Keeping Cool in Santa Cruz

DAY 100: My night bus from Sucre drove along a bumpy dirt road through the night, under the desert moonlight that made the shapes of cacti look like ghosts in the desert. As the darkness of morning turned into dawn, the ambient light revealed a change of scenery -- we had made it out of the desert and into the lush, tropical green landscape of the jungle. The bus made it to the Santa Cruz terminal one hour ahead of schedule on a sunny morning of what would be a scorcher of a day.

A taxi took me to the Alojamiento Santa Barbara, a hostel four blocks from the main plaza (picture above). I arrived at the same time as a big Hungarian guy who had just flown in from Mexico City. Later I found out he was Zolly, an animator and Greenpeace activist -- we decided to share a room before I knew anything about him. We got the room with two beds and then head out to a nearby cafe for breakfast.

SANTA CRUZ, LIKE IQUITOS, PERU, is different from the other mountain cities in its country. On the eastern end of Bolivia, Santa Cruz lies in the Oriente, with its jungle-like conditions that seems a bit more like the Carribean or Southeast Asia. Along with the jungle-like vegetation comes the hot, balmy climate, this day more than normal -- the cover story of the local newspaper was about its 41 degree celsius highs.

Zolly and I went back to the hostel, our temporary home and that of others, including young Argentines and Japanese backpackers who were just sitting around the courtyard.

"Usually I think the people who stay in the hostel are lazy, but it's so hot, I am going to be lazy," Zolly said. He took a nap while I went off to an air-conditioned internet cafe to catch up on Blog duties.

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE EARLY AFTERNOON came sweltering humidity and temperature. It was the kind of weather where no one was in the sun, where people tried desperately to get under any kind of shade or shadow. As the sunblock melted and dripped off my skin, I went around for a walk anyway, through the main Plaza 24 de Septiembre and its nearby colonial architecture of the Convento San Francisco, to the more modern Parque El Arenal with its phone booths in the shapes of tropical animals. The heat really got to me and I found refuge in a cafe with a nice chocolate milkshake.

SOME OF THE SEAMS IN MY BOOTS had torn from their soles and rather than buy new shoes, I went to go have them repaired for a fraction of the cost. I went off to a shoe repair shop on a street where there were dozens of shoe repair shops -- I figured it was the Shoe Repair District. While waiting for the repairs, my sandals and I went to the Museo de Arte Sagrado, inside the cathedral. The religious museum had displays of vestments and paintings and artifacts made out of silver from the mines of Potosi -- but the most impressive thing there was the air conditioning.

The afternoon sun was still coming down on my head and I figured it was about time I got a trim from what Blogreaders markytand Christy referred to as my "Hobbit hair." I went to an old-fashioned barber who cut down my locks with non-electric manual tools, taking off the unnecessary warmth -- and weight -- off the top of my head.

I picked up my boots and met Zolly at the hostel. I helped him search for a cheap MP3 player in the electronics stores -- there were no good ones -- and then went off to the Victory Bar for ice cold beers, food and conversations ranging from different animation software packages to perilous bus journeys. While most of my stories were of mechanical failure, they were pale in comparison to Zolly's -- his bus in Mexico was actually pulled over by banditos, and they all ended up in the automatic gun crossfire between cops and robbers. Some bad guys ended up as corpses on the side of the road.

THE NIGHTS IN SANTA CRUZ were almost as bad as the days -- hot and sticky. Without an air conditioner or even a fan, we just kept the door open to let any sort of air in the room. Aside from the bites and buzzings-in-my-ear of mosquitos, we couldn't sleep because of the loud Spanish and Argentines out in the courtyard drinking and chatting it up with their loud radio playing. I mean, granted, I was one of these kids in Sucre, but at least we had the courtesy to confined ourselves in a closed room -- these guys were yelling across the courtyard rather than sit next to each other. And if that wasn't bad enough, the Japanese guys started playing a makeshift digeridoo that they had made that afternoon. Nothing says "No Sleep" than the sounds of a guy learning the digeridoo.

Zolly got so fed up that he got out of bed to yell at the youths to quiet them down. He was only met with mocks later on that made fun of his use of the word "fucking" in his Eastern European accent.

Although I felt bad for the Hungarian, I just stayed in bed and tried to relax myself to sleep, knowing that keeping my cool in Santa Cruz doesn't necessarily mean getting a haircut or an ice cold beverage.

If you enjoy this daily travel blog, please post a comment! Give me suggestions, send me on missions, let me know how things are going back home in the USA. Knowing that I have an audience will only force me to make this blog more entertaining as the days go by. Don´t forget to bookmark it and let a friend know!

Posted by Erik on January 28, 2004 08:20 PM
TrackBack | Category: Bolivia

you may be complaining about the heat there, but you should appreciate it. i doubt you want to be back here with all the snow and cold. and you should have shaved all your hair off, that would have been cooler. =)

Posted by: alice on January 28, 2004 10:25 PM

Erik: I'll be in Asia for ONLY 6 weeks. As this will be my third time off of North America, I haven't YET reached the epic proportions of multi-month trips.

Posted by: Td0t on January 29, 2004 12:12 AM

woohoo...100 days! I can't believe i made it this far into the blog. I'd like to thank my family, my dentist, and of course my 15" powerbook for sticking by me thru the thick and thin...

blog you in a few days!

Posted by: LovePenny on January 29, 2004 10:15 AM

Please, please, don't be jealous... warm is nice, but 100's (F) in the humidity of a city is NOT. Imagine the hottest day in NYC without A/C... that's where I am right now...

Posted by: Erik on January 29, 2004 10:57 AM

Imagine the coldest day in NYC, with windchill...now double that and take away any heat that comes out of the crappy radiator in my apt...I am very jealous of yo and your warmth!

Posted by: Dtella on January 29, 2004 12:26 PM

Hey Erik,

Guess what was in yesterday's mail? Never got the card from Galapagos , I did get the one from Titicaca. Mucho gracias. It will be a permanente work of art on my refrig.

I love the heat and would take it any day over snow. But the humidity can make you crazzzzzy.

p.s. the husband is jealous of you. (he'll get over it!)

Posted by: socalgirl on January 29, 2004 03:54 PM

hey! you are in my city =) maybe I'll see you around here somewhere hehe
I agree... it's so hot here, I hate summer!

BTW, loving your blog, I love to read about people traveling across my country! bye bye!

Posted by: Paola on January 29, 2004 04:54 PM

Fuzz-E! Happy 100th Day & BLOG. Congrats!

The highlight of my day was when I went to the mailroom and found an awesome, hand-crafted postcard from Lake Titicaca! I yelped like an idiot. Then began bragging and waving it around like I'd won the lottery. Anyway, it's my first and only SA postcard and everyone here is certainly jealous. If they like, they can visit it--proudly displayed on my office door.

And thanks for the shout-out. I feel like a celebrity. As much as I liked the hobbit hair, it's good to see you "fuzzy" again.

BTW: I just got my Mom reading your site... another member to the Fellowship.

Posted by: Christy on January 29, 2004 06:35 PM

PAOLA: Hola! It's a shame you didn't post a comment sooner... we could have met up! I'm longer in Santa Cruz... I've already started my approach to Rio with stops in The Pantanal and Iguazu... hopefully sometime in the future!

Glad you like the blog, and welcome to The Fellowship... pass the word around!

Posted by: Erik on January 31, 2004 08:21 PM

SOCALGIRL: If you're like the guy whose Galapagos postcard I have to deliver, it may take a while for you to get it... I plan on hand delivering my guy's card when I get back to the states in 2005... It'll be like Tom Hanks in "Castaway."

Posted by: Erik on January 31, 2004 08:24 PM

CHRISTY: Yeah, how the hobbits could stand the heat of Mt. Doom with all that hair I don't know... I really had to get it cut...

Who else at PH is following along, jealous of the postcards? Where's Kev and GIL!?... and do I dare say, Vlad?

Posted by: Erik on January 31, 2004 08:29 PM