Santa Cruz
After nearly two years in Bolivia, we finally choose the Easter weekend to visit Bolivia's biggest city, Santa Cruz.
You would think that in certain countries the difference between cities would be marginal, at best. So one city might have different food and a different accent, and one's football team might be a perennial winner whereas the other one's a consistent bottom feeder.
We quickly learn that Santa Cruz and La Paz have one thing in common: the language, at best, and even that is debatable.
Our maiden trip on the national carrier BOA far exceeds our expectations. Their staff ranks up there with the far more renowned carriers, and you'll be pressed to find one more friendlier (are you listening, American Airlines? Probably not, which is why you're nearly bankrupt). Besides that, we discover another novelty: a plane without first class, probably a blueprint of President Morales' socialist visions. The flight is a simple hop, less than an hour. It seems that we are hardly in the air and the seat buckle sign is turned on when we were about to land.
The boys themselves are still shaking off colds, so we thought Santa Cruz might help them kill off their germs entirely.
We have been in town for little more than four hours, but it's easy to see the difference between Bolivia's two major cities.
Weather:
La Paz: La Paz's record temperature is 76 degrees, if my memory serves me correctly. At El Alto Airport, you are greeted with an intimidating, oxygen starved wind that (literally) can take your breath away. Not many tourists book a summer vacation in La Paz, and if they do they will wear coats.
Santa Cruz: 90 degrees plus, hot, hot, hot. People in t-shirts and shorts drive the omnipresent dune buggies throughout the streets here. You will find plenty of AC units and swimming pools. This is Latin America the way people imgine it.
Vicinity:
La Paz: Bolivia's capital is two miles high, nestled in the heart of the Andes. Your itinerary in La Paz, wherever it may take you, will take you up hills and down hills. There are canyons and mountain tops wherever you go. La Paz is truely unique in that regard.
Santa Cruz: Flat and flatter. If you were to place a marble on a street anywhere in Santa Cruz, you could come back a year later and discover that it has not moved an inch. There is no such thing as an incline here.
Vegetation:
La Paz: What first stands out in La Paz is the abundance of eucalyptus trees, supposedly to slow the erosion of the mountains at a two mile altitude. Growing vegetables or other crops can be tricky.
Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz has as many palm trees as La Paz has eucalyptus trees, and probably more. The climate here is tropical, but not perilously so. Farmers make money if they choose their crops wisely.
Character:
La Paz: If there is such a thing as a Bolivian city, then La Paz certainly typifies it. Here you will find cholitas and natives mixed with Far East heritage from throughout the country. The architecture smacks a little of Europe (Spain), but with distinctly Bolivian and indigenous Pacena trends. For music, people here like to call it the city of rock n' roll.
Santa Cruz: Mediterranean, no doubt. Here people are a little bigger, more fair skinned, and more easy going than their counterparts from the capital. Santa Cruz could easily pass off for an import floated over here from Spain or Italy. Folk and more typical Latin American music are preferred here.
I finally notice that there are probably more traffic lights in Santa Cruz on one street than there are in all of La Paz, which brings me to probably another common trait between Santa Cruz and La Paz: that these lights are as easily ignored as a tumbleweed dancing across a California desert road.
You would think that in certain countries the difference between cities would be marginal, at best. So one city might have different food and a different accent, and one's football team might be a perennial winner whereas the other one's a consistent bottom feeder.
We quickly learn that Santa Cruz and La Paz have one thing in common: the language, at best, and even that is debatable.
Our maiden trip on the national carrier BOA far exceeds our expectations. Their staff ranks up there with the far more renowned carriers, and you'll be pressed to find one more friendlier (are you listening, American Airlines? Probably not, which is why you're nearly bankrupt). Besides that, we discover another novelty: a plane without first class, probably a blueprint of President Morales' socialist visions. The flight is a simple hop, less than an hour. It seems that we are hardly in the air and the seat buckle sign is turned on when we were about to land.
The boys themselves are still shaking off colds, so we thought Santa Cruz might help them kill off their germs entirely.
We have been in town for little more than four hours, but it's easy to see the difference between Bolivia's two major cities.
Weather:
La Paz: La Paz's record temperature is 76 degrees, if my memory serves me correctly. At El Alto Airport, you are greeted with an intimidating, oxygen starved wind that (literally) can take your breath away. Not many tourists book a summer vacation in La Paz, and if they do they will wear coats.
Santa Cruz: 90 degrees plus, hot, hot, hot. People in t-shirts and shorts drive the omnipresent dune buggies throughout the streets here. You will find plenty of AC units and swimming pools. This is Latin America the way people imgine it.
Vicinity:
La Paz: Bolivia's capital is two miles high, nestled in the heart of the Andes. Your itinerary in La Paz, wherever it may take you, will take you up hills and down hills. There are canyons and mountain tops wherever you go. La Paz is truely unique in that regard.
Santa Cruz: Flat and flatter. If you were to place a marble on a street anywhere in Santa Cruz, you could come back a year later and discover that it has not moved an inch. There is no such thing as an incline here.
Vegetation:
La Paz: What first stands out in La Paz is the abundance of eucalyptus trees, supposedly to slow the erosion of the mountains at a two mile altitude. Growing vegetables or other crops can be tricky.
Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz has as many palm trees as La Paz has eucalyptus trees, and probably more. The climate here is tropical, but not perilously so. Farmers make money if they choose their crops wisely.
Character:
La Paz: If there is such a thing as a Bolivian city, then La Paz certainly typifies it. Here you will find cholitas and natives mixed with Far East heritage from throughout the country. The architecture smacks a little of Europe (Spain), but with distinctly Bolivian and indigenous Pacena trends. For music, people here like to call it the city of rock n' roll.
Santa Cruz: Mediterranean, no doubt. Here people are a little bigger, more fair skinned, and more easy going than their counterparts from the capital. Santa Cruz could easily pass off for an import floated over here from Spain or Italy. Folk and more typical Latin American music are preferred here.
I finally notice that there are probably more traffic lights in Santa Cruz on one street than there are in all of La Paz, which brings me to probably another common trait between Santa Cruz and La Paz: that these lights are as easily ignored as a tumbleweed dancing across a California desert road.
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