Santa Cruz de la Sierra Walking Tour, Santa Cruz History Museum, Independence Museum, Historical Museum of the Heroes of the Chaco War, Santa Cruz de la Sierra Botanical Garden
For a change, I had a relatively short ride from Samaipata to Santa Cruz, about three hours (not including the time waiting for the minibus to fill up). I checked into a hostel, and after some chatting with other backpackers I was invited to a walking tour.
We met our guide at the main square, and our tour took place more or less around it. The guide was friendly, informative (and not in a robotic kind of way), and seemed like he enjoyed showing us his city. We went around different streets as well, although we didn’t go too far away, looking at some buildings from the outside, and going into a couple of others. We didn’t have many questions, so the tour went by pretty fast, and ended the tour pretty where we started.
After some food and rest, I headed over to the Santa Cruz History Museum, and only realized I was there during the tour after I walked in. It was in the middle of a renovation process, so only the second floor was open, but it was free to enter. Since the tour went by without going into too much detail, I went back and looked at a couple of rooms I visited previously, at a slower pace, and even found a couple of rooms which were new to me, with photos and signs talking about different events in the city’s history.
Next, I visited the Independence Museum, although the title felt questionable in this case. It was a small place with two rooms in it and not much on display. When I entered, I was told to register and pay the entry fee. After that, one of the two women working there provided a “guided tour” of this small space, at a high speed, and didn’t seem to care much whether I’m able to follow along and understand her. It was maybe ten minutes later, possibly a bit more, that she ended her high-speed lecture, and left me to go around on my own, read the signs, and take a few photos. It didn’t feel worth it to me, and I quickly left the place.
Another short walk around the city led me to the Museum of the Chaco War. It was a small place, just one room, although there were a fair few displays in there, along with some signs I didn’t quite follow regarding some events of the war. From there I intended to go to the Arenal Park, but it was closed at the time I was there.
My time in Santa Cruz concluded with a short visit to the botanical garden. After getting a bit confused with the map, I realized there were two main parts to it- One was the actual garden, the other was a forest area. The latter was considerably larger, and not that interesting to me. The only thing that seemed interesting there was an observation tower, but the stairs either broke or were deliberately removed, and there was no way to access it. After a little while I also started to feel disoriented, and decided to turn around.
The garden section was more interesting, with a cactus area, a small lagoon, and some pops of colors which I liked. Overall, it was a bit more than okay, but could certainly be skipped. There was a lot in there to look at.
Once more, it was time to wrap things up and say goodbye to another country. For me, La Paz was the only worthy point of interest, but I also feel like I didn’t explore the south of Bolivia in the way I wanted to. Uyuni was disappointing, and while Tupiza was interesting, it’s a long way away from La Paz. Sucre was a place I enjoyed relaxing in, taking a little break from traveling, but that, too, could’ve been skipped. I could’ve flown in and out of the Andes, and not feel like I missed out on anything. More areas like that would’ve been more interesting.