Oh Santa Cruz de la Sierra

I've been in Santa Cruz for 12 weeks now and if I had to commit to an opinion I would have to go with - nah. I'm not impressed. Of course I spend most of my time working and I do like my job, so there is something to be said for that, but the town itself? Nah. My house is very nice, yes. The location... not so nice. Off dirt roads - the city is super windy - dusty - dirty. The streets, as in other 3rd world countries, are filled with garbage and for some really strange reason people here (and when I say people, I mean that I see at least one every day) pee on the streets. Yes, you read it correctly... we'll be in our taxi driving down the road and - oh look - there's a man (yes, it's usually a man) with his penis out, sometimes not even facing away from the street, and yes, he is peeing. Peeing. Right there on a main street, in the middle of traffic. Peeing.

The city center is lovely. Nice park with benches, trees blowing in the wind. It's clean and there is a coffee cart that circles the park and has the sweetest cafe con leche you'll ever taste. I like the plaza. There is a market downtown too. Third world, bootleg, junk, but I like markets. Nice to walk around and "window" shop. Nice - to visit once or twice, but people - I live here.

So what do people in Santa Cruz do? Drink and eat. Yes, we even have a drive through bar. Yup, drive right up and order a mixed drink. You know what their best seller is? Long Island Iced Tea! Yup, drive right up and order a drink to go with 5 different alcohols. (for more info - visit my roommates blog... www.bolivianblondie.com). Now, about the food, it is decent. Lots of meat and potatoes. There are many restaurants where they bring around big skewers of meat and you pull a piece off. Yum. We also have a variety of kinds of food. A couple Mexican, Italian, Chinese restaurants... There is even a Burger King. So what am I complaining about??? Well - I cannot spend my free time eating and drinking because, well, I'll be fat and drunk. Oh, wait, fat and drunk, maybe I've discovered a solution to my problem. Fat and drunk. Huh. Sorry can't talk anymore, gotta get my taxi to drive me through Burger King and then the bar on the way home.