El Altiplano & La Paz to Santa Cruz
- kmanhartsberger
- Sep 25
- 2 min read
Since driving north to Juliaca and along Lake Titicaca in Peru, and entering Bolivia, we have been driving on the Altiplano. This is a huge area of Bolivia, and is a big, flat area at high altitude. It is the second largest such area in the world, after Tibet. Certainly it has been a very different experience.
We left La Paz and set out to visit Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which is in the eastern Tropical Lowlands and at near sea level (400m). It is a drop for sure.
On the way we stopped by at Oruro and Cochabamba.
Oruro
This place was a huge mess. It was sandy and dusty, houses were unfinished and traffic was as disorganised as any other place we've seen so far in Bolivia. We spent a night there, and in among the mess encountered friendly and helpful people at the hotel and in a pharmacy.
Cochabamba
How could it be that just a few hours drive on the Altiplano, we found a huge city with modern, well-designed and well-constructed buildings, wide roads, and organised traffic! It was clean and tidy, quite pleasant weather, and we found a flat to stay in for a few nights. We took a short tour with a taxi and visited the city center and an outlook place with a very big Cristo statue. This was a good place for Karin to recover from the stomach issues, and Harold took the opportunity to catch up with some urgent work.
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
This is the largest city of Bolivia, and is in the Amazonas in the center of the country. Coming back to near sea level, and to a tropical climate, healed the noses from the bleeding we have had while on altitude and in the dry and dusty air. It is nice! Best of all is that there is vegetation, we didn't realise just how much we have been missing trees and greenery.
The city is huge, a lot of it filled with construction sites because this city is on a mission to modernise and grow. The evening we arrived it was tough to find accommodation because there was a fair on. We ended up in a small hotel in the Equipetrol area, which is seen as the best area to stay.
The supermarkets are well stocked in Santa Cruz. We usually don't pay much attention to prices as we buy staple foods, but we balked at paying USD7 for a can of chickpeas! Once starting to look, we decided that imported foods are very expensive, while the local produce is reasonably priced.
The customary taxi tour took us to the city center for a coffee and a look at the craft market and the central park. The city was very clean and quiet for being the center. Construction is everywhere, and upmarket condominios (behind walls of course, so you can't see any of them...) are springing up everywhere. This city is on a quest!
