, the road is crappy at best. It's not Death Road, but it's not too far behind. With incredibly/impossibly steep and high mountain ranges, heavy rain/floods/earthquakes and all, road and bridge building almost anywhere is going to be incredibly difficult. (As a retired professional driver, if I had to drive that route, I’d go herd llamas.)I believe Evo will wisely recant and relocate the highway in a manner consistent with the wishes of the populous as difficult as it will be in the amazing topography of Bolivia. I hope he compromises and gets the road, and leaves Chapare alone. (I like Chapare a lot as it is, and would rather the road go through a restricted-untaxed corridor to the Pacific.) Though in many ways not having access to the ocean hurts Bolivia, I'm starting to like it that Bolivia is landlocked and less likely to be Libya-ated , given that US forces would have to overfly other sovereign nations to grab much-coveted resources. (Yep I'm still a conspiracy realist.)Regarding the tar-sands pipeline, if the right money was paid to the right people, it will go through—no matter the cost to the environment or in ruined lives.Some things rarely change and one of them is Money rules .It has been US policy since the Carter Doctrine updated the Monroe Doctrine to control its access to whatever resources in the world—usually petroleum—it deems vital (to continued world-wide attempted dominance of the defenseless).Un-relatedly, as someone aware of the impending economic chaos as a result of global peak oil down-slope/climate change/global warming, and understanding that it will likely have the greatest impacts on the most- developed nations (other than the Glacial-dependent and/or the lowest-sea-level nations). I am additionally understanding of Bolivia wanting to go there too, and also a bit fearful of the “globalized” consequences of “going there”.A worldwide economic melt-down, seemingly more likely every day will affect the average developed/dependent USian much more than the average less-deveolped/less dependent Bolivian. While riots occur in the US, most of Bolivia will consider it another day of hard work just to stay alive. Bolivia is much more self-sustainable than the US, and becoming more-so every day thanks to Evo-initiated food/fuel/other self-sufficiency policies.The various indigenous groups of Bolivia are among the closest to sustainable of most of the people of the world and WTSHTF world-wide, humanity will need their biota-specific knowledge, worldview and skills—and there are some three dozen distinctly-different time-tested ‘models’ in Bolivia alone. I believe they represent an immeasurably-valuable resource, not to teach others how to live there, but to use their adaptivity to help others live elsewhere.Unless your (Jim’s) no-response policy (understandable) has changed, I don’t expect you to respond, and would be interested in hearing of others’ thoughts.locoto