@ Contact us

.

TRAVEL INFORMATIONS

 

WEATHER Climate in Santa Cruz City and the surrounding area is warm and high humidity because we are in the lowlands of Bolivia (Santa Cruz City is at 1,350 feet/450 meters). warmest time of the year: November through february- 75 to 95 F (22 to 35 C) Coolest: May/July  55 to 75 F (13 to 24 C) We have only two seasons: wet and dry. dry season: November to mid-May rainy season: mid-May to October. The rainy season means lots of cloud cover, especially in the afternoons. It doesn't rain everyday, except September and the first part of October. When it does rain, it is usually from hard to torrential. During the rainy season, there are always a few breaks during which the whether turns gloriously dry and sunny. Noun: Cruceño/a or Camba  WHAT TO WEAR Dress code in Santa Cruz tends to be casual. Clothing should be light and layered. Temperature range can change 20 degrees F between high noon and dinner. Most Santa Cruz buildings has no central heating, so you dress for outside. Keep in mind that evenings can get cool. For those sensitive to sun, bring dark glasses and a hat. Bring comfortable shoes. VOLTAGE Voltage throughout Santa Cruz is 220; nevertheless, you cand find 110 voltage in some hotels. ARRIVAL AT THE AIRPORT Santa Cruz airport procedure is smooth. Once off the plane, you walk down a long corridor, at the end of which is passport control. There is no lines segregated according to nationals and visitors. Some of the queues feed into one receiving slot and others into two. Check this out when choosing your line. Those that feed into two slots generally go twice as fast. At passport control, your passport will be stamped with an ENTRY STAMP, which will indicate the date of entry and permission to remain in the country from 30 to 90 days. Once through passport control, walk straight ahead to the luggage carrousels. Sometimes flight origin is posted, usually not: so, if two belts are running, you have to guess. Free carts, like those in US airports, are available. After picking up your luggage, you will hand in the customs declaration that you got on the plane to someone standing around with a bunch of them in his/hand. Beyond customs are several banks. All charge reasonable exchange rates, so you can get local money if you wish. 14 kilometers from airport to Downtown (about 8 miles). You can get a taxi ride for 5 $us top, or get a bus, 1 $us. Usually, if you have hotel reservations, they take care of your transportation. MONEY MATTERS Bolivia's currency is called boliviano (bolivianos, plural). Current exchange is about Bs 8 to $1.00. Dollars can be used in most restaurants and stores, even taxi rides;however, you may lose on the exchange rate. Credit card are mostly accepted. Dollars Travellers checks are accepted only in exchange offices, but more problematic in some places than credit cards, especially if large denominations. If you bring US$ make sure the bills are without rips, tears or defacing, since they may be rejected. ATMS Located at the airport, at all major hotels, most banks and around city. You can get cash in both dollars and local currency. We recommend you use these and not ATMs on the street. Credit cards Credit cards are usually accepted in tourist areas. Visa and Mastercard are the most common. American Express is less accepted because of its high rate to vendors. In Santa Cruz's Central Market, some few places will take them, but certainly not all. In stores, if you pay cash, you can sometimes negotiate the price down by 10% to 20%, especially in tourist shops and small boutiques. Some smaller establishments will sometimes add an irritating surcharge of 7 to 10% if a credit card is used. In the markets, try for 50% discount. In the local markets, bargaining is much more exuberant. If what tourist is looking for is tourist items, they usually start with a low ball counter offer of 60% to 75% below the original asking price. Happy medium ends up usually between 25% and 50% below asking price. This often works, especially later in the day, and if you walk away feigning indifference. Tipping Rule of thumb is a bit below U.S. standards. Restaurants 10% is usual; 15% if you are exceptionally happy with your service. Most restaurants have taken up the European custom of including the tip in the bill, usually 10%. Watch for this, otherwise you end up tipping twice. EATING Food Local Santa Cruz cuisine is varied, with most restaurants sticking to an "international" repertoire or ethnic (such as Italian, French, argentinian, brazilian). The "soup and sandwich" lunch is a fairly recent import, with places that offer such fare mostly in the café category. Salads As a rule of thumb, steer clear of lettuce. In most restaurants , salads with pealed vegetables (carrots, for example) or tomatoes, both easily washed, are fine. The most common Santa Cruz dishes  such as keperi (corned beef with salad, yuca, and rice and cheese) and majao de charque (beef jerky), are specialties from the Santa Cruz area. There are also unique dishes only served at Santa Cruz.area. We especially recommend the tasty majao de pato (rice and duck, with a fried egg and a fried banana). Unfortunately, experience with some cheap street restaurants that bill themselves as "local cuisine" leads us to recommend that they be avoided for hygiene reasons. RESTAURANTS RESTAURANTS SANTA CRUZ CITY Our favorites for good quality, atmosphere and cleanliness Restaurant Casa Del Camba (local cuisine - recommended) Michelangelo (Italian) Overall, dining at Av. Monseñor Rivero, close to “El Cristo”, you can get almost any kind of meal offer, with a series of restaurants and coffee shops, bars, even a Burger King for your election.  DRINKING Water Outside the hotel, stick to filtered or bottled only. In better restaurants, filtered water is served and fine to drink. Beer Among national beers, the best is reputed to be Paceña Huari (for export). Ducal is also excellent option. The most commonly available foreign beers are German and Mexican. Liquor Local liquor is called Culipi, based on alcohol, sugar and lemon. CONNECTIVITY Phone calls From your hotel, it is best to call using a calling card. If you charge your call to your hotel room, check on surcharges before, which are sometimes over the top. Internet Almost all five star hotels have Internet connectivity, many of them without charge, and others have a surcharge of approximately $10 per day. Some hotels, if you have a laptop you can use Wi fi connection. HEALTH If you need anything while here, Santa Cruz has well proben medical facilities. Remember this private clinics and medical facilities: Clinica Urbari Clinica Foianini Clinica Niño Jesus Clinica del Ojo Farmacia Santa Maria offers meds phone request (3555555) Almost all meds can be procured here, over the counter; however, we recommend that you bring your own minimal "first aid kit", including Pepto Bismal and your favorites, such Tylenol, Advil, etc. to save time and pounding the streets if you need something basic. The best advice for a healthy stay: keep away from “street meals”  and unfiltered/unbottled water. If your bowels go weak on you, or if you start feeling punky or nauseated, ask for medical assistance No self medication please. If you think you picked up something, take care of it here. Local medical service is wise in the ways of tropical diseases. Labs and doctors in non tropical countries often have a hard time identifying things that are a "slam dunk" here. For the really organized: always travel with copies of your prescriptions, including glasses, in case you lose them.   SAFETY The biggest safety threat is the traditional one for popular tourist areas: petty theft and pickpockets. Try not to carry your passport or ticket or large sums of cash around with you. Safety tips are the usual for any big city or heavily trafficked tourist area. Don't walk the streets alone at night. Don't flash wads of cash. If, for some reason you need lots of cash, deposit it in different stashes on your person. Don't wear expensive jewelry on the street: watches, necklaces, designer sunglasses. In non fancy tourist areas (markets, city center, etc.) women: don't carry a purse; men: don't put your wallet in a back pocket. Use a fanny pack or other body clinging container for money. Don't EVER leave anything valuable in a car, even in a parking lot. If you must, put it in the truck where it cannot possibly be seen from outside. Rule-of-thumb for foreign travel is to lighten your wallet before you come. Leave at home all those cards and items you won't need on the trip (cards for debit, supermarket, Blockbuster, local gas station, etc.). Whittle it down to the essential, such as license, frequent flyer card, one or two credit cards, insurance card, etc. You should always leave a copy of your passport with someone reachable back home (just the pages with pertinent ID information). If you should lose your passport while travelling abroad, this makes all the difference in expediting a new one. HEADING HOME Official check-in is at least 2 hours before flight. Step by step at the airport: wait in a sometimes long check-in line (unless first class) get your luggage rifled through (not very thoroughly) agent check-in includes passport control pay US$30 airport tax if not already included in ticket luggage check-in go to entry to concourse show your passport, ticket and little sticker to officials standing in doorway to concourse go through airport "security" (the usual machines, computer can stay in case, no shoe checking) always keep an eye on your stuff on the other side go to gate (about 3 gates, all in a straight line) show your passport and ticket again to enter waiting area go through some sort of security check again (if a U.S. airline, pretty thorough) Precheck Most airlines (Delta is an exception) allow you to precheck up to 24 hours before flight departure. This can be done during normal office hours at designated places (main office and certain hotels). Precheck takes care of ticket check-in, seat assignment, passport control, departure tax payment. Advantages? You can arrive later to the airport and stand in fewer lines. At the airport, all you have left is to check your luggage (use first class or designated precheck line). If you have just hand luggage, you just pay your tax (if not done at precheck) and head for the concourse. If scheduling allows, we recommend precheck. Take with you: passport, ticket and enough CASH to pay for departure tax, if necessary (credit card NOT accepted for this payment).