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Bolivia - Quijarro, the Death Train and Santa Cruz
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We have entered Bolivia via what amounts to a dirt track between Corumba (Brazil) and Quijarro (Bolivia). We are travelling to Santa Cruz, the largest city in Bolivia via a night train, infamously called ´the death train´. There are two schools of thought as to how it got the name. One was that it is on account of the bone crunching and spine jarring journey it provides, which makes you want to throw yourself on the tracks, the other is it got the name from the number of times it derailed in the 1980s. The train is small, just two carriages and takes 13 and a half hours to reach its destination. The set up is a cross between an airline and a night bus, the seats recline a long way, they serve you airplane meals and there is a video playing films - bizarrely they show several very violent movies dubbed in Spanish, considering the families on board you might think that strange but everyone seemed to be lapping it up.
True to its word, the night was an experience not to be forgotten. It was like spending an entire day on a rollercoaster, the runaway train at Disney World comes to mind. It doesn´t go that fast by European trains standards, may be 40 to 50mph but it is fast enough when you get launched in and out of your chair every few moments with you heart in your mouth. You really did feel like it was going to leave the rails and I am sure it did as every so often you would hear the crunch of it landing again on the tracks. I had to stop looking between the vestibules of the two carriages because it started to make me feel dizzy, one carriage seemed to go one way and the one we were on the opposite. We survived and actually managed a few hours sleep too, we were just so exhausted.
The people of Bolivia are far darker and more indigenous and ethnic than their Brazilian neighbours and this is immediately obvious. Bolivia is the most poverty stricken country in South America, although in the few days we have been here we have actually found it far more modern and sophisticted than Southern Brazil. Santa Cruz despite being Bolivia´s biggest city really has a very small town feel. It is based around a Spanish style main square, Plaza 24 de Septembre, which is a scenic spot to watch the world go by. It is lined with palm trees, lovely pavements, manicured lawns and there are lots of tables and benches to sit at. Lots of old folk sit and play chess, families convene on benches, school children feed the pigeons and there are numerous one man shoe shine stalls looking after the suits. The locals wear lovely bright coloured clothes, mostly white with red, yellow and orange designs. You see a lot of older women walking around with large multi coloured bags on their backs full of food or clothes. Julie noticed that the hundreds of small buses that run around are all ex-Hong Kong complete with cantonese livery.
There are some fantasic European style cafe´s, including a place called Alexanders just off the main plaza, which serves the most amazing coffee and wraps, the decor is almost like being in a Costa or a Starbucks. The place has great fridge counters full of all sorts of delicous cakes and muffins. Considirng I haven´t had a good coffee for nearly three weeks I could have kissed the waiter. In fact there are loads of great cafe´s, restaurants (I can recommend Michael Angelo´s, an Italian, and Lorca, which has great live music too), ice-cream parlous and juice bars in Santa Cruz. The architecure is lovely close to the centre, loads of colonial buildings with balconies and French doors, where you can down a chopp (draft beer) and watch the word go by. All in all though there isn´t too much to do in the city itself and the Cathedral is a bit of a let down and once you move out of the centre it is just a grid of drab streets, although you do find the odd designer shop sprinkled about, such as Cartier and Diesel.
We stayed at Hotel Globetrotter, which is fairly central and run by the most kind and gentle old chap I think I have ever met. Esobar speaks numerous langages and is a wealth of knowledge on the area and the whole of Bolivia. I spent a fair but of time asking him about the place. Seems the poorest areas of the city are on the outskirts, but Santa Cruz is probably the most affluent place in the whole country. You do regularly see beggars and he told me that there it is much worse in Sucre and La Paz.
We were only due to spend a day and a nght in Santa Cruz but our local flight to Sucre, which stands at 2,750 metres, was cancelled while we were in the departure hall due to the weather over the city. There was heavy rain and at that altitude it makes it too dangerous to make the short 35 minute hop. As it was 30 degrees outside in Santa Cruz we spent a half day at the local Aqua park, I swear we have been transported to the Balearics. And in the evening we went to the local multi-plex cinema to watch the new James Bond, which was was in English with Spanish subtitles. I didn´t realise but a large potion of it is set in Bolivia, in La Paz and the salt plains, both where we are due to visit in the coming weeks, coinicidence or what.
Where I stayed:
Hotel Globetrotter
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| 12. | Bolivia - Quijarro, the Death Train and Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz, Bolivia Nov 20, 2008 (  2 ) (  2 ) |
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