BOLIVIA – LA PAZ
LA PAZ
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars{ Mi Teleferico
History, Culture, National and City Museums
Ethnography Museum
Museo costumbrista Juan de Vargas
Art Museums: Museum of Contemporary Art Plaza
House and Biographical Museums
La Paz: Casa Museo Marina Núñez Del Prado
Casa museo Solón
Museo Casa Murillo
Architectural Delights: La Paz: La Paz Municipal Theatre
Religious and Sacred Art Museums (including Islamic and Jewish Museums): La Paz: Museo San Francisco
Hospitality Legends: La Paz: Hotel Torino
Malls/Department Stores: La Paz: Las Torres Mall
Museums – Decorative Arts, Design, Fashion: La Paz: Museo de Textiles Andinos Bolivianos
Music, Film and Photography Museums: La Paz: Museum of Musical Instruments
Maritime/Ship Museums: La Paz: Museo Historico Naval
The Dark Side: La Paz: Central Cemetery of La Paz
DARE Bolivia – Isla del Sol
Art Museums: El Alto: Museo de Arte Antonio Paredes Candia
Monuments: El Alto: Che Guevara Statue
Villages and Small Towns: SORATA
World of Nature: Cotapata NP, Pilon Lajas Indigenous Territory Park and Biosphere Reserve, Ulla Ulla National Reserve, Valle de la Luna
Caves, Sinkholes and Saltmines: Ch’usiq Uta (Cueva de San Pedro)
Mountains: Ancohuma, Cerro Calvario – Copacabana, Chacaltaya, Huayna Potosí, Illampú, Illimani
Trails 1 – Treks: Mina San Francisco – Ruta del Takesi Trek
Well-being: Distilleries: Andean Culture Distillery
Indigenous Peoples: Uros
Fly to Santa Cruz Bolivia
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BOLIVIA – SANTA CRUZ
SANTA CRUZ/WARNES
Urban Legends: Plaza de 24 de Septiembre
Airports: Santa Cruz (VVI)
Museum Beni Altillo
Guarani Museum
Independence Museum
Melchor Pinto House Cultural Center
Cathedral Basilica of St. Lawrence
Noel Kempf Mercado Museum
Santa Cruz Botanical Garden
Zoológico Municipal Noel Kempff Mercado
FUERTE DE SAMAIPATA WHS comprises a gigantic sculptured rock, made by a prehispanic Andean culture for ceremonial use. The natural sandstone hill measures 200x600m, and is completely sculpted with felines, snakes, birds and geometrical motifs with a magical and religious character for the pre-Inca Chané people. Below it lies a former provincial capital of the Inca of a later date. It includes a central plaza, public buildings, houses and agricultural terraces.
10km outside of the town of Samaipata, and can be reached via taxi or (hitch)hiking. in the Amboro National Park, with great mountain vistas and abundant birdlife. The well-crafted trail around the site is self-guided
To get to Samaipata from Sucre was a bit of a pain. All flotas (big buses) leave in the evening and we arrived at 01:30 a.m. in the middle of hjeavy rain in the darkness. From Samaipata we took a taxi the next day for 50 BOB to the Fuerte de Samaipata. Mototaxis are cheaper. guided tour entrance fee is 50 BOB and the guided tour 100 BOB in Spanish
the earlier populations have built three runs for art purposes which were later utilized by the Quechua (Inca) to sacrifice animals and let their blood run through it (in paralell to chicha in another run). Also from the Quechua (Inca) period the habitational remains are still left in ruins around the main rock.
Samaipata “helechos gigantes” (giant fern trees) in nearby PN Amboró. The car ride is quite spectacular on a gravel road with huge descents aside in the clouds. It’s a nice walk in a cloud forest afterwards. Apparently you need a guide
Getting There
Santa Cruz minibus station for Samaipata near the stadium.
Samaipata return cab. From the crossroad to the site is 6km, 2h steep walk uphill and then walk all the way back back to Samaipata. All minibusses passing at the crossroads will be full
Walk. the easiest way to get to El Fuerte 9 km
Moto-taxi from just outside the mercado
What to See. Circuit of the site is 2km long and involves climbing to the very top of the hill to two viewing platforms to see the sculptures from above.
The map shows the most prominent sculptures, more difficult to distinguish than those at the Nazca Lines – a lot of the rock sculptures have eroded. The two felines are hard to see. The channels and the geometric pools are the clearest ones.
The former Inca town has walls of groups of buildings. the Five Niches, an Inca temple cut out of the rock.
Amboro National Park, with great mountain vistas and abundant birdlife. Walk both ways to and from the site from Samaipata, 10km each way, natural beauty of this place.
JESUIT MISSIONS of the CHIQUITOS
The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are a group of six churches that show the adaptation of Christian religious architecture to local conditions and traditions. They represent the living heritage of the reducciones: theocratic settlements inspired by the “ideal cities” of the humanists. The churches have unique architecture and are mostly made out of wood. They also hold popular art objects from the Chiquitos population.
Chiquitania is unique, with a slow pace of life, but also tough (“it takes a special kind of people to thrive here”) and often hot. Most visited only one or two of the churches due to infrequent public transport, but Patrik managed to cover all of them in four days. It’s best to start from San José if you want to do the full circuit.
From Santa Cruz we took the 11 o’clock flota from terminal bimodal to San José. On thursdays there is also a train service for this route. San José (hotel Las Charapas) only stone church of the WHS- the others are made of wood.
San Rafael we arrived at 12:45 p.m. with the 09:30 Trufi from San José. As the connecting Trufi to San Miguel was already due 15 minutes later we decided to take a later one at 5 p.m. i can not confirm that this passage is only possible by mototaxi as Patrik wrote which would have been impossible and expensive with our luggage, the road and the darkness after 6 p.m.. However the rest of Patrik’s review helped us a lot :). For us also the San Rafael church was open and no one was there so we could stroll around. From the outside it’s beautiful. The inside is dirty
In San Miguel we slept that evening super cheap in Hotel Limbania close to the plaza. We could visit the church just before the service. The next morning it was also open before the trufi got us to San Ignacio, which is a bigger pleasant town. I liked the paintings on the wall in San Miguel even though similar to the other churches later.
From San Ignacio we took the only (!) Trufi to Santa Ana at 10:30 a.m.. We waited two hours at the terminal in San Ignacio which is way too far outside town as the receptionists of our hotel told us there are only trufis in the early morning to Santa Ana. That was wrong. The return Trufi from the village is at 1:30 p.m. When we arrived the woman said there is no space in the return trufi and we were a bit shocked especially because we couldn’t reserve it anyway before going to Santa Ana. But the driver of our trufi stressed the importance that we need to get back later that day to our hotel and somehow the woman arranged us two seats in the return trufi two hours later. The church is the smallest from the six. Thanks Patrik for the tip with the tourist info at the plaza. She gave us a 15 minute tour through the otherwise closed church during the lunchbreak. Afterwards we visited (and found) the Viborón, a huge stone snake apparently made by indigenous people a long time ago and now restored. In San Ignacio I can recommand to check out the Casa de la Cultura for semi- self- organized trips to PN Noel Kempff Mercado.
The trufi from San Ignacio to Concepción takes two and a half hours on a nicely paved road. The Concepción church modern paintings showing the crucification. Impressive are also the individually carved benches with distinctive motives on each side. There is a mission museum and by entering it you can also access the cathedral museum and the church itself.
The drive to San Javier beautiful indeed quite white interior of the church.
All in all I liked to travel the towns in Chiquitania. The weather is pleasant, there are good hotels for good prices and the churches (and the plazas) give the otherwise boring towns some flair.churches were all quite similar and sufficient to visit only one of two of them.
I visited all six churches on the circuit in March 2023. Bus 11 am to 17.30h in San Jose. brick, courryard has beautiful naive paintings, hotel a little off the square.
9.30h trufi to San Rafael. 3 hours
mototaxis to San Miguel.
trufi to San Ignacio left just before dusk. San Ignacio is a reconstruction, and I thoroughly disliked it.
trufi to Santa Anna at 10.30h and a return at 13.30h. choir has the original organ, painted columns and capitels with angels. Viborón is an archeological stone formation in the shape of a snake just outside the village,
15.30h trufi to Concepcion, three hours
trufi to San Javier, arriving 11.20h, trufi for Santa Cruz 13.00h
San Miguel exterior painting on the facade is beautiful as are the carved pillars holding up the thatched roof. San Ignacio is the hub of the settlements in the central part of the Chiquitos and had enough amenities to cater to the few tourists that get this far. The bus station is a few km from the plaza and mototaxis are cheap and plentiful for getting around. San Ignacio is a larger version of the church at San Miguel with beautiful pillars (inside and out) and painted facade
Gran Hotel Concepcion for 2 nights and visited Concepcion and San Javier from there. Concepcion is the more atmospheric of the two towns. Mission Museum
Concepcion interior lovely paintings and wooden sculpture
San Javier – about an hour by bus.
San Javier and Concepción which are now only 3-4 hours drive on paved roads. The restored Church’s and other structures, the abundant wood carving, the music and musicians, the local cultures and tropical scenery, all surprise for their beauty and for the history they represent.
Concepción: Jesuit Mission
San Javier: Jesuit Mission
San José de Chiquitos: Jesuit Mission
San Miguel de Velasco: Jesuit Mission
San Rafael de Velasco: Jesuit Mission
Santa Ana de Velasco: Jesuit Mission
DARE: Santa Cruz area far eastern areas (Andrés Sandoval and Germán Busch provinces
Islands: Isla del Sol
Monuments: La Higuera: Che Guevara Statue
LA GUARDIA
MONTERO
Villages and Small Towns
Roboré
Samaipata
World of Nature: Amboro NP, Kaa-lya del Gran Chaco NP, Ñembi Guasu Area of Conservation, Noel Kempff Mercado NP, Otuquis NP and Integrated Management Natural Area, Reserva Rios Blanco Y Negro, Tucavaca Valley Municipal Reserve”
Rivers: Paraguay River, Rio Grande/Rio Guapay
Well-being: Thermal Spa: Aguas Calientes
The Dark Side: Che Guevara Trail
