After a great stay in Sucre in the high altitudes of central Bolivia, we flew to Santa Cruz (de la Sierra) in the tropical lowlands of eastern Bolivia. We were looking forward to this part of our trip as we'd heard that Santa Cruz city had a quaint historic centre, and also, we'd planned a tiger safari in the Santa Cruz region. After that, we were going to Cochabamba, and back up to high altitudes.
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| Leigh at the Plaza 24 de Septiembre, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
Our taxi from the airport took us through Santa Cruz's 16th century historic town centre. At its heart, we saw the main square, Plaza 24 de Septiembre. It looked beautiful, with lovely tropical palm trees
and outdoor chess tables, surrounded by elegant architecture.
Soon after, we reached our accommodation, the Apart Hotel Premium Suites. It was a quick taxi-ride from the historic centre, in a nice area with a supermarket and range of eating places nearby.
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| Basilica of St. Lawrence on Plaza 24 de Septiembre, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
The next morning, we went into the old centre and wandered around the Plaza 24 de Septiembre. This beautifully treed space is home to the Basilica of St.
Lawrence, the Palacio Cinema, the
House of Culture, and the Government House, all built in the colonial style. They are considered historic landmarks of the
city.
The Plaza itself, is the meeting place for the melting pot of ethnicities who have arrived in Santa Cruz to work in one of the many lucrative industries that have emerged here over the years. With a population of over 2.4 million and still growing, Santa Cruz is now Bolivia’s largest city, and its economic powerhouse.
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| Spanish colonial buildings in the historic centre of Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
Beyond the Plaza, the old centre is awash with Spanish colonial style buildings, narrow one-way cobblestoned streets, and an attractive mix of greenspaces, museums, and galleries.
Beyond that, there is a modern commercial city with high-rise buildings, western-style commercial chain-stores, and brand-name coffee and eating places that we hadn't seen in Bolivia so far. It's quite different to other more traditional parts of Bolivia.
Over the next few days, we visited many of Santa Cruz's sights. Most of our sightseeing was at the beginning and end of the day, as the Bolivian's take siesta in the midday heat and many places close down. We saw landmark buildings, tourist sites such as the Botanical Gardens, several museums, and many plazas.
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| Leigh at Plaza Manzana Uno, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
One of the nicest plazas was Plaza Manzana Uno. It is surrounded by attractive white colonial-style buildings with shady colonnades, colourful trees, and street art.
We loved Santa Cruz's many markets. A favourite was Mercdo 7 Calles, an outdoor area full of stalls where you can buy just about anything. Leigh bought some new sunglasses there for the equivalent of NZ $5. We also loved Paseo Artesanal La Recova.
In one of the other markets, we saw fruits and vegetables that we hadn't ever seen before, such as acachairú, guapomó, marayaú and others.
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| Fruit at one of the many markets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
The locals go crazy for acachairú in particular. It is an egg-sized and shaped orange-coloured fruit, which is like a mangosteen. These eastern lowlands of Bolivia are the only place in the world where this fruit is naturally grown.
After several relaxing days in Santa Cruz city, we packed up for our next adventure, which was to go on a jaguar safari for three days in the Kaa-Iya National Park, way off the beaten track in the far east of Bolivia.
Our safari guide Saul, and driver José, picked us up from the hotel in a 4-wheel drive vehicle (4WD) and we set off for the long drive to the Park.
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| Sloth in Cotoca Village, Santa Cruz region, Bolivia |
On the way we stopped at the small town of Cotoca where we saw sloths living in the trees on the town square.
Santa Cruz region is known as the unofficial ‘Sloth Capital of the World’. The sloths we saw are valued and protected, and seem to live happily with all the people milling about below them.
What fascinating creatures they are with their cute sleepy-looking faces, big claws, slow movements, and heavy-looking bodies.
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| San José township, Chiquitos Province, Santa Cruz region, Bolivia |
Our next stop was for lunch at a restaurant in the very small town of San José (de Chiquitos), in the Chiquitos Province of Santa Cruz region. We were served a local menu and it was delicious.
While there we saw a group of people dressed in rather conservative and old-fashioned 'western-style' clothing. Our driver José, explained that they were Mennonites, originally from Germany. Apparently, there is quite a large population of them in Bolivia.
We also learned from José that there is a large Japanese and other-Asian population, and that this area is seen as quite ethnically diverse in South American terms.
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| Mission of San José de Chiquitos (UNESCO), Chiquitos Province, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
While in San José we visited the Mission of San José de Chiquitos, founded by the Jesuits in 1698. It is built of a beautiful golden-coloured stone, and contains many wall paintings and depictions of activities of the day.
The Jesuits built a number of Missions in the Chiquitos province of Bolivia. When the Spanish expelled the Jesuits from South America in 1767, a few of the Missions were retained. Six of these are deemed the best-preserved examples of Jesuit architecture in South America and are collectively, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A few hours later we drove onto an unsealed road that took us into the Kaa-Iya National Park.
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| Leigh ready for jaguar spotting at Kaa-Iya National Park, Chiquitos Province, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
Kaa-Iya is one of the last areas of the world where jaguars, pumas and tapirs can be seen in the wild. It is part of the Great Gran Chaco, the largest virgin tropical dry forest left on earth (34,411 square km). It is also the biggest national park in Bolivia, and one of the largest in South America.
You can only visit this park with a guide and a permit to enter the area, and must pack in and out (your trash etc).
Arriving at the Park headquarters where we were to be accommodated, we found conditions to be very basic. We were warned of this before we booked the trip but it was VERY basic. We were here for three days so it was with some misgivings that we prepared for our first night in the jungle.
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| Marg at the hide waiting for a Tapir, Kaa Iya National Park, Chiquitos Province, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
We slept in an open room that had around twelve beds with one shared cold shower and toilet. Meals were served in a lean-to beside the sleeping room, and we shared meals with the park staff, and our driver and guide. We were the only guests and the only women.
We were dressed in dark clothing with long pants, and lathered up with sunscreen and also Deet so as not to attract too many mosquitos. It was a very hot and humid 35-40 degrees Celsius daily.
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The remoteness and inaccessibility of this park has created an environment where wildlife has flourished, and over our three days we saw a huge tapir, several armadillos, native tortoises, foxes, giant tarantulas, deer, native rabbits and a range of unique birds.
On our last night, we drove along one of the bush tracks (no roads here), and before long, saw an absolute highlight - a jaguar!
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| Juvenile jaguar walking toward our 4WD |
It was a juvenile male jaguar, walking along the track toward us.
We stopped and got out of the 4WD but stayed behind the open doors to take photos. We watched him saunter along the track steadily and undaunted, closing the distance between us.
When it looked like the jaguar was not going to stop, guide Saul hurriedly but quietly, ushered us back into the 4WD. Very quickly and quietly, we followed orders, and stayed there whispering and taking photos through the windscreen.
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| Our jaguar lying on the path in front of us |
This staunch jaguar got to within about a car-length from us, then decided to lie down on the track where he stayed for some time, just looking at us.
Then, not being sure what kind of creature our big car was, he decided to go around us, so he cut into the bush and then came back onto track behind us.
After a while, José carefully turned the 4WD around and we slowly followed the jaguar down the track. Seemingly unconcerned, the jaguar just kept walking.
Saul suggested he was searching for food, and thankfully did not see us on his menu.
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| Our jaguar about to disappear into the jungle |
By this time, it was starting to get dark and harder to see him, and eventually he disappeared into the jungle.
Talk about an excited group! We were absolutely over the moon and Saul and José were just as excited.
Amid lots of animated chatter, we had our last night in camp. The next morning, we saw our first toucans, but unfortunately not close enough to photograph as they flew by at great speed.
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| Leigh at Mirador de Irala, Chiquitos Province, Santa Cruz, Bolivia |
On the return trip to Santa Cruz, we stopped at Mirador de Irala (a lookout) that had amazing views out over the plains below. We then visited some amazing rock formations, before lunching at a local restaurant and heading back to the city.
Overall, it had been a great trip, and hard to beat on the excitement scale.
The next day, we were back at the airport for a flight to Cochabamba which lies at 2,558 metres above sea level. It's about half way between low lying Santa Cruz and high-altitude La Paz, which is at 3,650 metres above sea level and where we were going after Cochabamba.
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| Local Dodge bus in Cochabamba, Bolivia |
In our taxi from the airport, we drove past old American Dodges put to use as buses. Our taxi driver, with no English, managed to convey the idea that, while they are beautifully decorated and colourful on the outside, they are not so nice ('thumbs down') on the inside.
We were staying at Apart Hotel Violettas where we were given a three-bedroom apartment. It was great because we had heaps of room to spread out, and it was a good location from which to explore Cochabamba.
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| Colonial buildings around the Plaza 14 de Septiembre, Cochabamba, Bolivia |
The next morning, we headed out for a look around. As with Santa Cruz, Cochabamba has an old historic centre with a main square named for the date of independence from the Spanish - this one is Plaza 14 de Septiembre. It is an attractive plaza, with some ancient trees, surrounded by colonial-style architecture.
Cochabamba dates back to 1574. Now days, it is a bustling metropolis, with a population of over 400,000 making it the third largest city in Bolivia.
There was plenty to see, and we walked around for ages having a good look at the architecture, parks, and people.
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| Marg at the top of the teleferico, with Cochabamba behind |
One of our excursions took us to the high San Pedro Hill for panoramic views of Cochabamba City, and to see a famous statue.
To get up there, we could have climbed more than 2,000 steps or taken a teleferico (cable car). With that many steps and the high altitude, heat and humidity, you can guess what we decided to use!
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| Marg at the Christo de la Concordia statue, Cochabamba, Bolivia |
At the top, the famous statue is the Cristo de la Concordia which is a huge statue of Christ. At 34.2 metres high (excluding the base), it is tallest Christ statue in the world.
After a few days in Cochabamba, we headed to the bus terminal and bought tickets
on Bus Bolivia to take us to La Paz, the highest capital city in the word and our next destination.
This is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.