A year ago today, I saw Bolivia for the first time in broad daylight. Turns out, balling your eyes out because you’re so stressed really tires you out, so I slept like a baby for eight hours straight.

My plan of action for Day 1 was really simple. I didn’t have one.

I knew I needed to withdraw money and get myself a phone plan, and I found out pretty quickly that neither of those tasks were going to be easy. Santa Cruz may have been the cheapest place to land in Bolivia, but it was not the most tourist friendly. In fact, I saw no other foreigners around me despite reading several times that tourists are everywhere. I decided to not give myself any time to regret my decisions.

In broken sentences, I communicated my intent to my hotel’s receptionist, who drew me a map to the best of her abilities. I tried to follow it to the best of mine, and I got lost. Like so lost, that it took me two hours and multiple additional broken sentences to find what I would soon learn was the best part about any town in South America: el plaza principal. The Center Square was alive and well, and it was surrounded by everything that was of importance to locals: a church, the bank, a government building and a mini mall. Some minor speedbumps later (mostly because of language), I had a data plan, which I instantly abused to figure out what Santa Cruz de la Sierra had to offer.

The results – I visited two local parks, became one with the pigeons, walked 15 minutes and back to see a big Christ statue (which I would soon discover was rather small by Bolivian standards), pulled off an extremely lengthy conversation with a Spanish-speaking tourism offer (she did most of the talking, but at least I understood quite a bit?), saw four different art galleries and a war history museum. I survived mostly on local snacks because I couldn’t be bothered to stop exploring for long enough to have a proper meal!

I arrived home slightly after sunset (5:45 pm), but not before sneaking in some shots of the town’s beautiful street art! I ate a delicious pork sandwich that I had bought on my way home, and turned my attention away from the sound of loneliness and towards something more productive: learning a little bit about Bolivia. I’d heard a little bit about this thing called Salar de Uyuni and by the time I was done with my research, I couldn’t wait to get there.