Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Aerial view of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz de La Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital city of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia. With a population of 1,528,683 inhabitants (2006 official estimate), Santa Cruz is the largest city in Bolivia.
The city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra is located in the eastern part of the country (17°45', South, 63°14', West) at 416 m above sea level. This city is part of the province of Andres Ibañez and it's the capital of the department (state) of Santa Cruz Bolivia.
The weather is semi-tropical, with an average annual temperature around 21 °C (or 70 °F). Although the weather is generally warm all year round, cold wind patterns, called "surazos", can blow in occasionally (especially in the winter) from the Argentine pampas making the temperature drop considerably. The months of greater rainfall are January and February.
Santa Cruz de La Sierra was first founded on February 26, 1561 by Ñuflo de Chávez who gave the new settlement its name, which means "Holy Cross of the Hills," in honor of his beloved native city in Extremadura, Spain. The original settlement was actually 220 km east of its current location, only a few kilometers south of today's San José de Chiquitos. After conflicts with the indigenous population, the town was moved to its present location on the banks of Piraí River in 1592. Remnants of the original settlement can be visited in Santa Cruz la Vieja ("Old Santa Cruz"), an archeological site South of San José de Chiquitos.
Gastronomy
The city of Santa Cruz has benefited from a fast paced growing economy for the last 15 years. This has allowed for a multicultural and ethnically diverse city to develop. Despite its fast growth, the city preserves much of its traditions and culture. This is particularly reflected in its typical foods. The agricultural richness of the region allows Santa Cruz to enjoy a vast variety of flavours and ingredients. The following is a list which describes the most typical foods:
Typical Foods
- Picante de Pollo (chicken in a red hot salsa served with a portion of rice and yuca
- Majao or Majadito (a rissoto style plate which includes charque, duck or chicken meat.)
- Locro (a very dense, rice based soup containing vegetables and chicken)
- Sopa de maní ( Another dense soup, whose base is made of cooked peanuts, crushed and boiled)
- Masaco (smashed plantain with charque(sun dried meat)Also made with yuca and charque)
Typical Drinks
- Mocochinchi (this rather strange looking drink consist of sun dried peaches which are boiled with honey and clove)
- Somó (white corn based drink, served cold, very refreshing)
- Chicha (alcoholic drink made by fermenting white corn).
Typical Pastries
- Cuñapé (yuca and cheese baked as small bread bunds)
- Zonzo (yuca and cheese, boiled and mixed in a type of mashed potato consistency, oven baked or grilled)
- Empanada de arroz
- Empanada de queso
- Empanada de jigote
- Empanada de carne
- Bizcocho de trigo
- Masaco de plátano
- Masaco de yuca
- Arepa
- Salteña
- Queque
Trivia
- The city's street layout currently consists of a concentric ring model.
- There are several Japanese-manufactured taxi cabs throughout the city. The steering wheels have been modified to the left side of these vehicles, thus earning them the name of "transformers" (transformed).
- Mobile kiosk fast food establishments began to appear in the early 1980s decade, most notably Hamburguesas TOBY and Hamburguesas King Burger. Smaller clandestine kiosks serve soda in a small plastic bag with a straw.
- The Spanish language of Bolivia's eastern lowlands (the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando) is referred to as "Camba Spanish". Aside from local idioms and vernacular, the distinctive, phonological traits of Camba Spanish include the aspiration of the /s/ syllable final (similar to Caribean Spanish) and the infrequent use of the voseo pronoun instead of tú in informal address. The use of vos is spoken with more frequency within the department of Tarija in southern Bolivia.
- Santa Cruz de la Sierra is a major fashion and modeling hub in Bolivia. Cruceños pride themselves in winning the most Bolivian beauty pageant titles, including the Miss Bolivia pageant whose delegate continues her representation at the Miss Universe pageant. For this reason, Cruceños colloquially honor their city as "La Capital de la Belleza Amazonía" ("The Capital of the Amazon Beauty"). In conjunction, Cruceños spend the highest per capita sales of personal care and beauty products in Bolivia.
- Las Magníficas de Pablo Manzoni is a modeling troupe and agency that conducts showcases of Bolivia's top fashion models; several of them being from Santa Cruz. The showcase is heralded as one of Bolivia's most pretigious fashion and modeling events, having recently acquired international appeal and interest.
- The city is home to Palmasola prison