Flight to Santa Cruz - Dec 4, 2005

It was a bit of a detour to go to Santa Cruz via La Paz, but there you go. The baggage checks in Sucre airport were manual and rather perfunctory. Apart from a little turbulence, there was not much to exite us during the flight and that held also for the chicken sandwich they served. Three hours to kill at La Paz airport, internet machines are all on the blink, so I am taught such high-level card games as "Shithead" and "Cheat". Well, it kills a few hours. The baggage checks upon leaving are now for real and sure enough they find the Swiss army knife that I had entirely forgotten about. Luckily they still let me check my backpack in. Before I do, I slipped a few more forgotten knives in it, to save others from the same predicament.

The second leg brought us to Santa Cruz, a city that over recent decades has grown from 30,000 inhabitants to some two million. It does not have the third-world feel of Lima and La Paz, but rather feels like any big city in Europe or the USA. It is our first 4star and that applies rather to the space in the room that to the other facilities. Next to the lobby is an office with a glass wall, two internet stations are in there. One seems to have fever and the video controller in the other has gone so the image swims across the screen, but it is on a big desk with a leather chair that reminds me of my last office. While I am working Karen comes in and pointing at the other machine that is at an angle in front of the desk, asks if she can be my secretary. Well I am not sure if you have the right qualifications I say. "I am almost finished with my marketing study", she says, well she has been marketing herself with some succes over the last days, so may be she has a quality after all.

All the young ones are now off to enjoy the nightlife of Santa Cruz. They kindly invited me to come along but I have work to do on my weblog. Imagine me drinking out there until 4.00 a.m. in the nightclub.... Not that I wouldn't beat them on the alcohol intake, but it does not hold the same interest as it did many years ago.

The next morning at breakfast it is clearly visible that there is a quality Karen does not have, holding her liquor, apparently she went from wodka to champagne somewhere during the night because that was a bit cheaper, now housecleaning has a little bit of extra work.

The picture of Santa Cruz shows that the "Sucre" charm is sorely lacking.