Santa Cruz has surprised me .. it's very much the most cosmopolitan (and definitely richest) city in Bolivia - more so than the capital La Paz. Lots of big flashy 4x4s, grand houses with bigger gates to match, pumped up young men who seem to have walked out from the gym in their tommy hilfiger and very tall beautiful girls clustering around them. I've not really had a chance to walk around town much as my foot is still on the mend, but did get out to eat (well perhaps gorge is a more appropriate term) at some pretty great restaurants. It's very hot here and many of the places have courtyard seating and tonight especially it was muggy and warm when we headed out. Met up with Kurt (one of the riders from the Salar) at the Irish Pub where I had a very very tasty and icy frappucino... and then onto Ken - a Japanese restaurant. I know it sounds like I'm not eating local, but most other days I am so when I get a chance to not eat roasted chicken, rice and soup or something fried, I'm jumping on that bandwagon.
Dinner was nice - I had chirashi sushi which is raw fish on rice. It sort of reminded me of my mum's dinner's ... although hers is much much nicer:) But an absolute treat to eat Japanese!
Today I finally fixed my sprockets - yesterday afternoon I managed to find sprockets that fit (difficult as my bike is not available in Bolivia) and today fitted new front and back, and a new, bigger chain as well. Might need to shorten the chain as it's a little slack and I've not much room to tighten it on the bike... tomorrow will check it out.
Tomorrow also going to help out at an organisation - Luz del Mundo (light of the world) - a charity that helps young children in La Paz. They have a fiesta on Saturday, so think they will get a real kick of clambering of the bikes, and especially the sidecar. It's always amazing to see the looks of some of young children - especially young girls when they see me as a woman riding a bike and travelling solo. For me it seems like what I just fell into doing - for them it is very different from the life they know.
So back to nursing my rather full tummy - but a happy tummy nonetheless!
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