GIRAMERICANA | Couchsurfing experience in Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia

Hello friends steemians!!

As you know we are on a trip and the idea is to tell about the cities we visit, experiences, information about prices, telling of our tours and tastings to regional meals.

From Sucre-Bolivia on October 11th, 2018 we took the 18HS a bus to Santa Cruz de la Sierra-Bolivia. The cost of the tickets was 60Bs per person, or 8.7 U $ D. The trip was very bad, the bus was in bad condition with tape-taped windows and seats that did not have the lock for resting then moved.

Source

The ticket should say 120Bs, because it cost us 60Bs each, but it says 100 because they changed us from bus to last minute including change of tickets. Very strange.

Anyway, after 12 hours of travel, we arrived on October 12th at the 6am to Santa Cruz. There we would have our first experience of Couchsurfing, staying at Juan Carlos and Marcelo's house. Couchsurfing is an app that allows you to get free hosting anywhere in the world, with the main purpose of cultural exchange. It gathers people who offer a bed, armchair or place to stay, with travelers who need it and who are encouraged to this great opportunity.

Source

Fortunately, it was also a meeting with gastronomy. It is difficult to explain the experciencias separately, as one is the result of the other will see, Marcelo is a chef and Juanca is studying gastronomy!

The day of our arrival we were greeted in your apartment, along with your pets Maluh and Caetana. Marcelo went to work, he teaches in a cooking school, and with Juan Carlos, or Coco as they call him, we went to breakfast some "Salteñas ".
As for this we will explain the following, in Argentina it is very common to eat empanadas, each province has a particular recipe or an ingredient that differentiates the empanadas from other provinces. On the other hand Salta is a province of Argentina, where by consequence are also common empanadas that in this case would be empanadas salteñas.. What is not clear to us is because in Bolivia has been baptized the Empanada in general with the name of Salteñas!
However, they are not the same as the empanadas we know. The Salteñas as they call them in Bolivia, are twice the size, the dough is thicker, sweet and the filling has a lot of liquid, so you serve it with dish and spoon. And we hear that whoever manages to eat a Salteña without getting dirty, is a good kisser..

In this case are also tucumanas and potosinas.

Besides we went with Juanca to buy the market of the Abasto, it is enormous. There are a lot of fruit varieties. We were surprised to see that there is an exclusive shed with varieties of bananas.

Among the purchases of the market Juanca bought Tamarind, so that we try the juice. Like El Chavo del 8!! It comes in circles, wrapped in film. That is boiled in a pot to extract the juice and pulp, and not to fall ill to the stomach. Then it is filtered and ice is placed. It has a very rich taste, like caramel but not so sweet. You have to prove it because it's not easy to describe.

Tamarind already boiled. Ready to prepare the juice!!

In the afternoon we helped Marce prepare a cake, which had been ordered for the anniversary of a bowling alley. Thanks to that we learned many secrets of professional cake making. Tips for filling, to moisten the Bizcochuelo, and to be well compact and ready to start decorating. In fact, he also taught us how to dye chocolate for example, among other tips.

For snack we were taken to try the typical evening masses. Then we tried the filling Beniano, it is called so to be characteristic of the area of the Beni in northern Bolivia, is a gut stuffed with rice and pork, accompanied by a cassava or boiled cassava, plus we tried a sack made of ripe plantain and a green plantain , which also contains pork rinds and charque, plus a chili pepper dressing, and to kill the heat (because the city of Santa Cruz is very humid and warm) a Mocochinchi soda consisting of the mixture of a stuffed peach that is left soaking during the night and Junt A with cinnamon tea and syrup. At the end of the drink, you have to eat the peach. ALL DELICIOUS!!!

As we arrived in Santa Cruz on a weekend, we took the opportunity to go out and visit pubs and discotheques, including the place that had ordered the cake to Marcelo. We danced, drank fernet and beer.. It was so much fun.

This photo is before the shots of Tequila!

We also take the opportunity to see the city Cruceña at night. We were very surprised that at dawn, the humidity was 98%!!

We hope you liked it here. In the next post we will tell you about the delicacies that we prepared Marce and Juanca. As far as Couchsurfing was concerned, we were more than comfortable and satisfied in the boys ' department, they were always very attentive and spectacular hosts. We hope you liked it here. In the next post we will tell you about the delicacies that we prepared Marce and Juanca. As far as Couchsurfing was concerned, we were more than comfortable and satisfied in the boys ' department, they were always very attentive and spectacular hosts.

We hope in the next post!

Kevin and Dani

---