Santa Cruz (department, Bolivia) tourist information
Santa Cruz (department, Bolivia) tourist information
Santa Cruz de la Sierra or Santa Cruz city is a boomtown whose population has increased tenfold in the last 25 years, it is almost in the center of Bolivia and is the capital city of the department of Santa Cruz. It lies at one end of the Death Train's line.
This department concentrates 27% of the country´s population, several of the major universities of Bolivia and it's responds for over 30% of the country wealth production, forty something percent of the national taxes. It´s population is variate, some 40% of it´s inhabitants were born elsewhere (mainly in the rest of the Bolivian departments). They seek what more of what they cal they call "Autonomia" which means autonomy and intends to separate more functions from the central government in a way similar to Spain government system, more independent and locally managed. In this country like many others of South America, citizens have to support the burden of time and cost of doing most bureaucratic administrative procedures from far away from La Paz in a corrupt and inefficient system.
When the Spaniards originally arrived to these lands, they came from Paraguay and Argentina. The local indigenous peoples came from two lines, or as they are called Tupi-Guarani. The first, the Tupi originally came from the Caribbean through the Amazon jungle down to these latitudes. The Guarani´s came here down the Atlantic coast through what today is Brazil and Argentina, and upriver from there. They were the original humans in this region and they had gone well into the lower Andes. In actual times it is only possible to find possible reminders of the onetime greatness of this two cultures in Moxos (Beni department) or in southern Bolivia or northern Argentina and it requires investigation because little is known and they are not part of touristic routes.
The blend of these three and other latecomers are the local native population, they call themselves "Camba or Cambas". These people are mostly of peasant origin that dedicated itself to farming related activities, this still is the main department´s activity. Today, with the migrations of this last quarter century these people are maybe around one half of the local population. One interesting characteristic of this region is that most of the more recently arrived inhabitants have integrated fairly well. Obviously there are exceptions to this. Being a land with so many bloods, sympathy and tolerance to outsiders is fairly high by any standard.
One interesting characteristic of the "Cruceños" or people from Santa Cruz is that apparently they prefer not having to work in public services (Government, armed forces, police, diplomatic services, church, others) and as some one said, they don´t migrate, they just move around. This probably explains why of some 100 Bolivian presidents in almost two centuries, only three were from Santa Cruz department. And all three were military, which is a factor that changes people through doctrines imbeded into its members during their careers.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Santa Cruz (department, Bolivia)
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Santa Cruz (department, Bolivia) - updated May 2024
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Santa Cruz (department, Bolivia) Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
