Development, and a sad story

The road from Roboré to San José in the eastern part of Bolivia, has a very strange quality for the region: it is paved. The bus goes fast, the tropical forest is like a green wall all around, and there are mountains with incredible shapes. People getting in and off in the most incredible stops. Sometimes all you see is a path, going deep into the trees.
"Are you going to San José?" asks the man who is seated behind me, I will call him Don Manuel. "Very bad things are happening there", he added.
So, we started a conversation and this was the story:
"We are chasing a band of killers in San José. They came one afternoon to a cattle farm near the town of Taperas and killed the manager of the place and the tractor driver. And we are hunting them, that's why I am going."
"Are you a policeman?"
"No, but the driver was my son, and they killed him, my son, only 3 days ago. This never happened around here. It is quiet here."
He certainly didn't look like a man hunter. His face was gentle and soft, but his eyes were full of rage. "If I don't go the police won't do anything, and I need to do it, it's the only thing that can be done now." All the new passengers asked him how he was, did he had news, and so, until a lady said: "I heard it in the radio, they got the killer's girlfriend last night, they are going to catch him Manuel."
The bus arrived to San José. I have already mentioned that this town is dusty and dirty these days. Is it because there is a lot of economic development? Population has grown, a lot, there are foreigners everywhere, and the city as a whole looks like it is growing in disorder and chaos. Gold mining, road building, timber...
So this morning, very early, I took a bus to San Rafael. The Jesuit church here is quite interesting, because it has been only restored from the original, and not rebuilt. All the paintings in the walls were hidden under the white used by the priests for centuries. One of the paintings depicts a baroque group. And the saints inside this church built around 1754 have very expressive faces. This was the first town created in this region of Chiquitos by the Jesuits in 1696.
But the sun was punishing San Rafael so hard. And again, economic progress, in this case driven mainly by timber (I wonder how many trees they cut everyday, but surely you have heard about the 'precious' wood from Bolivia, used for floors and furniture very far from here), is leaving a mark here. The town seems to be losing the chacarcteristic look of the small urban settlements around here, and is growing fast. It was also dusty and dirty.
So, soon enough, another bus came. Taking a bus is not just like taking a bus. It takes time to find out if the route is served, where do these buses stop, when, how long it takes. Then it works, and it seems like a miracle. But everything is like a miracle when you are so far.
Arriving to the gentle town of San Ignacio also seemed like a miracle. A very nice place to live, as many have already found out, with a beautiful church, a lagoon, a plaza full of amazing trees, and several blocks of traditional buildings that make you dream of another time and space.
(Luis Córdova from San Ignacio de Velasco. After several days, a good internet connection)