February 18, 2017 - The Ventura Mall

February 18, 2017

The Ventura Mall

I wrote this several months ago, but it never got posted.  On December 5, I returned the Texas for a family emergency.  It was slated for that week, but just waited for me.  So it is old for me, but will be ne for you.

When I visited Santa Cruz in early July 2015, the first thing my friend, Carlos, did was take me to the Mall.  The Mall? I thought.  I don’t need to see a mall.  But I was surprised.  This place is as nice as any mall in the United States.  For my friends who are afraid of visiting another country, here is a place where you would feel at home.

The Ventura Mall is modern and clean.  It looks so clean that I think you could eat off the floors, though I wouldn’t ask you to do that.  I might dare you to do that, but not ask it of you. 

Two floors are dedicated to shops.  You will see stores you know like Oshkosh or Nike, but many other you or I have never heard of.  Believe me, these stores are nice, what we would call high end shopping.  Don’t expect to come here looking for a bargain.  I was shopping for a polo shirt the other day and the cheapest I could find was $50 and it was too small for me.

The third floor is a food court and movie theater.  The theater is Cinemark and is as nice as the Northpark AMC or the AMC in Mesquite.  There is even a dining theater, like you find in Mesquite.  The seats are comfortable.  They have sweet popcorn that is kinda like Cracker Jacks.  I’m not sure I like the sweet popcorn, so next time I will stick with the salty.  The movies are usually in Spanish, which means many American movies are dubbed.  But at times they show movies in English.

The food court has American chains like Subway, Sbarro, Burger King, and KFC.  There are also Bolivian chains, some of which are better than the American chains.

Attached to the south end of the mall is a grocery store.  I haven’t shopped there, since I have several good places to buy food around where I live, but just looking in the door, I can see it has a good variety of things to buy.

Attached to the north end of the mall are several nice restaurants.  A few open to the mall, but most only to the street.  Some would be familiar to you like Starbucks, Friday’s, and Hardrock.  There are Bolivian restaurant chains too like Fridolin. 

So if you come to Santa Cruz, decide to spend a day, or a few hours, at the Mall.

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