You're Not That Far

I'm really not that enamoured with Santa Cruz. I think it's partly the weather, it's really, really humid. Once your clothes are damp that's it. And I don't think it's helped by my dank room, I've been meaning to change hostels for days, but I've not managed to catch the midday checkout time yet, and I intend to leave for Cochabamba on Monday. Anyway, apart from the humidity, this town is apparently like an American town in that there's nothing much to do in the center (sorry, centre), you have to get a taxi out to the "strips", where lots of big neon signed karaoke bars live. So far the song that has gone down the best for me has been Big Spender, during which I did big kicks for the Bah-Baah-Bah-Bah bit, afterwards a guy came up and gave me a drink(!) we rocked the party!

But I've been loving Bolivia so far. It's really surprised me, one of my favourite phrases of the moment is "I just wasn't expecting this from Bolivia." And it's not just the flamingos. No one prepared me for the food. I had been warned that it was going to be boring, and my first meal in Bolivia, after asking for a steak sandwich (lomito, a speciality around these parts) and then a hamburger, I was informed that there was only one thing on the menu which used four of the most boring ingredients known to mankind: roast chicken, chips, rice and pasta (I kid ye not). Topped off with a chili sauce which WAS NOT HOT. But since then I have been amazed by the culinary delights of these parts, though at the moment we are frequenting a place reminiscent of Disney World.

Being a stickler for credit I have to thank Maddy for the title of this post, though aptly she thought the song went "Santa Cruz you're not that fine."