5 Reasons Why to Start Your Bolivian Adventure in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Santa Cruz de la Sierra is the ideal prelude to any trip to Bolivia with its rather low altitude, tropical savanna climate, and plenty of history, culture, and nature to explore within easy reach of Bolivia’s fastest growing city. Another upside: this secret gem is off the tourist path!

In a country famous for its high Andean peaks, Santa Cruz lays at only 400 meters (1,312 ft) above sea level, far from the 3,640 meters (11,942 ft) of La Paz that gives headaches to any visitor who has not acclimatized. If 400 meters is too low to start producing more red blood cells and prepare for the higher altitudes of Salar de Uyuni, Potosi, or Lake Titicaca, it is ideal to get used to Bolivia and its food that has been known to upset many foreign stomachs.

The first approach to the historical center of the second largest city of Bolivia, home to 2.5 million inhabitants, may seem unassuming, yet a certain charm emanates from its many contrasts: high-end restaurants in lovely colonial buildings operate alongside street food stalls, women in traditional outfits run shoulders with locals wearing urban street wear, rough around the edges marketplaces are a few blocks away from posh malls, Mennonites sell their cheese to Bolivian youngsters in sweat pants. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).