Santa Cruz Traditional Foods Festival

Each September, as Santa Cruz de la Sierra celebrates the month of its founding, the city hosts a Traditional Foods Festival dedicated entirely to Eastern Bolivian cuisine. September has become one of the best months of the year to visit this department in eastern Bolivia specifically because of the concentration of concerts, theatre, art exhibits and food festivals it brings, all built around celebrating Cruceño culture and tradition.

Cooks travel from across the Santa Cruz department to compete for prizes, preparing traditional dishes like mote (large white maize), yuca, patasca (pickled and boiled pork and pigskin), rollo de cerdo, chicharrón, choclo con quesillo and humintas, alongside traditional drinks like tujuré and chicha. Handicraft stalls sell painted pottery, crocheted purses and other regional crafts alongside chocolates and desserts, while traditional dancing, music and theatre run throughout the afternoons and evenings.

For a country whose food culture varies dramatically between its Andean highlands and its tropical eastern lowlands, the festival offers a focused introduction to a regional cuisine that's often overshadowed, internationally, by Bolivia's more widely known Andean dishes.