Bolivia: Santa Cruz and Aqualand

Hello everyone, I hope that you are very well! Today I'm going to continue with the second part of my trip to Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.

After having met Judith and her family through cough-surfing, we stayed to eat breakfast together at home. On that day we bought some empanadas that we found in a bakery nearby, and she also bought some little baguettes and we ate together the three of us in the morning. Despite it having rained the night before, it was a beautiful day and you could be wearing a polo top and trousers in the streets without getting cold.

After this, Judith had to leave to go to work and her daughter went to the grandparent's house so that she wasn't alone. So I was once again in the Plaza Central de Santa Cruz seeing a little more of the city and exploring some museums.

The interior of the Santa Cruz de la Sierra Cathedral:

On the second day I could take advantage of being able to enter into the Santa Cruz de la Sierra Cathedral - I want to share it with you so that you can see how beautiful it is:

As you can realise, the churches here are very tall and with wooden ceilings. Right next to the city of Santa Cruz there are excursions that allow you to travel to the giant churches made by Jesuit missionaries at a time when they started religious missions. When I heard about it from the pamphlets I read I was very interested because, as you know, I am passionate about architecture and I wanted to go and find out why these constructions are now considered UNESCO World Heritage Sites. .

Unfortunately, I couldn't go to this place but if you guys have time to go then make sure you do! In my case I could not go because I had thought to go to a National Park known as Amborro, in the area of Buenavista about two hours away from the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

A provocative gallery:

After visiting the church inside the same plaza, I found an art gallery. As I had not entered any museum in the city yet, I was desperate to discover it! When I entered, I found a temporary exhibition from a Bolivian artist that truthfully I would mislead you with the name because I can't remember it but his art was, let's say, a little daring. It was inspired by the sexual and sensual parts, the artist reflected a clear intention of wanting to make one's imagination fly when contemplating his works of art, here are some of them:

Heading to Buenavista:

Finally, after having stayed in the gallery, I decided to take a bus to bring me to Buenavista to see the National Park. Just on the way, so you can see the coincidences of desire that one also wants to visit one thing and finally decides for another, I saw through the bus window that there was a water park called Aqualand and it caught my attention but, as I was going to Buenavista, I couldn't go there, however on a trip anything can happen!

When I arrived at Buenavista I found that the town was small and pleasant. Right there I began to walk through its streets to browse as I walked for a short while. Quickly I decided to stay there to buy an ice cream and sit on one of the benches in the square, no doubt one of the most beautiful things of this part were the large trees inside it, so I remained there among its shadows by the leaves eating my rich ice cream.

From there I noticed that there was a travel agency inside the square, so I took the opportunity to ask for information about how I would go to the Amboro National Park. I was told that I was the only traveler that had arrived at the time so if I wanted to do so we had to leave right now to enjoy it fully. What I do remember is that it was not going to cost me money since you have to prepare a van and a special guide to go to the park of Amboro, the natural reserve that Judith had recommended to me.

In Amboro you will find, as I mentioned, a protected area and it is considered one of the areas with the greatest diversity of both flora and fauna in Bolivia and the world! Therefore, since there were no visitors with me, I could only think quickly about whether I should pay almost 100 dollars for my private tour or go to Aqualand. Two totally different things - I know!

After thinking about it and realising that I didn't want to have a private tour and pay that amount of money I told them, and I decided to stay and eat at Buenavista in the square, and from there I took a bus that took me to Aqualand and began my moment of relaxation.

Finally realxing in Aqualand:

When I was on the bus I remembered the road where I had seen the sign, so I told the driver to help and give me a shout when we were close so I could get off there. Thankfully, he had no problem in doing so and in no time at all from Buenavista, I was already at the entrance to Aqualand.

Aqualand is a water park, and what really caught my attention is that they had some large pools with wave machines. This made me remember when I saw them a lot in the sea and at that moment I remembered again that Bolivia does not have access to the Pacific Ocean and perhaps it is because of this as to why the wave is one of the main attractions for the people of Santa Cruz. In addition to being at the eastern end of Bolivia, close to what would be Brazil and Paraguay, the journey to the beaches of Peru and Chile is not at all short.

As I had not planned this, I had to buy a swimsuit at Aqualand itself. Uf I am not mistaken, it cost me about 40 bolivianos approximately. I relaxed there and there were also tubes in the pools from the top, it was a whole complex that just relaxed me because, as I was telling you, dear friends, I believe that Santa Cruz took charge of filling me with energy after having been in Bolivia already for almost a week and a half travelling by bus and sometimes sleeping pressed against the seat and with the Huayco that touched me to live in Sucre (? ), this water park replenished my energy.

When you go there I recommend that you get in like children, that you don't care what other are saying, there are also adults who do it and play with a big bucket; I'll show you in the next picture that I took, it throws a wonderful jet of water all over your body and really relaxes you to the max, something that I recommend you to do - definitely - and you'll feel like you're in a spa for free!

If you don't know how to swim like me at that time, you might as well throw yourself at the tube even if you're an adult you won't drown because if you were afraid you can find lifeguards everywhere in the park and when you climb down from that high part you have a very nice view of Santa Cruz. Here they are so you can see how flat it is here... simply wonderful!

There were two guys there who were taking pictures of those who wanted one and then they put all the printed photos on the wall so that you could locate yours and buy it, the truth is that I didn't do that because I had my own camera, but here I have shares them for you to see:

It really seemed to me that all the photos together formed a real work of art and it was worth being able to photograph it so don't hesitate to do so!

I stayed in Aqualand until they kicked me out because I felt so relaxed that I didn't feel like leaving, but the night was about to come and people were also leaving so I'm just getting ready to go out.

Without a doubt, I recommend that you visit Santa Cruz de la Sierra as you will have as good of a time as I did during your stay in this beautiful city.

Time to say goodbye:

After this I returned to the centre of town by bus and I returned to Judith's house to say goodbye to her and her daughter. Here I took the time to give her a polo shirt of Peru and as it was too big for her she could at least use it as pyjamas. Truthfully, I would love to come back to see them as we got on so well and I told them that if they were to come to my country one day that they should give me a shout. Thanks to their recommendations I got to see and know many things in Santa Cruz and I loved this city so much, more than I thought I would and it is such a shame to have to say goodbye and move onto my next destination. Cochabamba is where I stayed for just a bit due to the fact that I had to take another bus from there to La Paz and then from there to Copacabana and finally to arrive to Puno. Then I left to go to Juliaca to take my flight as my holidays were over and I needed to return to my job in Lima.

This route from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba was suggested by Judith so, thanks to her advice, I was able to get to know the next city where I really only stayed four hours on the cable car heading for the second largest cross in the world.

It was time for me to say goodbye to Judith and her daughter. I thanked her for everything she had done for me, took my backpack from the grandmother's house and they accompanied me to the terminal to continue my route back to Cochabamba.

I hope that you have liked this second part of Santa Cruz; a green land in all its majesty with a tropical climate and great people with great vibes. I encourage you to visit Aqualand, to find people on Couchsurfing and to go to the gallery found in the plaza where you will always find new things.

Thank you so much for reading the second part of my experience in Santa Cruz de la Sierra! See you in Cochabamba! Until next time!

Photo gallery