Enjoying Bolivia 199seek out these places and visitor facilities are improving.
Back in the city, several peña-pubs (folk music pubs) can be
found not far from the Plaza. Foreigners feel at home here,
enjoying the best Bolivian music in town.
Reports of isolated cases of cholera require the usual
preventive health measures. Nasty microbes that would not
survive on the Altiplano take kindly to the tropical heat of
Santa Cruz. Some Bolivians arrive here and go straight to
the Los Tajibos resort and stay in the refreshing pools, never
venturing downtown or into the wild.
The winter dry season is the best time to avoid the steamy
hazards of this exciting city.
The current issue around Santa Cruz is regional autonomy.
The Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee presided over by
businessman Ruben Costas is the hotbed of autonomy
sentiment. Creole Santa Cruz is seen by regionalists as
subsidising ‘Indian’ Bolivia. In fact, the city of Santa Cruz
generates 38 per cent of state tax revenue while the much-
maligned indigenous La Paz produces 45 per cent.
Racism is perceived by highland Kollas as an undercurrent
of the Santa Cruz autonomy movement, an allegation
denied by Camba leaders. However, the rightwing groups
Nacion Camba and Juventud Cruceñista have been accused