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Spent the night of 6th March in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Busy city with beautiful plaza areas and buildings, only got chance to do meander through main part as Santa Cruz was just a layover spot.
Boarded bus at 2pm yesterday, we were seated in the very front of bus with the big picture window to see absolutely everything. As I mentioned we boarded bus at 2pm and sat there for 30mins with no aircon, felt like a sauna dripping in sweat. Finally we off and moving, aircon kicks in but don't really feel much difference for another hour or so. This by the way is a 20 hour bus trip through the Andes, could not wait to reach the mountains!!
Bus stopped after 3 hours for 20 minutes stretch and food, we didn't eat at this point as was quite early and figured we would eat at next stop.....the bus did not stop again - 17 hours no stopping except for passenger pick up and drop off along the road.
Heard all sorts of horror stories about the bolivian roads and read horror reviews but was actually a good trip, sure road was bad in places and we were held up due to a landslide in the mountains. Very interesting driving, like organised chaos, as though all bolivian drivers were given a secret handbook on the road rules. If people drove like like this in Aus I would be really concerned, but it works here. Let's just say it was an experience and one I would do again if need be. Also we had the same driver all the way through, quite a stint behind the wheel.
Highest point along road was at elevation of 4200 metres, and La Paz sits at 3600 metres. Beautiful scenery along the way, amazing how the people live here. Every time we passed through a town there was a general area of activity with people milling about eating, touting or just hanging around - whether it be 9pm or 3am there was always something happening.
Half hour taxi ride from bus station to hotel cost equivalent to A$3. As soon we arrived hotel we were given a coca mate tea, which is used to help with adjusting to altitude. The tea is nice and refreshing, like green tea but not bitter.
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