entrance to Bolivia
We flew to Santa Cruz with Aerosur. This time was my first time hearing about this airline and of course flying with it. This is a small Bolivian airline. Maybe not my 1st option to fly, but was the only one with a direct flight to Santa Cruz.
Well, I don’t like to say bad things about anything or anyone, but I have to be honest too. I didn’t enjoy this flight very much. Why? Well, they didn’t turn on the air conditioned until we were flying. The departure was late, so we spent almost 40min, waiting and sweating, oh no!!!!! They served some food, but there was a strange and disgusting smell. That’s why we called Aerosur: Aeropedo.
arriving to the hotel
We were laughing as 2 children. The aircrew tried to be nice, but the conditions weren’t the best.
We arrived to Santa Cruz around 6pm and we had a small problem. It was my fault ��" I accept it. My boss and I were doing the line to go through customs. I showed my passport and Yellow Fever certificate and was ready to keep on going, but my boss couldn’t pass. What happened? He needed a Visa to visit Bolivia. I didn’t know about that!!!! I felt so bad and responsible. And he was so worried… One of the authorities approached to me, because I was the one who spoke Spanish and gave me a form. It was so incredible! You can just fill a form at the airport and they will give you a visa. So, my boss got a visa for 5 years! Wow!
A taxi was waiting for us.
trying another beer - Pacena
It wasn’t dark when we arrived. Usually when you think about Bolivia, you imagine somewhere in highlands and cold. But Santa Cruz is in the Rainforest and is really warm, besides the humidity. Santa Cruz is a small city, we could notice that since the minute we were landing. While we were arriving to Buenos Aires, we saw many lights and buildings, but in Santa Cruz we just saw fields and a couple of small houses.
The drive from the airport to the hotel took around 40min, including the time we had to wait for our bags and the time we spent trying to get the visa. Santa Cruz reminded me a lot about the cities at the Peruvian rainforest because of the weather and also about Trujillo in the north, because its designed in circles or "Anillos" as they called them.
with the best waiter ever!!! Thanks, Geimber!!!!
We arrived to the hotel. The staff was really friendly and the hotel was really nice. I called my friend just to let her know we arrived and everything was ok. After that we just had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We didn’t want to go out, not because we were tired, but we didn’t like very much the neighborhood… well, it was dark and we could hardly see something about it. Next day we noticed that the neighborhood was very nice.
I have heard that Bolivia is cheap, but didn’t have any idea how cheap it is! The restaurant was really good. As welcome drink I asked for the Camino Real Singani. Camino Real is the name of the hotel and Singani is a local liquor made of grapes. The waiter told me it’s similar to the pisco. It reminds me to a drink made with pisco. For dinner I had a vegetarian dish, but Blair tried something local: Pique, which had salted beef, hotdogs, French fries, tomatoes, hot red pepper and rice. Too heavy for me, especially at night.
After a cheap and really delicious meal, we went to the business center, checked our emails and went to sleep. I asked for a wake up call at 6:30am, so I could do some exercise before meeting my customers.
Really good restaurant, but cheap
La Tranquera Restaurant is located inside the Camino Real hotel. It has a great view of the hotel's exotic gardens.
For breakfast, you can enjoy a delicious buffet. You find different kind of fruits, juices, coffee, eggs, ham, cheese, bread, etc.
For lunch and dinner you can enjoy their specialty: grilled meats, international or typical dishes. Also the desserts are very tasty!
The enviroment is really good, but the best is the service! The staff is just amazing. They take really good care of you and don't want you to move any finger. They would even put you a bib if you ate something grilled.
And... it's cheap ;)
Pique a lo macho
Camino Real Singani
Affordable luxury tropical hotel
This is a "Tropical" 5 * Hotel. It has 4 floors and luxurious rooms. Maybe because of the luxury, you might think it's expensive. But not at all! Well, it's not a budget one, but paying US$75 for a 5 * hotel, including a welcome drink, breakfast buffett, gym, pool and great service... this is more than great!
The atmosphere is really nice. The hotel is surrounded by exotic gardens and has a nice swimming pool with a waterfall. The staff is super friendly. There is also a travel agent, who will help you with your flight and there is always water, lemonade and cookies at the frontdesk. The business center is complete too. The only thing that was missing was air condition in the gym.
The hotel has also a restaurant: "La Tranquera" which is very good too. It deserves its own review ;)
nice bedrooms
palms inside the hotel
nice surroundings
so sweet!!!
