Moving to Santa Cruz in less than a month. Help with living options.

by Greg
(Colorado)

I am an American 28 year old male. I am moving to Santa Cruz to teach for the next two years. I will have about $500 a month to rent a place. I don't feel the need to use all $500, but am willing to. I believe my school is in the Southwest part of the 4th ring and would like to be able to walk or ride my bike to school. I think I will have the option of having a roommate. I was hoping people could give me some advice about living in an apartment or a house. Some common prices for each, probably a 2 bedroom for an apartment. I have seen that some of the apartments have pools and community BBQ areas. Would this be a good spot for me to meet new people instead of living in a house? Let me know if you need any more info.

Thank you.

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Jul 19, 2011
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Welcome!
by: Anonymous

SW of the city centre and the 4th ring sounds like Las Palmas to me. This is quite a ritzy neighbourhood.

It is really hard to give any general figures about the costs of renting a house or apartment in Santa Cruz as there is such a wide choice. When I say that, I mean that there is also little in the middle between the quite humble, single-storey homes available, and the condos and apartment blocks. I think you would be quite surprised at how expensive housing is here (it is Bolivia).

Most people tend to rent unfurnished (unfurnished also means without a kitchen, not even the oven, as all this is movable). Places rented with furniture tend to be a lot more expensive as they are normally let to foreigners here on short-term contracts...

If you are serious about sharing a flat, maybe looking at Couchsurfing as there are a couple of ads at the moment. Flat-share adverts are rare as most young people here don't share in the same way as in the US or UK and I think you would most likely be sharing with a fellow entranjero.

In terms of costs, I would recommend you to look at www.eldeber.com.bo and have a look at the classifieds.

Our apartment block has a pool and a bbq area, I've never seen anyone use them. I think that people tend to throw family bbqs rather than open parties for everyone (no-one invites us anyway hahaha). The main advantage of living in a block with these faciilties is that it will also have 24hour security.

I think I am actually the only person in Santa Cruz who walks anywhere so it will be nice that there are two of us!

If you are at all concerned about meeting people here, don't be. Make sure you have signed up for the expat meetup group and basically accept every reasonable invitation you receive. Most people here (Bolivians and expats) are very friendly and open in their friendship groups and happy to include new people.

Welcome!

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