Santa Cruz

After the Pantanal, we were feeling really quite weary after constantly looking over our shoulders. That day we were due to leave Brazil, and to head over to Bolivia. 

crossing to Bolivia

Crossing the border is always risky business and takes a lot of scrutiny. As Guilia is a guide, she actually has to pretend she isn't one or faces a fine, or even arrest, as its legal obligation to have  Bolivian guides in Bolivia. As we crossed, she covered up her G adventures T shirt with her ruck sack. However, it was not Giulia who faced problems crossing, it was in fact Chinese-American Sun who was questioned. The rest of the group crossed and sat in a pretty dreary garden whilst Giulia and Sun went on a 6 hour mission to get him into Bolivia. It was a long day, and with a night bus to catch at 10, morale was low. We tried rapping, making up dances and played with small stray puppies to try and pass the time.

Cute puppy we probably shouldn't have touched

Eventually, in the distance, we saw a small frizz head and a neon yellow T shirt and realised he had finally got across.With no time to spare, we went to the bus station which was filled with children and rabid dogs. Thankfully, Swiss Thomas was on good form despite being incredibly unwell since Bonito, and he got out a deck of cards and performed magic tricks for us, and managed to gather in quite a crowd of local children. We played card games until our bus finally arrived. We boarded a surprisingly luxurious bus that allowed you to fully stretch out and sleep. It would have been the best overnight journey of the trip, if it hadn't been for a senile local old man on the bus, who felt it appropriate to shout down to the driver on the floor below at the early hours of the morning about air conditioning, startling us awake every time.

 We drove to our next location which was Santa Cruz, the economic capital of Bolivia and arrived at our hotel just in time for breakfast. We enjoyed frog free showers and tried to recover from the eventful last few days. We were going to look into the optional activities of sand boarding and botanical gardens, but the wet weather deterred us and we decided to stay local and explore Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz didn't actually have much to offer, with the cathedral in the square being the main attraction. 

We went up to see panoramic views, and frankly, came back down feeling a little underwhelmed by Santa Cruz. The only thing that was keeping us going, was the fact that Santa Cruz had an official Hard Rock Cafe that avid fan Thomas wanted to visit, and we decided we would join him on his pilgrimage.

 That night we went to a local Bolivian restraint called 'El Aljibe', which was one of the oldest buildings in Santa Cruz. It had traditional architecture, and local people donated old furniture to dress the place. We chose traditional Bolivian dishes, Steph having a chicken curry dish, and Tom had a beef dish, all of which was really really cheap. The restaurant owners told us the history of the building while we ate, and we walked around and looked into the well in the centre of the restaurant.

Our last supper with Giulia

We had planned to have a few drinks as it was our last night with Giulia, but the Bolivian elections were the next day, which meant the whole country had to go sober for the weekend in order to vote, so it was illegal to purchase alcohol from anywhere! With that in mind, we knew our party was going to have to be of the dessert kind.

After dinner, the majority of the group got into a taxi, and went into the more western side of Santa Cruz to find the Hard Rock Cafe. We all arrived and got really excited for Thomas, as he cool-y strolled in and browsed the t shirts. 

We all jumped on the band wagon and bought a T shirt each too, as we felt part of the tradition, and also because we now could put off laundry for another day. We sat down and enjoyed ice creams bigger than our heads, and listened to hard rock music, then headed back to the hotel to get ready to pack for the next day.

The next morning, we all emerged in our new t shirts and headed to the airport to prepare for an emotional farewell to our fantastic guide Guilia.

Giulia was the perfect guide for us in Brazil. Her food choices were spot on every time, she was incredibly knowledgeable about every place we went, and kicked us into shape when we needed organising. Not only was she our CEO, she is now a friend who we hope to see again somewhere in the world in the future.

We boarded our flight to Sucre, where we flew nervously in anticipation to meet our new CEO...