A Walk Around the First Ring
One of my dear friends back home, Elaine, had to know where
I was living so got on her phone and looked at a map of the city. When we were together a few days before I
flew to Bolivia, she was asking me about the city and noticed it has rings
surrounding it.
The really old Santa Cruz is within the First Ring (Primer
Anillo). What the city means by that is
the road that goes around the old city.
It is nearly round, so a ring makes sense. Inside the First Ring are buildings and
streets that look a hundred years old.
Some of the buildings really are that old. The city is trying to preserve the colonial
flair of the old city because Santa Cruz is one of the fastest growing cities
in the world.
As the city grew, they build more concentric rings around
the city, each about evenly spaced from the others. Important roads cut through them and helped
to connect the city. When I was here in
the 80s the Third Ring was built up and in some places the Fourth. Now we are talking Seventh and Eighth Rings! It helps understand where you are and where
you are going. You could kind of
describe it like a big spider web.
When I lived here in the 80s and was in my late 20s, I
walked a lot. Except for my last year back
then, I always lived in the First Ring.
Often I would walk the First Ring at night. That took about an hour and a half. No wonder I was a lot skinnier back
then! I have been walking a lot since I
returned. When I am feeling really tired
around 6:00 and am thinking of bed, I get up and go for a walk. Then I feel better and sleep better.
I have wanted to do a walk around the First Ring again, but
wasn’t sure at night was as safe as when I was a kid. So this morning, Friday, August 5, I got up
early and went for a walk around the first ring.
You can see some of the pictures posted here with the
blog. There are many beautiful statues
in the middle of the rotundas. I stopped
at the cemetery, one of the quietest places in town. The plane is an actual plane that was forced
to crash land. It has since become a
tourist attraction at a local park. And
as you can see, some of the trees are in bloom.
It took about three hours because I stopped a lot. My
feet are so tired!
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