Santa Cruz de la Sierra

[Doug 97]

Your best bet for a short term stay in Santa Cruz is to try the extended stay suites (i.e. serviced apartments) at the Camino Real hotel, which most of the expats live at on a month to month basis. It runs about $1100/mo but it is 5-star quality. I imagine that shorter term arrangements can be made.

Buganvillas has condo for a long/short term stay in. You may get a deal below $500/mo for a 2BR. The hotel is very nice too, and the cost may be the same as Camino Real.

Try the Cartagena nearby (10min walking). Girls are from the 5 - 8 scale. The place is very safe. It costs $20US or $40+$20(bar fine) for a night. Things start happening around 9pm. Fridays and Saturdays have more variety.

[Admin]

Too Jaded,

That would be my fault as I didn't decide to go until the day before the flight, and thus I didn't do any real advanced preparation except for reading a printed version of the forum while on the flight.

We'll be sure to contact you before the next trip.

Thanks,

Jackson

[Too Jaded]

Jackson,

Glad that you and Rock were able to make it and have such a good time. Too bad I missed you at the bar or Ivo's, but I am glad that some of the info I was able to provide helped out. As someone living and working here I can say that you are spot on about everything, only it has taken me two months to figure as much out.

I have a couple personal favorite galls I call that I can share next time...

2J

[Admin]

Greetings Everyone,

Three friends and I took a break from the chicas in Buenos Aires and spent a weekend in Santa Cruz. The information previously posted in this thread was generally accurate, so all I'm really going to do here is collate the info. I also see that my buddy Tictoc is still alive and kicking, and I can tell you that you can trust the accuracy of his previous reports herein.


Hotels

Hotel Camino Real
Equipetrol Norte Y 4to Anillo (4th ring road)
Casilla 2130
Telephone 591 3 3423535
hotel@caminoreal.com.bo
www.caminoreal.com.bo

This is the perversly expensive ($95 USD/night) hotel where we stayed. They rated themselves as a 5 star place, but I didn't rate it any more than 4 stars. The hotel was chica-friendly, they had internet connections in the rooms for only $5 USD per night more, and the pool area was nice.

Los Tajibos aka "El Conquistador"
Ave San Martin 455
Telephone (591-3) 3421000/4
santacruz@lostajiboshotel.com
www.lostajiboshotel.com

This is the hotel that is essentially across the street from The Montreal Pub (see below) and is apparently the hotel of choice for many visiting sport fuckers. It's approximately the same quality as Camino Real but the room rates were more in the $60-75 USD range or less depending upon the usual factors.

Hotel Caparuch
Av San Martin 1717 (Sirari)
Telephone 591 3 342-3303
caparuch@entelnet.bo
www.hotelcaparuch.com

Another place we inspected as a potential future place to stay.

Hotel Tropical Inn
Calle Espana 351/353
Telephone 3346613 / 3145886
hotel_tropicalinn@hotmail.com

Another place we inspected as a potential future place to stay.

Yotau Suites 5 Star Hotel
Av. San Martin 7
Barrio Equipeteol
Bolivia, South America

Another place we inspected as a potential future place to stay.

Royal Hotel
Ave San Martin 200
Telephone 591-3 3438000
royalhotel@unete.com
ventas@royallodgehotel.net
www.royallodgehotel.net

The Royal Hotel is a new facility that is right down the street from the Camino Real. It appears to have all the right amenities, and the prices were more in the $50USD per night range. My associates and I concluded that this is where we would probably stay during our next visit.


Restaurants

Food is very cheap and was of generally good quality in Santa Cruz. Each night my associates and I continued to ask for recommendations to the most expensive places in the city, and on each night we were taken to progressively more upscale places, but even the mid-priced restaurants did a great job, and in our opinion the variety of food was superior to the bland fare we generally get in Buenos Aires.

Los Hiorros Steak House and Bar
Av Monsenor Rivero #300
Telephone 337-1309

A good, mid-upper scale steak house that served steaks that were every bit as good as the steaks in Buenos Aires.

Chalet La Suisse
Calle Los Gomeros No.98 Sirari
Santa Cruz - Bolivia
Telephone (591-3) 3436070
Casilla 2160
santacruz@chaletlasuisse.com
www.chaletlasuisse.com

Excellent food, I recommend it.

Candelabro
Calle 7 Oesta (Cordoba) No 9
Telephone (591-3) 337-7271
restaurantecandelabro@entelnet.bo

This was unquestionably one of the most expensive restaurants in Santa Cruz. We were seated in the outside patio next to the small pool. Everything we tried was excellent, including the seafood which we simply don't get in Buenos Aires. We did a full course meal, and the bill for all three of us including a generous tip was under 500 Bolivanos (approximately $60 USD for everything)


Expat Hangouts

The Montreal Pub
3rd Anillo Externo
Across the street from the Convention Center entrance
of the Los Tajibos Hotel

The Montreal Pub is certainly a friendly place, and it didn't take long after we entered for locals to just come right up and introduce themselves. We did notice while we were there that there were certainly several attractive women who were somewhat "friendly", but one also got the impression that they expected at least a little seduction effort on your part.


Clubs

Curry's
Av. Cristo Redentor
Barrio 12 de Octorbe, calle #2
Telephone 3426116

Curry's is probably the 2nd nicest club in Santa Cruz. Medium sized, with a reasonable show which I never give a fuck about but I know some guys do. 30b for entry includes one drink. $30USD bar fine, plus a universal $50 USD for the chicas. The chicas were 6-8, with an occasional 9 depending upon your rating scale.

Caesar's Palace
Caesar's Palace is easliy the nicest club of it's type in Santa Cruz, although I don't have an address for this club because every time I asked for a card, they couldn't find one. Nevertheless, it's across the street and approximately one block down from Curry's. Obviously, every cab driver will know where it is.

Caesar's Palace is a BIG club with two runways, lots of space and lots of chicas. Same price structure as Curry's. I would recommend it as a "must visit" place.

Cafe Show International aka "Show Club"
Calle Tarija #399 esq. Republiquetas

This club is not in a good part of town, the 5 star self-anointed rating is a complete joke, and by many respects it's a dive. I liked it! The girls that work there all take turns dancing and stripping nude on the center, floor level stage. The prices for drinks were insignificant, although we continued to get the usual $50 USD per session price quotes from the chicas.


Casa de Putas

Although I am sure that the city has it's share of brothels, we only visited "Las Pinas". I think I got the name correct, but I have some doubt because I noted that the street address was Las Pirias 276. Anyway, it was a single-story house in a residential neighborhood. We sat in the living room, drank beers and were introduced to the chicas as they filtered in at their leisure. My associates described it well as having the feeling of a high school house party. None of us saw anything that met our minimum standards so we left after hanging around for about half an hour.


Street Girls

As noted in other posts, a primary hangout for street walkers is the plaza in front of the Palace of Justice, which is the local courthouse. My associates and I did some scouting, but they were generally below my minimum.


Other Notes

1. The city layout is easy to learn with a traditional "old town" center area, a series of streets radiating therefrom (called "radials", with numbers), and encircled by a series of 4 ring roads (Anillos). The 4th ring road is only partially completed at this time.

2. The currency is the Bolivano, which on this date was worth about 8 per USD. The Bolivano is worthless outside the country, so spend whatever you have while you're there because there's no place to exchange them outside Bolivia.

3. There is obviously a strong combination of oil and cocaine money in the city, with lots of new luxury car dealerships, lots of expensive cars on the roads, and large luxury homes built perodically in the middle of the general squalor.

4. The ATM's worked everywhere we tried them. No problems.

5. Taxis are cheap but they do not have meters and they are not readly available on the street. The practice is to contract with a taxi driver, typically in front of your hotel, to drive you to and from your destination. The price is cheap at $30 B per hour ($4 USD per hour) so it's easy to get a driver for the entire evening for 20-30 bucks.

6. There apparently are no escort websites in Santa Cruz. If anyone knows of one, please post it here.

7. The hotels generally do not permit their employees to get involved in procuring chicas for guests, so all inquiries are referred to the taxi drivers who are all to happy to show you their photo albums of available chicas. What was funny was that every photo album or stack of photos we reviewed all included the nationality of the chica written on the photo, and not one of them was Bolivian. There were girls from Paraguay, Ecuador and Peru, with a few Brazilians, but no Bolivian chicas. Again the price was stuck at $50 USD per hour.

8. Just like with the taxi driver's photos, the better looking girls in the clubs were not Bolivian. For sure there were Bolivian women working in the clubs, but none of them approached my minimum standards.

9. The "Party Area" is an area called Equipetrol on the NW side of the city. It's essentially a street with a number of clubs, bars and discos. I don't remember the street name, but any taxi driver will know where it is. As will be obvious on any evening, the city residents are apparently fond of parking their SUV's on the side of the street in Equipetrol and partying all night right out of their vehicles.

10. There is a fucking $28 USD exit fee at the airport.


Final Observations

We originally targeted Santa Cruz in anticipation that the female descendants of the Europeans that generally settled the eastern half of Bolivia would be of the style that would appeal to my associates and I. Unfortunately, while there were lots of attractive women fitting the basic criteria, they weren't working in the clubs, which were instead filled with girls from other parts of South America. Hell, I can get all the Paraguayans I want in Buenos Aires. In addition, the generally quoted price of $50 USD is also the same as in Buenos Aries, so what's the point of traveling 1,500 miles for the same thing?

For sure, as I said, there were lots of taller, thin, lighter skinned, attractive women in Santa Cruz, but they weren't interested in being picked up by tourists. I watched the two young, Spanish-fluent American turks I was traveling with try for several hours to engage in conversations with these women in the discos, all to no avail.

I think Santa Cruz is possibly a good city to consider living in, with cheap food and housing costs, a warm climate and the potential to meet local women if you lived there, but I can't recommend it as a sport fucking destination.

Thanks,

Jackson

[TicToc]

Does anybody know if we can use a US-issued ATM/Debit card in Santa Cruz for cash? After reading Santa Cruz section, I am encouraged to stop by Santa Cruz for my up-coming S. America trip and usually don't bring cash down there.

Thanks,

Chute

Chute,

Not a problem. All the ATMs will work with US cards.

Enjoy,

TicToc

[Badis]

Does anybody know if we can use a US-issued ATM/Debit card in Santa Cruz for cash? After reading Santa Cruz section, I am encouraged to stop by Santa Cruz for my up-coming S. America trip and usually don't bring cash down there.

Thanks,

Chute

Visa and Mastercard worked in the ATM's for me.

B

[Chute]

Does anybody know if we can use a US-issued ATM/Debit card in Santa Cruz for cash? After reading Santa Cruz section, I am encouraged to stop by Santa Cruz for my up-coming S. America trip and usually don't bring cash down there.

Thanks,

Chute

[Rock Harders]

Mongers,

I've just more or less finished a 5 days stint in Santa Cruz de La Sierra (I leave in about 10 hours) and its time I write that extensive report I promised. Well, I arrived on Thursday 10 May with several well known Buenos Aires characters (including Jackson himself) and we ended up staying the entire time at the Camino Real Hotel, located just outside the Equipetrol neighborhood. Since we had a reservation, three of us paid $98 USD per night while Jackson got away with a walk up rate of $85 USD. My room had two queen size beds, which made for a nice fuckbed/ sleeping bed combination. I definetly have to give the hotel its due for the extensive services it offers, from 24 room service, to 24 hour car service, good food, and knowledgeable staff. The hotel car service is dirt cheap in that it goes for 30 bolivianos (slightly less than $4 USD) per HOUR. The hotel car service drivers have a photo album of about 10 different chicas that go for $50 USD for an hour and a half. Two of my buddies test drove the chicas with mixed results, although bareback was definetly available from all the chicas surveyed.

We made it to three different clubs, two high end (Caesar's Palace and Curry's) and one low end (Cafe Show). Caesar's Palace and Curry's were more or less the same, drinks were ridiculously cheap but the bar fine to get the chica out for the night was $50 USD at both places. I got the same girl out of Caesar's Palace Thursday and Friday night, took Saturday off, and had the same girl over for a freebie on Sunday (her day off). Her name, Reina (not real name), a 22 year old very hot Crucena, gave a very good performance, and they got better each night we were together. By the end of the second night and all of the third, full bareback and a great experience overall. Caesar's Palace and Curry's are directly across the street from each other, the low end club, Cafe Show is located in the centro. Cafe Show had about 30 or more chicas but only about 4 doable girls, some of the girls were 250 pound hogs, and they wanted the same prices as the girls at Caesars/Currys. The two high end clubs had an assortment of very hot chicas, and keep in mind that the vast majority of chicas at these three clubs were NOT Bolivians, mostly Paraguayans, with some Ecuadoreans, Brasilians, and Colombians thrown in.

The taxi drivers know about private houses that resemble a high school party with native girls hanging out and drinking, and you can buy drinks and fuck the girls if you want to. The quality at the place we stopped at was low and not cheap enough to make it worthwhile.

I ate at three different restuarants, Casa de Camba (a traditional Cruceno place), Los Hierros, and La Suisse, all of which were good. Los Hierros had the best steak in town and honestly rivaled the finer parrillas in Buenos Aires for quality, at dirt cheap prices. La Suisse was more upscale and more expensive but still cheap, and had a good variety of seafood, and exotic dishes such as llama, duck, and the like. Although I did not go to them, there are McDonalds and Burger King available, along with Subway (which I did eat at the airport).

My overall impression of this place is that it is definetly worth a stop as it is a nice small city with hot pussy available and dirt cheap prices for everything except for the pussy prices themselves. As a result of this being Bolivia, meaning it is impossible to blend in and so few gringos actually living here full time, getting cheap local prices for hot chicas seems almost impossible for the short time visitor. I speak spanish and can negotiate rock bottom prices in Buenos Aires but this economy is so dollarised it just doesnt make a differnce here. This is a very safe city, probably alot safer than Buenos Aires, the people are happy and content and hate Evo Morales with a passion. The amount of $40, 000 USD SUVS driving around was truly astonishing especially seeing the shitboxes driving around Buenos Aires all the time. I can also recommend the Montreal Pub, the owner Ivo is a solid guy and he explained that all the money here comes from a combo of all the natural gas and the huge cocaine trade in the area. I expected to work alot of non pros while I was here, as there are some super hot chicas at the clubs in the Equipetrol and they are friendly and open, but the loud music and atmosphere in the clubs does not lend itself to the one night stands I was looking for. If I was here for around a month and engaging in typical daily activities I would clean up with the non pros I think. I will definetly be back to Santa Cruz de La Sierra.

Suerte,

Rock Harders

[Rock Harders]

Mongers-
Arrived here yesterday around 2:30pm after a slightly delayed flight on Aerolineas Argentinas from Buenos Aires. I changed my plans so now my buddies and I are staying at the Camino Real Hotel. When we arrived, I point blank told them we would be having many female visitors, and they tried to say there would be a $30 USD fee per visitor. We made it crystal clear that arrangement was unacceptable and we would be leaving to another hotel immediately, and they quickly backed off that scam.
This hotel does provide excellent services, however, which make it worth the steep price (for Bolivia). We hired a taxi driver for the entire night (9pm-5am) and it only cost $30 USD, all arranged by the hotel. He took us to two different clubs, across the street from each other, and also a casa privado. The first club, Curry's, was subpar and I do not recommend it. Caesar's Palace, the other club, had major talent floating around. More to follow
Suerte,
Dirk Diggler

[Rock Harders]

Mongers-
As I stated earlier, I will be in Santa Cruz next week from May 10-14 and my buddies and I will be staying at the Yotau All Suites hotel (allegedly 5 stars) located on Avenida San Martin in Barrio Equipetrol. We reserved a 3 bedroom suite to the tune of $150 USD per night ("weekend rate"). Any resident mongers with any comments or advice on this hotel or this location would be very much appreciated. I am also looking for current information on any private apartments (not sure if they exist here), good clubs for picking up top level pros, and good bars/clubs for picking up non-pros, as that is what I am primarily interested in (I'm in my mid-20's). In addition, any good restaurants, sights, etc would be appreciated. Send me a PM or post any details here. Any visits to Buenos Aires by Santa Cruz residents will be payed in reciprocy.
Suerte,
Rock Harders

[Too Jaded]

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Tonight I had decided not to. I asked her how much and she responded whatever I wanted togive her was ok. I insisted she come up with a number, and she asked for 800 (one hundred dollars) I gave her 900 as I was very happy with her performance and I plan to see her at least once more.

Is it just me, or was this way too much? I was under the impression that 200 was the ballpark for ST, 400 for LT. But I have yet to monger in Bolivia.

I hate the negotiating process, but after seeing how inflated the prices have become in BKK and Phils I realize that it is up to us to help keep inflation to a reasonable level.

[Too Jaded]

Mongers,

I have a four night trip planned to Santa Cruz for the weekend of May 10-14 and I am looking for some advice on scoring an apartment or house to rent for the length of the stay.

Your best bet for a short term stay in Santa Cruz is to try the extended stay suites (i.e. serviced apartments) at the Camino Real hotel, which most of the expats live at on a month to month basis. It runs about $1100/mo but it is 5-star quality. I imagine that shorter term arrangements can be made.

I'll be there soon myself around that time so PM me and I may have some updated info for you. I need to keep my professional and personal identities separate however, so keep things on the DL if we end up running into each other.

[Rock Harders]

Mongers,

I have a four night trip planned to Santa Cruz for the weekend of May 10-14 and I am looking for some advice on scoring an apartment or house to rent for the length of the stay. I am going with two buddies (we all live in Buenos Aires and we are all close personal friends of Jackson's) and we need a three bedroom apartment or house preferably in the city center/ as close the the non-pro/ pro action as possible ,and for a stay of that length money is not really an issue. I have searched the internet for apartment rental sights (there are literally thousands of tourist apartments for rent in Buenos Aires) and have found nothing at all.

Also, any CURRENT information on both non-pro and pro scenes in Santa Cruz would be greatly appreciated from any resident Santa Cruz monger or any recently departed monger. I feel low just pandering for info on Santa Cruz without contributing anything but I have contributed hundreds of reports on the Argentinaprivate.com forum and I promise to post all my relevant experiences in Santa Cruz here once I return to Buenos Aires.

Suerte,

Rock Harders

[Octatron]

Hey Guys

I was recently in Asuncion to visit my Novia. I did notice lots of looks from other Chicas in PY. And when I would walk around without her I would have many Chicas come talk to me. Similar to how they are in Peru, or Colombia. I was wondering about visiting Santa Cruz without her of course. Never been to Bolivia.

Can somebody say a few things with comparing chicas between the two countries. Specifically Santa Cruz and Asuncion? Non Pro's, Amateurs, Pro's, ETC.

Cheers, and happy hunting.

[Vassili Zaitsev]

I will be moving to Santa Cruz for at least a few years, and will need to acquire an apartment or a hotel that offers long term rates. A (semi)furnished apartment is preferred. Do any of you have any recommendations and/or contacts for this area?

Too Jaded:

When arriving in Santa Cruz buy the local newspaper 'el deber' and look at the section 'clasificados' and look in that section for rent apartments 'alquilar' and you will find places to rent. A bit of advice for places to rent for: if ur single and want an affordable and nice place( your looking between 200$ and 400$ a month including water, electr.) get an aparment in avenida centenario between 2 and 3 anillo near the campus of universidad gabriel rene moreno, apart from being affordable its 1km from la plaza principal.

If you want a mid t upper class apartment (350$ to??) to rent, look for in Barrio Equipetrol. You will be near the nightclubs and pubs and parties.