Santa Cruz
Next stop Santa Cruz – We had chosen to visit Santa Cruz as it was geographically on our route and more importantly it is at low altitude. Santa Cruz is not high on the back packers destinations and before we arrived we had heard mixed views. The main opinion is that it is not your typical Bolivian city and is far more commercial and European than places like La Paz. This appealed to us to see a more modern Bolivia.
We landed at the airport and retrieved our luggage then and grabbed a taxi to our Air B&B. Navigating around Santa Cruz is fairly easy once you understand its layout – it consists of eight concentric major ring roads (only the inner four are complete circles), with about twelve radiating feeder roads dividing the rings into segments and supporting radial side streets – like a spider’s web.
Our nearest radial feeder road was San Martin, and our side street, “Calle Doctor Alejandro Ramirez”, was between rings three and four. There was some brief confusion because our host had sent us two different addresses, but it was resolved and our driver delivered us at Condominium Sky Art, where the security guard seemed to be expecting us and directed us to the 12th floor, there we were met by Mary who handed over the key to apartment 12C. The apartment and block was as described pretty well brand-new – shiny and modern – with on-site security; gym; swimming pool; and WIFI throughout.
The apartment was small but nicely furnished and equipped with air-conditioning, television, fridge/freezer, hob, oven, and a washing-machine! We were so excited we could catch up on some washing. As we do in all new places we went for a walk around the neighbourhood to see what it was like. The streets were quiet, the pavement a little muddy with uneven tiling in place but all in all it was a nice area with plenty of eating place near by. We stooped at a nice-looking coffee shop and enjoyed coffee and cakes before heading to the local mall to find the supermarket. The super market was a good quality one and we were able to get everything we needed for dinner and breakfasts.
Friday 16 – Day 48 – Santa Cruz – Last Day of First Half
We slept well, enjoying being at low altitude. After breakfast we headed to a nearby travel company office we had found on the internet, Nick’s Adventures – to make some plans for our short stay in town It was hot and sunny, and we were soon peeling our outer layers off and sticking them in our backpacks. We talk to Nick, an Australian and he gave us some information about things we could do ourselves as well as booking a half day tour for us to Lomas de Arena Regional Park the next morning.
After leaving Nick’s, we wandered towards the town centre, exploring a bit as we went. The area was prosperous middle class, with leafy streets, posh homes, nice schools, shops and businesses. There were no half-finished buildings, no bouquets of reinforcement bars sprouting from the rooftops, no patches of waste land, no trash, no packs of stray dogs, no unoccupied or derelict buildings and no little stalls manned by conchitas, additionally the drivers appeared to be reasonably well-behaved – in other words it didn’t seem very Bolivian. All that was on the outskirts of the innermost ring road. At Ring One, the road layout changed from circles and radius, to a “grid iron” system. Within Ring One the buildings were smaller, older, more-traditional, and less-well-cared-for. We carried on walking towards the main square, along narrower pavements with more-ramshackle surroundings, and smaller, more-traditional shops, even the occasional bowler-hatted conchita with a fruit stall — in other words, it seemed more Bolivian.
Near the main square, we ducked into a narrow alley lined with tourist shops selling, inca art, furry alpacas and hats with ear-flaps. There was nothing interesting on sale in the alley, but it led into a small courtyard lined with more stalls and full of trees and flowers, and, most-importantly, benches to sit on! It was hot and we’d been on our feet for some time. We sat in the welcome coolness and sipped warm water from our bottles. We continued on to the main square and found a small vegetarin restautant for lunch before getting a taxi back to the apartment.
It was mid-afternoon when we arrived back, and we scrapped plans to go to the Botanical Gardens, and, instead, spent the afternoon by the pools – we were the only ones there. In the evening, we went to a local family-run Indian restaurant for dinner that was just behind our apartment, initially we thought it was closed but then realised we had arrived a lttile too eatly and it only opened at 7pm. The service was slow, but the food was good – although slightly different to the typical British Indian fair. The portions were large and we probably only ate about half, so we had the rest packed up as takeaway which made a great meal the next day.
Saturday 17 – Day 49 – Santa Cruz – First Day of Second Half
It was warm and sunny. We were picked up at 08:00 from outside the apartment by Mariella, our guide, and a driver, in a 4×4 vehicle. We drove for about 40minutes, with Mariella explaining a little about the tour. We drove out of the city to the south, through some poor and rural areas, past the regional prison with the queues of visitors outside, and then along some unmade roads to the entrance to the National park. Mariella got out and talked the the attendant in his little wooden cabin, and presumably gave him the entrance fee. Then we set off into the park along a red sandy dirt track, with green savanna to the right, and a little river, beyond which rose dense forest, to the left.
We stopped, alighted, and went for a bit of a nature walk. Mariella led us along the edge of the forest, stopping from time to time to peer into the canopy and/or listen intently – for monkeys, sloths, exotic birds and/or other interesting fauna, unfortunately we saw no wild life so returned to the 4×4.
Re-boarding the 4×4, we carried on along the track, which got sandier and sandier, and bumpier and bumpier. At once point, Nick’s assertion that it wasn’t possible for tourists to get to/from Lomas successfully on their own was proven to be true when we encountered a car-full of them in a hired 4×4, which had got stuck in the sand. Our driver contemptuously manoeuvred around them without even slowing. Presently, we came to a stop at an enormous reddish sand dune rising out of the savanna. Mariella, looked around and said with a smile “shall we go for a walk?”. We climbed the soft sand up a gently-sloping “valley” in the dune until we stood on its “shoulder”, about 12 metres up, looking beyond to a large pool of brackish water below. From here we could see a long way in most directions, except higher up to the crown of the dune another 8 metres or so up on our left. The surrounding landscape was an undulating labyrinth of sand dunes, surrounded by savanna, dotted with trees and small lakes, and forest beyond. The size of the dunes, and the fact that we were 500 miles from the nearest sea, combined to make it an awesome sight. If you chose your view point carefully, you could easily be in the middle of the Sahara – except in the Sahara, the desert is not immediately adjacent to savannah and forest.
We descended to the lake, where Mariella, bare-footed throughout, paddled in the water; then we returned, and ascended the rest of the way to the crown of the dune. As we climbed, the breeze picked up, in turn picking up the sand, and turning the ground into a vaguely-defined concept in which one’s feet disappeared to uncertain depth. Cresting the dune leaning into the wind, we could see for miles in all directions, from a height of about 30 metres, but we couldn’t see our feet clearly. We walked along the top of the dune, and then descended to a point where our driver was waiting, about halfway down the dune with two long objects stuck in the sand. They were sand boards. After a few minutes persuasion, and a few seconds instruction, Barrie sat on
one of the boards and proceeded rapidly down the sand to the bottom of the dune – having fun. My turn next, I was a bit hesitant to start but gradually relaxed and let the sand take me sliding to the bottom, however I was not keen to climb back up to surf down again so I left Barrie to do this alone.
We then went for another short walk at the bottom of the dune before returning to Santa-Cruz. We chatted to Mariella various questions about life in Bolivia, and, at some point, we pressed her button, and she begin to talk about politics. There were the usual gripes about president Evo Morales, but she added to what we had heard before by talking about the government’s support for the ‘illegal’ cocaine business – such a building otherwise-unnecessary road from the coca-producing area to the airport.
At tea time, we reheated the left-over curry from the night before, augmented by some tagliatelle and boiled eggs – sounds awful, tasted awesome!
Sunday 18 – Day 50 – Santa Cruz
We got up late, and pottered around for a while, before heading out of the apartment, into the sunshine for ‘brunch’ somewhere. We strolled towards the brand new Ventura mall, had a wander around their supermarket, and then looked around the other shops, for an hour or so. It was very new and shiny, and quite unlike anything we had seen in Bolivia before – this could almost be in London. By this time, we were feeling quite hungry, and we began looking for somewhere to eat. We had a quick look at the food court, but, nothing appealed as it was noisy so we left the mall, and found, in a nearby row of restaurants, a Hard Rock Cafe, having never been to one before it was exciting and very tasty.
After walking home it started to rain very heavily so the rest of the day we relaxed in our lovely apartment and watch Harry Potter movies on Spanish.
Monday 19 – Day 51 – Santa Cruz and Buenos Aires
The next morning, we packed ready to leave and then sat by the pool with our luggage for a couple of hours before our taxi to the airport. We opted for an Uber. The Uber driver was young and friendly, and although he spoke less English than we spoke Spanish, we had a nice sort of conversation with him as we drove.
We got through, check-in, security, and emigration reasonable swiftly, although we had to prove how and when we would be leaving Argentina. Santa Cruz airport was surprisingly basic – less fancy even than La Paz airport. There were not really any shops or restaurants, just kiosks and coffee shops.
The flight was about 1,027 kilometres and 2 hours 30 minutes and was largely uneventful.