Advertisement
Published: December 27th 2007
Bolivia on the brink of civil war?
Apparently that's what the Argentine press have been reporting. Note the gun at the front of our bus! It was actually a plastic one and you can't see the owner, the driver's son, nearby!We have just enjoyed a few lovely, relaxing days in the
Hotel Cortez in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Christmas day was especailly nice as the sun shone all day and we were able to make the most of the swimming pool.
It's been great to revisit some old haunts but we were disappointed to find the Irish Pub overlooking the central plaza closed for refurbishment. The Cuban restaurant nearby did us proud for Christmas Eve though.
The Plaza 24 Septiembre has been wonderfully decorated with angels playing instruments and a million lights. It was spectacular at night with carols from the Cathedral's mass echoing around. On Christmas Day we visited the plaza in the evening. It was full of people, with lots of children sporting new bikes or plastic guns with flashing lights!
On Boxing Day (26 Dec - not Boxing Day everywhere and certainly not here!) we went out to the Mariposaria, the butterfly garden which opened in October 2006. It was well worth the trip out there. We were given a talk about he lives of butterflies and were shown specimens at various stages in the life cycle, plus a few tarantulas just to make the
little girls on the tour squeamish!! A walk in the butterfly enclosure didn't really impress if you expected thousands of them to be fluttering around. It seems it's not the best time for them! We did get to see a sloth eating in the trees when we returned later on away from the tour group.
The site also includes various pools where you can swim, and a lovely lake for kayaking. It was a wonderful day out.
In the evening we met up with Rosario and Manuel for a drink. 3 years ago Rosario was Russ' English teacher and hopefully her and her son, Manuel, noticed some improvement in our ability to speak Spanish since the last time we saw them just over 2 years ago!
So now we must go and have a good night's sleep before going chasing Che to Vallegrande in the morning. Who knows when we will get a 4 star bed again. Oh, such comfort, and not really what the backpacker should get too accustomed to!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 12; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0491s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
