Santa Cruz de la Sierra was quite a surprise. It is the most populated city of Bolivia and one of the fastest growing in the world, despite Sucre being the constitutionally declared capital and La Paz being the location of the Government. It was immediately evident that this is where the country's most prosperous live. We knew this before we saw the Porsche, Jaguar and Mercedes dealerships.

We had heard Santa Cruz is hot, but when we arrived on a Friday evening it was cold and bucketing down with rain. Getting a taxi from the bus station was a nightmare and we got drenched in the process, but finally we managed with the help of a friendly local and arrived at the hostel and a room in a shipping container.

On the Saturday we did some exploring when the rain started to ease in the afternoon, wandering to the main square, Plaza 24 de Septiembre. We did some research as to how we should spend our time in Santa Cruz, with the main hope to get out into the wilderness, be it Amazon, Chaco or any of the nearby ecosystems to see some wildlife, with a vague hope we might see a Jaguar or any large cat really.

On Sunday we set off to the office of Nick's Adventures, a tour operator run by an Aussie guy Nick (funnily enough). His office was about 6km away but we decided to walk, stopping at the only coffee place we cloud find, Starbucks, for a recharge.

At Nicks place, we asked what tours we could do, and if Kaa Iya National Park was possible (the probability of seeing a Jaguar here is one of the best in the world). Unfortunately given it was the rainy season getting there, and most places, would be impossible, especial given the recent downpour.

We only really had 2 options, Lomas de Arenas near Santa Cruz and Refugio Los Volcanes on the southern border of Amboro National Park. We booked in for the afternoon tour to Lomas de Arenas the next day then an overnight tour to Los Volcanes the day after.

Our walking for that day wasn't over yet though. Another km or 2 past Nick's office was a big fancy shopping centre so we continued on to see how the rich of Bolivia live and get some lunch, before making our way all the way back to the hostel.

In the morning we had a job to do. Upon entry into Bolivia we were given 30 days in the country and it was quickly looking like we would need more. So, we had to visit the immigration office to ask for more. The building, when we found it, was unmarked. Inside was chaos.

First we had to go to a desk, tell a lady what we wanted, then we were given a ticket and waved off to go and wait for our number to be called. We had A40 and A41. We took a seat in the big waiting area with everyone else and watched the numbers being called. T82, L34, T83 and so on. All T's and L's but no A's.

It was a slow process given all the staff would have a chat, get a coffee, or do just about anything but serve customers. As such it took us a while to work out that no A's were going to be called. We asked someone where the A's were, and they said upstairs. Another room just the same but only for W and E tickets. They said A tickets were downstairs. Grrrr!

We walked back out to the front desk (now unoccupied) and found another nearby desk was occupied which hadn't been earlier. This was the A ticket desk! Fortunately we had found it in the nick of time as our tickets were called next. We had heard the extension process could be difficult but this guy would have been happy for us to stay forever. We said we only needed another 30 days, he stamped our passports and we were on our way!

In the afternoon we were picked up for our tour to Lomas de Arenas. On the way there we stopped at the Palmasola Prison, which operates in a similar way to San Pedro in La Paz. Nick explained to us the story of how a businessman from the US, Jacob Ostriches, had been imprisoned there for money laundering (though apparently his money was from family wealth in the US). He hadn't even been formally charged and efforts to have him released by his family and friends were futile.

In the end, Sean Penn got involved and met with the Bolivian President Morales (who agreed to meet him based on his objection to US foreign policy). This resulted in the release on parole of Jacob Ostreicher to house arrest who later escaped Bolivia back to the US. Several officers and guards were later imprisoned for conspiracy following the events. Nick suspects on upcoming movie.

Then we continued to Lomas de Arenas. The road leading there, if you could call it that, was wet. Nick had to test the depths before our driver could proceed in some parts, but we made it. Unfortunately we didn't spot any of the sloths in the area along the way.

The sand dunes were beautiful. Not quite Lençóis Maranhenses in Brazil but beautiful nonetheless. We walked across them, spotting birds, a caiman and some different tracks such as tapir as we went. We could see a huge area in the middle, flat with vegetation and birds, and at the end of our walk we hit a green Chaco forest area.

Then we made our way bark and finished the tour with some sandboarding! This time we had a lesser slope and much better boards than our last attempt so we had the guts to try standing, and it turned out that we were capable of getting down the hill standing up, even getting in some turns! Nick even said Lindsay was the best sandboarder he's ever had on a tour, though Fergus didn't relay this information until later.

LAPFWT