santa cruz: bolivia, not everything is lost?

after giving our good bye's to more than half our group this morning in sucre (their tour ends in bolivia) the core of us 5 brave travellers flew to santa cruz, the last destination before heading into brazil (with possibilities to step foot into paraguay and argentina)

and, i couldn't believe it, santa cruz is a really nice city... after the rather disappointing sucre i thought everything is lost for bolivia - poverty was the first and dominant thing i've seen in towns and cities

but here everything seems different... first, the climate is tropical: a lot of humidity, tropical animals and palmtrees everywhere. santa cruz is also one of the main parts where rich bolivians are based, the ones rather pissed with evo's current commi-attacks to destroy his country.

the city looks like having tons of tax money to spend; compared to other cities everything seems rather tidy and modern... and the amount of shops of imported products (e.g. clothes, electronics) is huge.

my standard test of new cities here, sitting alone on the main square for some time, resulted in a surprise: almost no beggars approached me, and if they did, a single 'no' was enough to get rid of them... a first in south america so far! maybe the reason was that i was finally in the climate to unzip my zip-off pants and my white thin legs scared them away... who knows

the youth is dressing very fashionable (read: sexy) and is much more flirtatious than in other cities. is it the climate, brazil just around the corner or the socio-economic factors?