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Published: October 9th 2010
Day 27-30-2nd-5th October
We’d been told that there is not much to do in Santa Cruz and to be honest, this is true, however we had such an amazing time there. We were a little gutted when we woke up on the first morning, the grey clouds seemed to have followed us from Buenos Aires and we hoped it wouldn’t last. A quick check of the weather on the old internet reassured us that it was due to get better the next day so we spent the first day in Santa Cruz recovering from the bus journey. The Jodanga hostel does BBQ’s every other day and we decided to sign up for it that night. A Bargainous 55Bs (about 5 pounds) for all you can eat meat (I know!), salads, potatoes, yucca and the most important bit all you can drink vodka and rum. I’ve just realised that I go on a lot about alcohol in these blogs, I promise I’m not turning into an alcoholic but we still can’t get over how cheap it is! So we pitched up at 8pm for this extravaganza, everyone sits around a large table and we soon got chatting with everyone. The vodka
BBQ!
This is Ellory's first publsihed work as this is now in the promo material for Jodanga hostel!and rum flowed and by the end of the night we made some friends from all over the world and were pretty damn smashed. This was to set the tone for the rest of our time in Santa Cruz.
However we decided to make sure we saw a little of the city so the next day we headed into the town centre as we’d heard that they had an Artisean’s market on Sundays. I was very keen to pick up some souvenirs however we were a little disappointed as it seemed to be mostly overpriced tourist tat. So we had a little wander around, headed back to the hostel and had a chat with Ruth and Leo, who’d we’d met the night before and an Irish guy called Paul who had arrived that day. Many drinks later (I did warn you!), Paul, Ellory and I decided to go and have a Chinese. We knew there was one on the corner of the park near our hostel so wandered over there. Although the food was delicious, the thing that stood out the most was the size of the potions. I ordered chicken with noodles (chow mein to you and me)
Macaw
Taken by Ellz at the Avery, this guy sat so stll for us and when it arrived it could have easily fed 4 people, seriously it was MASSIVE. There is no way I could finish it, although I made a valiant effort and Ellory and Paul were facing similar issues. It seemed such a waste but as we didn’t know enough Spanish between us to ask for a doggy bag we had to leave the rest. God knows how anyone could eat that amount of food, I’m sure it’s not possible. However it was really good food and made for an excellent meal and we had a really nice chat with Paul as we hoovered up the food.
On the Monday the sun was really starting to come out so we decided to head over to the Biocentro, which we’d told was a nature reserve with the biggest butterfly dome in the world. However when we got there it appeared to be a 5* holiday resort with some wildlife! However this didn’t faze us and we walked around the beautiful grounds and went into the butterfly dome. Now we have no idea if it was the biggest but the one we’d been into at the Parque de Aves in Brazil was loads
Turtle Power
Taken by Ellz better. However we walked around and admired all the butterflies flying around, we then headed over to the bird aviary which was huge! (Maybe that’s what they meant) It was super high and had a staircase leading up to the very top which we climbed and looked over the whole of Santa Cruz. The stairs were a bit rickety and it was a bit nerve racking at times, but even Ellory managed it! We then walked around all the paths in the aviary and made friends with the macaws that were sitting on the railings and were very open to us standing very close and taking pictures. We also saw toucans, blue jays and peacocks.
That done, we had seen most of the wildlife and decided to take advantage of the other side of the resort, the 5* bit! As guests of the park for the day we could use the natural pools and one quick stop at the shop to buy some swimming gear (Ellory needed some new ones anyway, having ruined them in Rio) and headed off to hang out by the pool and pretend we were swish Americans staying at this resort as opposed to cheap
Spider Monkey
Taken by Ellz when we got to the Monkey Island backpackers. The sun had really come out by then and we just enjoyed the first bit of sunshine we’d seen in over a week. We had dinner at the resort and then our taxi turned up to take us back to the hostel.
When we got back to the hostel, they were about to start another BBQ, having just eaten, we decided not to partake, however we were more than happy to join the communal table and have a chat with all the new arrivals. Beer wasn’t sitting very well with Ellory unfortunately and after a couple he decided to get an early night. I, however stayed with the new arrivals, just chatting and drinking. They were enjoying the free vodka and rum that Ellory and I enjoyed 2 nights ago and soon it all descended into silly drinking games. I did my best to teach them some English classics, but the funniest bit of the night is when everyone picked a famous person (it had to be international as we had English, Irish, Dutch, German, Swiss and Israeli around the table) and the others had to guess who they were by asking yes or no questions. It got
Owl Bee Hive Eye
Taken by Ellz on the way to the butterfly dome we saw this smallish sculptue of an Owl with some bees or something building a nest in its eye! wierd huh? very out of hand with people being Lassie the dog, Winnie the pooh and miss piggy at one point, but it was hilarious everyone involved had a good time! Think I made to bed about 2am but couldn’t be sure about that!
5th October
We woke up to brilliant sunshine, the first really clear day we’d had in ages! They served breakfast by the pool at the hostel and when we went to get it, everyone from the night before was already hanging out in the pool and some of the guys already had a beer! I really couldn’t face that, but who could pass up the opportunity to sunbathe in the blazing sunshine, with new friends and a great pool to jump into if it got too hot! It was great, we really realised on this day how lucky we are to be doing this, and yes, sometimes it is super stressful but it’s all part of the experience! So we added a few more layers to our tans and chilled out the entire day, fantastic. Ruth, Leo, Paul, Shir, Iden, Willem, Robin, Tine, Regina and Jenna, thanks for helping make our stay in Jodanga so wicked! Safe
DragonFlys
Taken by Ellz travels to you all. X
Sadly this was our last day in Santa Cruz as we were due to head to La Paz the next day. We’ve been saving money so far by taking buses across the continent but we cracked, the last journey had ruined us for the time being and we’d heard a lot about the state of the Bolivian roads, so we decided we were going to fly. I’d been trying to buy plane tickets, (in between sunbathing) that day, but it wouldn’t go through online. So we went to bed on our final night in Santa Cruz with a plan to just head to the airport and see what we could do!
Love Liz xxx
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