Od ponad miesiaca planowalam wycieczke do ogrodu botanicznego w Santa Cruz, ktory na wszystkich ulotkach turystycznych jawil sie jako raj na ziemi. Raj tropikow:)

Wyobrazalam go sobie jako wieksza, bardziej kolorowa i goraca wersje ‘Botanic Gardens’ w Dublinie, ktory wlasnie tak zapamietalam:

A tak ‘Jardin Botanico’ w Santa Cruz wygladal w rzeczywistosci:

Coz, w tym przypadku rzeczywistosc nie przerosla oczekiwan… A szkoda.

Nieznosny upal, to jedyne co zgadzalo sie z moja wizja. Zamiast bujnej roslinnosci, otoczeni bylismy przez chmary komarow, ktorych nie odstarszal zapach srodka przeciw komarom (moze dlatego, ze zmieszany byl on z naszym potem?).

‘Jardin Botanico‘ polozony jest 8 km od centrum Santa Cruz, 3 bs. autobusem z bazaru ‘Los Pozos’. Moge powiedziec, ze byly to 3 bs. wyrzucone w bloto (chociaz jakby doliczyc 3bs. za wstep i bilet powrotny, to zmarnowalismy w sumie 9 bolwianos od osoby:(

***

I have planned a visit to Santa Cruz’s ‘Jardin Botanico’ for a month. It looked like a tropical paradise on every tourist attractions listing that fell into my hands.

I imagined it as bigger, more colourful and hotter version of ‘Botanic Gardens‘ in Dublin, one of my favourite places in Irish capital. And who could blame me! – at the end we are in tropics!

Unfortunately, as you can see on the pictures (the ones at the end), my expectations were way too high! Only one thing from my list was right  – it was hotter than in Dublin and more humid, what all together attracted millions and millions of mosquitoes, who were somehow indifferent to the smell of an insect repellent (maybe because it was mixed with our sweat?).

Tropical lush greenery and flowers? Nowhere to be seen – I could see only dry common plants and huge cacti (that turned out to be a highlight of this trip). Now, we were walking for some time and I don’t think we could missed something, could we?

Santa Cruz’ ‘Jardin Botanico‘ is placed 8 km from the city centre, on the way to Cotoca – 3 bs. by bus from ‘Los Pozos‘ market. It was 3 bolivianos wasted… However, adding an entrance fee of 3 bs. and return ticket – we lost 9 bs. in total.