Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hola Señor, necessito nuventa diás por favor! Soy voluntar en el Machia parque.
These were my first words in spanish, spoken to the Bolivian officer at the border control a minute before he granted my request and gave my my 90 days Visa in Bolivia.
Apparently, you automatically get 30 days unless you ask for more (in spanish of course). Unless you come from the US - then you pay 100USD for a visa... They don´t like americans around here (just because the US tries to close down their Coca farms - go figure!)
No, absolutely no habla Engles around here...
And here´s the clip, in case you were wondering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7bLO8D9sis
Nobody speaks english around here. It´s so weird! I´ve never been to a place where I can hardly communicate with people around me. Well, there was France, but you know... french people...
In addition, Santa Cruz is not a very touristic city. Not at all... Whenever I walk down the street people just stare at me! I´ve never felt like such a foreigner before. Maybe they´re not used to seeing a green eyed white man on the street...
Lots of security on the sreets, even at night. This is a good thing, but it makes you wonder how safe it is if they need so much Policia around here.
Some information about the prices:
1 night at the Santa Barbara backpackers hostel = 35 Bolivianos = 5USD
1 hour at an internet cafe = 3 Bol = 0.4USD
1 huge bowl of soup at the local market = 3 Bol = 0.4USD
Breakfast at a touristic cafe "Cafe 24" at the central Plaza = 30 Bol = 4USD
So as I calculated things - I can use my travel money for the following:
3-4 months traveling in Europe - OR -
6-8 months traveling in South America - OR -
2 years resting in Bolivia.
What would you do? :)
Anyway, I met a nice German girl who stays at the Santa Barbara hostel and she´s been showing me around a bit, I met a french guy who just left yesterday and an Australian guy who left today.
Not much tourists here anyway... Most of them just pass by the city. I would say about 4-5% of the people are tourists, which makes the city an interesting place to see and a cheap place to stay in.
Hoever, there really is nothing much to do in Santa Cruz. No tourists means not many attractions. There´s the local zoo, A butterfly house a few kilometers outside the city and an animal park 15 kilometers away. Like I said - not much to do.
I enjoy the quiet hostel, warm weather (30 degrees celsius) and the cheap and tasty food, but I will not stay here much longer. Maybe I´ll go to that butterfly house tomorrow, but in a few days I´ll just take the crappy bus on the crappy road to Villa Tunary which is a village not so far away.
And by not so far away I mean just 6 hours by bus...
Near that village lies the Machia Parque, my next adventure. In that park I intend to stay for about a month to volunteer working with a Puma.
You know, the usual stuff... Clean the Puma´s cage, feed him 5Kg of red meat, run around the jungle tied to an 80Kgs big cat - the normal things to do around here.
I really hope I would enjoy it, and hope to learn some spanish while I´m there as well (It´s really hard to get by with english around here).
Well, That´s it so far. I´ll try to upload pictures later on but the internet connection is slow here so it might not be so easy. Not much to see anyway, most of the city looks like lower Lod.
Nonetheless - I am having fun. Reading alot, walking around and practicing my poor spanish.
Until next time - Take care, and wish me luck with the Pume!
Gilad :)
- comments
Michael Zuckerman Gilad! hope you're having the best time...I miss Bolivia so much!!don't forget to buy me those pantelonas!:)
veredm Are you reading with the Ivrit?!?!
giladhiz Michael - que pantalones? I didn´t promise anything... No puede...Vered - I use it every day :)