Advertisement
Published: August 22nd 2009
CIMG2648
Cheap dinner in Santa CruzHola Amigos and Amigas,
Before I start I should note that all figures noted herein and in all future blogs are in Australian Dollars and certainly do not include GST! I will always report the figures as it will blow your mind as to how damn cheap it is over here! It is also worth me telling you that the national currency of Bolivia is "Bolivianos"- I could only wish for our currency to be called Australianos! How good would that be?
We commenced our Sud American travels in Santa Cruz, Bolivia after 30 something hours of travel from Hamburg Germany. Our first flirt with Bolivian life was a 15 minute ($4.00 each) taxi ride from the airport to our chosen hostel in the south of the city. It was mental, no seat belts and seemingly no road rules. Packed buses everywhere, half-finished buildings roadside a plenty…..oh.. a big digression before I proceed…………….
Our actual FIRST flirt with Bolivian life was Chris getting money out of an ATM at the airport…or should I say NOT getting money out of an ATM at the airport. You see, she tried… but the ATM didn’t cough up. A later online check
CIMG2655
Relaxing in our Saimapata Hostel - glass of red and a 6 string! of Chris´ bank account suggested it should have - she DID hit the right buttons after all! It only cost her $46.00 which wasn’t too disastrous. I digress again though sorry…
So really our FIRST flirt with Bolivian life was just grabbing our bags and then walking out through the customs gate at the airport and then realising that we hadn’t handed in our customs / entry forms… back we went and handed them in. Nothing to declare…. does it really matter? Great security hey!
So anyway, Santa Cruz put simply, is just a big dirty city. We stayed only the one night and decided to head to Saimapata the next morning. A 3 hour shared taxi-bus ($4.00 each) landed us at the small quiet town which, in typical South American style, lies in a basin surrounded by mountains with great views. Unfortunately for us the weather on days 2 and 3 of our Saimapata stay was wet. It does lend a good story though…
Saimapata hosts a pre-Inca ruins site called El Fuerte just 9 or so kilometers from the town centre. Initially we had planned on spending the entire day to walk to and from
CIMG2658
Our wet trek saviours - Saurav Ganguly look-a-like and Rodney Dangerfield look-a-like! the site but opted to take a cab up the mountain instead due to the impending bad weather. This is where the fun really started. About 2.5km from the top and having battled rain and muddy roads since we got into the cab, our driver stops and says he can´t take us any further. Fair enough I thought (although not overly impressed) because he was all over the road trying desperately to get his little shitty 2wd wagon up the slippery wet road that leads to the site. There were several times that we thought he had lost control only to just slide back onto the track! It was a bit scary to tell the truth. Anyway we negotiated a reduced fair (in Spanish - go figure) and trudged our way to the top - slightly exhausted and wet but not ridiculously so. The rain and fog then set in. After waiting some time we decided still to dash around the site ($8.50 entry fee each) - we got lucky the rain stopped and for part of our first touristy thing the fog also managed to subside enough for us to enjoy the site. The site was good without being
CIMG2663
Drenched after our long walk back from El Fuerte great, but that’s not the real story….we had to get back from the mountain somehow…and the rain had started again.
Without a cab in sight, off we went down the mountain in the pouring rain. This time absolutely drenched to the bone. Some 4 or so kilometers into our cold wet walk, (we hadn´t seen our original cab bogged unfortunatley) a ute stops and offers us a ride - but only in the back tray! We were now getting wet AND beaten about but it mattered little as they saved us hours of walking and probably a whack of pneumonia too. They were kind enough to drop us back to the town plaza.
One of our saviours was a German guy can you believe it? Even more amazing for mine was his uncanny resemblance of the great (late) Rodney Dangerfield (see photo). The other 2 saviours were a young Bolivian couple from Santa Cruz - Maurizio who looked like the Indian cricket wanker Saurav Ganguly (see photo) and his wife´s name was Olivia……yep that´s right we met Olivia from Bolivia! To top the day off we invited them to have dinner with us as a thank you which
CIMG2671
Typical Saimapata road - dogs everywhere! they accepted…and they ended up paying! Me throwing around comments like "we’re travelling until our money runs out" probably helped their decision. They seemed very rich though so there was no guilt factor for us at all.
After 3 days in Saimapata and having purchased an original Nike black leather belt for $3.75, ahhuumm, it was time to experience our first long bus ride. Sucre, the judicial capital of Bolivia was our next stop. A mere 12 hours by overnight bus ($18 each) laid ahead and accordingly so did a day prior of dehydration. It proved a good decision not to drink leading up to our departure as the bus only stopped once for a toilet break. Can you believe it? Those who know me will be astonished that I managed to hold on for 6 hours..…. twice!
Now you could probably guess that the ending to Bolivian web and email addresses is ".com.bo". Take it from me that this ending is very apt - the B O factor that is. All bus rides (always advertised as "direct") stop endless number of times to pick up and drop of locals. I think the drivers make some cash on
CIMG2672
Chris with Saimapata town in the background the side by doing this. The time spent stopping is painful but no where near as painful as the bad body odour that the locals bring with them. Someone please tell Rexona or Lynx or whoever that there is BIG market for them over here in Bolivia!
Approaching Sucre in the earlier morning hours was a magnificent sight. Another town (city) located in a basin surrounded by mountains but this time on a much grander scale that what we had previously witnessed. The weather was kind too with 20 something degrees of sunny weather ahead. From a distance the buildings of Sucre looked like large cardboard boxes stacked on the mountain side. Closer inspections didn’t really disprove our first impressions - the houses and buildings looked as secure and stable as cardboard boxes.
The local housing for the most part in all Bolivian towns we have visited to date could be described as disgraceful by my stuck up first world standards and expectations. Most are built with mud bricks or red clay bricks and an abundance of concrete - Bolivians just love concrete. We are considerate of the lack of wealth in Bolivia but can anyone explain why
CIMG2677
Typical juice stand in Sucre they start building something new before finishing their last construction. It seems that every building, yep EVERY building, is incomplete. They appear to be forward thinkers though as many buildings have reinforced steel sticking out of the top of them. We have presumed it is there for easy second story additions should the need arise in the future. It’s ugly though.
Another displeasing aspect of Bolivian towns is the rubbish. It must be legal (or at least if not it is not policed, or maybe it‘s a night time thing) for anyone to dump huge amounts of rubbish on the city limits. It is so common to see piles of waste (just like you would see at a Sydney rubbish dump) on entrance to a town, sometimes scattered down mountain sides. Further, general waste is noticeable in many areas of most towns. Maybe because most citizens are very poor and those that do actually earn an income live in a cash only environment, the government can’t raise the funds needed to improve infrastructure such as waste collection/facilities and roads (more of that to come). Anyway that’s my rant for now. It’s just disappointing to see such amazing landscapes ruined
CIMG2683
Fruit and vegie market in Sucre by rubbish.
On a positive note we loved Sucre. It’s a bustling city with gorgeous European style buildings. It boasts colourful market places, beautiful churches, well manicured plazas, great shopping, endless mountain scenery noticeable from any location in the city and last but certainly not least, tasty food, food and more food. I have tried every snack roadside vendors have to offer - nuts, crisps, dried fruit, pastries, fruit, lollies etc (most costing $0.15 to $0.75) and have eaten well in good restaurants. I have drowned myself with freshly squeezed OJ everyday so far ($0.40 a cup). A good meaty meal with salad, rice and fries will set you back just under $7.00. Add to that a 630ml bottle of the local amber for about $2.00 and hey presto….. you have yourself a very enjoyable (and seriously affordable) dinner!
We really didn’t do a lot in Sucre. It’s simply a great place to walk, walk and walk. The city has a great Mirador (look out) which we visited a couple of times. I did manage to buy myself a big arsed puffy jacket (like the one George Costanza wore in Seinfeld) in anticipation of cold weather to come
CIMG2690
Orange juice addict with orange juice sellers later in our trip. At $25 how could I consider going cold??
So our next week of travels will lead us along the well trodden "gringo trail" to the once rich silver mining town of Potosi and then onto the southern town of Uyuni for some salt lakes and desert touring. For now though, I will leave you with some of my Bolivian observations:
• Toilet seats are very light…. very light
• Local women are very strong (small child, bag of grains, fruit, vegetables, collapsible market stall - 10km walk to get home - no problem)
• Toilet paper often comes in the colour purple
• Locals don’t feel the cold (leather sandals, no socks, sub-zero nights.... easy!)
• A bowler hat on local woman never falls off - even though it appears to be a couple of sizes too small!
• Electric showers have poor water pressure
Adios.
Ryan
P.S. Here’s some vital ongoing travel statistics to enlighten you further:
• No. of countries visited since leaving Aus: 7
• Cheapest beer to date (calculated on 100mL conversion): $1.50
• No. of hours spent on public transport (inc. taxis) in SA: 15.5
CIMG2692
Relaxing at a cafe overlooking the main plaza in Sucre • Cheapest room (double room shared bathroom, breakfast included): $8.33 each per night
• Cheapest dinner meal: $3.00 (meat, salad, fresh OJ, bottle water, coconut and toffey coated strawberries on a stick just to wash it all down)
• Highest altitude reached: 2650m
• No. modes on transport used: 7 (foot, plane, taxi, taxi-bus, coach, ute back, car)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 12; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0531s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kerry
non-member comment
Great BLOGG CLIFF!
U guys are really lampooning it !!! So good to see your faces! Loved reading your Blogg...I can just imagine some of the things u are experiencing with the amazingly graphic descriptions! I really don't envy that rain and the ute and the up the mountain ...man I just couldn't do that without bawling at some point! That meat market scares me...u didn't eat any did u? Enuf from me- just from u- look forward to hearing/seeing more guys - Kez xox