Santa Cruz, Bolivia Experiences & Stories from a Backpacker
Places in Bolivia:
Argentinian Border, Villazon to Tupiza
Tupiza
Tupiza via Atocha to Uyuni
Uyuni and the Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats)
La Paz
La Paz to Copacabana
Copacabana
Rurrenabaque
Cochabamba
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz to Quijarro (Brazilian Border) on the Death Train
Argentinian Border, Yacuiba to Santa Cruz
The first time I came to Santa Cruz was on a long 18hr bus haul from Salta in Argentina, I knew it was known as the 'city of rings' and that it would
be quite warm, but that's about all. I also didn't realise that it was the weekend of the Bolivian vote of confidence referendum, 2008, for the
president Evo Morales and that all shops, bars and clubs would be closed. I stayed at a great hostel away from the center of town that had a pool
and nice areas to hang out and relax. They also had in-house Spanish lessons for which I signed up for 6hrs worth for 200 bolivianos. There were
a couple of professional photographers staying at the hostel who were going out and taking pictures of the political activity that was going on
around the central city. The main plaza was full of tents, activists and protests, but it was still safe to wander around the area and have a
look around, there is the Irish bar and restaurant in the plaza and other good restaurants. The streets surrounding the plaza are not really that
attractive and Santa Cruz in general is not what I would call a beautiful city. Over the weekend of the referendum I lay pretty low generally,
I went out with some people from the hostel, we went to this strip where the Bolivians park their cars and utes and all compete to have the
loudest music and they party on the street, beer bottles everywhere on the ground, a lot of crazyness. We were in the main plaza in the middle of
some political speeches and the riot squad were arriving to break it up, so we moved out of there quite smartly. Santa Cruz is known to be the pretty girl capital of Bolivia but a pretty girl from La Paz told me on a plane that although that may be true,
they don't have many thinking skills, I don't know if this is true? After about a week of doing very little in Santa Cruz, I booked a flight
with the military airline TAM to Cochabamba which left from Aeropuerto El Trompillo, near the city center. The 2nd time in Santa Cruz was just for one night to take the so-called Death Train (Ferroviaria Oriental) to Quijarro on the border of Brazil
enroute to Corumba and the Pantanal. But first my friend and I needed a yellow fever vaccination, we went to the main plaza and on one side is
the tourist office, we needed to ask where we could get the vaccination. They told us to go to the hospital by taxi, so off we went, when we got
there we tried to work out which of the 3 or 4 desks we were supposed to go to. We managed to work things out and handed over our passports and
sat waiting for our injections, after a little while the girl at the desk called us over and gave us our yellow fever certificates and passports.
We said, but what about the injection? They said we didn't need that, we just needed the certificates, but we asked again about the injections
and they said again that all we needed was the approved and stamped certificates, which is what we now had! The Brazilian border control never questioned them but later the Peruvian border police laughed and required a bribe of 10 soles to stamp it when I presented it to them when crossing into Ecuador.
View all photos in the Santa Cruz Photoset.
