Bolivia – March 17-23, 2025
Day 1 Mon Mar 17
BOLIVIA – SANTA CRUZ
Fly March 17, 2025. Lima-La Paz- Santa Cruz, Boliviana Air @01:00-06:30. I slept on the first leg but couldn’t on the short one-hour leg to Santa Cruz.
At the airport, I withdrew money from an ATM (US$8 service charge) and got a SIM from Entel, 13GB for 30 days 100BP.
A shuttle goes to the old town 7BP and I walked from the ring road to the hostel.
At the hostel was an entertaining Brit who lives there.
I was really tired and had a nap.
ON Adventure 360 Hostel.
Day 2 Tue March 18
SANTA CRUZ/WARNES
I had my usual walkabout in Santa Cruz to see all the sites.
History Museum UAGRM. Ethnography, Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos in wood blocks, clothing, funeral pots, and a timeline of Bolivian independence in lovely large paintings, all in the same style. Free
Casa Municipal de Cultura Raúl Otero Reiche. Another timeline of Bolivian independence with paintings of the main characters from Santa Cruz. An art gallery of graphic prints. Free
Independence Museum. Enter a lovely art gallery and turn left to this small museum hidden in the corner. It holds the meeting room where the independence of Santa Cruz was signed in 1925. There are a few other artifacts including some portraits. 10BS
Plaza de 24 de Septiembre. The large main square of Santa Cruz. It is completely tiled with many benches, palm trees and a few small plantings. The cathedral sits on the square.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Lawrence. Originally built in the 1500s, it was completely rebuilt in 1889-1915. It is completely brick with two large square bell towers. Note that it is closed from noon on Monday to Friday.
Melchor Pinto House Cultural Center. Melchor Pinto (1903-1982) was born in Santa Cruz, was a medical doctor (school in Santiago Chili), and was the mayor of the city. Some photos in an adjoining small room. The small museum of Pinto is surrounded by several galleries showcasing various artists. Free
Museum Beni Altillo. An eclectic collection of artifacts (radio, sewing machine, old TV, furniture), another timeline of Bolivian history and a lovely scale model of the cathedral. Free
Military History Heroes of Chaco Museum. A military history of Bolivia with an emphasis on the Chaco War fought between Paraguay and Bolivia from 1932-35 over the Gran Chaco region. Ot was known as one of the bloodiest and most brutal wars in the histories of both nations with the loss of 36,000 Paraguayan lives and 60,000 Bolivians. The number of casualties was increased by the severe shortage of water and food, stemming from the harsh natural conditions of the Gran Chaco region. The environment, characterized by extreme heat and dryness, posed significant challenges to the soldiers, leading to immense suffering for those stationed on the frontlines. Even today, the area is sparsely populated and the majority of the inhabitants are Mennonites, who were strategically relocated by the Paraguayan government before the conflict to deter potential attacks from Bolivia at the time.
The museum is run by Bolivian soldiers. Free
Contemporary Art Museum. It must have been between exhibits as there were only 5 pieces in the museum (a rock cairn, a video and two “paintings”. Free
It was a 1.5 km walk to the next museum.
Noel Kempf Mercado Museum. This natural history museum has fossils, a mastodon skull, many stuffed mammals (many were simple skins), birds, butterflies, bees, snails, molluscs and more. 10BS
I tried to get to the Botanical Garden but was stymied by the buses and eventually turned back. Maybe the only way here (it was 14 km from the centre), is by taxi.
Santa Cruz Botanical Garden. Not seen
I then finally lucked out with a bus – 2 km to the 1 Ring Road, a quarter of the way on the Ring Road, and then all the way to the intersection to turn to the Zoo.
Zoológico Municipal Noel Kempff Mercado. Many macaws and parrots, a small aquarium, an anteater but few other interesting animals. 25BS, reduced free.
Guarani Museum. A small house dedicated to the Guarani people, an indigenous group in danger of disappearing as more and more Guaraní people migrate to cities in search of work. Their land is being overtaken and their population suffers from malnutrition and various diseases that are reducing their numbers. The Guarani culture vanquished the Chané tribes that inhabited their region during colonial times and assimilated them (when they talk of being “mestizo” or “criolle”) they are referring to a Guaraní-Chané mix. They were eventually enslaved by the Spanish and forced to work in large haciendas.
Today the Guarani are Bolivia’s third largest population group, numbering about 108,000. The Guarani language is still widely spoken and is also taught in Universities. Exhibits include clay pots used to bury the dead, other pots, and some of the musical instruments used in the “pinguyu”, part of the Arete Guazú, a Guaraní carnival-type cultural festival. There are also some masks (the winged masks are of the Ancestors and the wooden masks are the “Abuelos”, or grandparents). There are also tinajas (huge clay pots) used for making chicha (a local alcoholic drink made by fermenting maize, and others for cooking. There are hunting tools like bows and arrows and slings and you’ll see woven goods such as hammocks and purses, each with its own unique and different design. There is also a long piece of timber with holes in it formerly used by hacienda owners to punish the Guaraní they had enslaved by shackling their wrists, legs or necks in the holes for hours or days at a time.
The museum is managed by the Guaraní people themselves and is the only museum in Santa Cruz dedicated specifically to one culture. 10BS
I walked to a mall with a good grocery store and a Subway for dinner, then a bus to the 1 Ring Road and walked to the hostel.
ON Adventure 36o Hostel for the second night.
Day 3 Wed Mar 18
I was up early and took a taxi to the Truhi Samaipata taxi stand, then 2 1/2 hours (120 km) to Samaipata.
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 hitchhiking in the Amboro National Park, with great mountain vistas and abundant birdlife. The well-crafted trail around the site is self-guided
From Samaipata, take a 50 BOB taxi to Fuerte de Samaipata. Moto taxis are cheaper. The guided tour entrance fee is 50 BOB, and the guided tour is 100 BOB in Spanish, the earlier populations 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 parallel 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 into the clouds. It’s a nice walk in a cloud forest afterwards. You need a guide
Getting There
Truhi Samiapata stand in SW Santa Cruz. 120 km and about 3 hours 30BS each way.
From Samiapata to the site is 9 km, a 2-hour steep walk uphill.
Moto-taxi from just outside the Mercado 20BS each way
Taxi. return cab (100BS return while the driver waits an hour). One could also walk back to Samaipata.
See. 50 BS entrance fee. A circuit of the site is 2 km with a climb to the very top of the hill to two viewing platforms to see the 220mX65m sandstone monolith. A lot of the rock sculptures have eroded. The three jaguars are the most difficult to see. The channels on either side of the zigzag “snake” and the geometric pools are the clearest ones.
A former Inca town has been built just below the rock plus much larger foundation walls in the large field below. Not much more is left of it than the walls of groups of buildings. The Five Niches is an Inca temple cut out of the rock.
Amboro National Park, with great mountain vistas and abundant birdlife.
My Experience. I waited at the Truhi Samaipata office for about 40 minutes until 3 German women appeared to fill the truhi. It took about three hours to reach the town of Samiapata. The truhi driver offered to take me to the site (9 km), wait for an hour and then return. That was the simplest option. It took me almost an hour to walk the site. After driving back to Samiapata, we went to the truhi stand there and waited for about an hour. No one came so two of us offered to pay double and get back to Santa Cruz. Four French travelers appeared to fill the van and we drove back to the Santa Cruz truhi stand in about 2 1/2 hours.
I walked the 2.5 km back to the hostel stopping at a BK for dinner.
ON Adventure 360 for the third night.
Day 4 Thur Mar 19
I was up early, made my breakfast and took an Uber to the Bimodal bus station for San Jose.
JESUIT MISSIONS of the CHIQUITOS WHS
Between 1696 and 1760, six settlements of Christianized Indians inspired by the ‘ideal cities’ of the 16th-century philosophers were founded by the Jesuits in a style that married Catholic architecture with local traditions. The six that remain – San Francisco Javier, Concepción, Santa Ana, San Miguel, San Rafael and San José – make up a living heritage on the former territory of the Chiquitos.
On the semi-arid frontier of Spanish South America now known as Chiquitanía. The missions featured houses for the Indians regularly spaced along the three sides of a rectangular square, with the fourth side reserved for the church, workshops and schools. The churches resemble large houses with a gable roof overhanging a west gallery extended as a porch. Long walls defining three interior aisles divided by wooden columns and two exterior galleries, also supported by columns, constitute a unique type of architecture with carved wooden columns and banisters. The church at San José is the only exception built in a baroque model. Many have remarkable popular art objects such as sculptures, paintings, altars and pulpits.
Unlike other Jesuit missions in South America, the Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos survived the expulsion of the Society of Jesus in 1767, though by the 1850s the reducciones system of the missions had disappeared.
Bus from Terminal Bimodal to San Jose.
San Jose de Chiquitos. The church is next to the big plaza, the only stone church of the WHS
Peter Neufeld lives in Campo 26 in the huge Mennonite colony Nueva Esperanza between San José and San Rafael. On Wednesdays he’s in San José to sell food from his farm in town. Arrange a 2-night stay on his farm inside the Mennonite colony. Take a taxi to the farm and a trufi back
San Rafael de Velasco. Take the 09:30 trufi from San José 3 hours, 130 km. A moto-taxi may be the only way to San Miguel.
San Miguel de Velasco. Hotel Limbania is close to the plaza.
San Ignacio is a bigger, more pleasant town. Trufi at 10:30, return at 1:30 pm and 3:30.
Santa Ana de Velasco. The church is the smallest of the six. Visit the Viborón, a huge stone snake made by indigenous people a long time ago and now restored.
Trufi to Concepcion is often fully booked, three hours.
Concepción. Trufi from San Ignacio takes two and a half hours on a nicely paved road. The church has modern paintings showing the crucifixion and individually carved benches with distinctive motifs. The mission museum accesses the cathedral museum and the church. Turfi to San Javier from 10.20 – 11.20.
San Javier. From the trufi office, walk two blocks to the church with its beautiful, white interior.
The churches are all quite similar and it’s also sufficient to visit only one of two.
It is feasible to visit at least 5 churches using trufis, by staying overnight in San Jose, San Ignacio and Concepcion. Option of a moto taxi between San Miguel and San Rafael,
My Experience. Bus Santa Cruz to San Jose. Supposed to leave at 11:00, it left at 11:45 getting to San Jose at 15:45. The bus terminal is about 1 km from the town. I got a moto-taxi into town to see the church. It is the only stone church and surprisingly big with large wood pillars and roof, some flower wall motifs, a Baroque altar and two flanking side chapels. The moto-taxi took me back to the terminal and didn’t charge!!
The trufi to San Rafael leaves at 09:30 and 3 pm. I wanted to see most of the remaining missions as they are all wood and have interesting interiors and had a decision to make.
A. continue on the circuit to see the missions. 1. the 10:30 pm bus or 2. get a hotel in San Jose and take the 09:30 trufi in the morning. However, I found it unusual that the trufis went only at prescribed times and get booked out, potentially making travel ponderous. It would have taken at least 2-3 days to complete. or B. Return to Santa Cruz. 1. stay in San Jose for the night and take the morning bus or 2. take a trufi that night. I got the last seat on one leaving at 7 pm, returned to Terminal Bimodal, and walked the 2.5 km back to the hostel. The gate was locked but some Mennonites were up watching the Canada / Mexico football game and I was able to get a room.
ON Adventure 360 hostel for my 4th night.
PARQUE NACIONAL NOEL KEMPFF MERCADO WHS is one of the largest (1,523,000 ha) and most intact parks in the Amazon Basin. With an altitudinal range of 200 m to nearly 1,000 m, it is the site of a rich mosaic of habitat types from Cerrado savannah and forest to upland evergreen Amazonian forests. The park boasts an evolutionary history dating back over a billion years to the Precambrian period. An estimated 4,000 species of flora, over 600 bird species, and viable populations of many globally endangered or threatened vertebrate species live in the park.
Habitat types include evergreen rainforests, palm forests, cerrado, swamps, savannahs, gallery forests, and semi-deciduous dry forests. The cerrado habitats found on the Huanchaca Meseta have been isolated for millions of years providing an ideal living laboratory for the study of the evolution of these ecosystems.
NK is wild and forgotten and no tours go there anymore. Ruta Verde went 5 years ago but has stopped. The lodges were walls with bedsheets, not nice and Covid probably killed off the little market there was.
Fly from Santa Cruz and the tour was 4 days (3 nights). Every day go trekking and driving on muddy roads with 4x4s. The common animals are deer, armadillos, anteaters, plenty of birdlife, howler monkeys and otters on the river tour. It’s a tough trip and is expensive.
It is now off-limits (a red zone) due to drug production so the government would have to raid and clear the area before it opens.
Day 5 Fri Mar 21
I hung around the hostal till about 3 pm doing business and took an Uber to Terminal Bimodal at 3 pm.
Bus Santa Cruz to Sucre. 6 de October bus line @16:30-05:30
ON on the bus.
BOLIVIA – CHUQUISACA (Sucre), Tarija
Day 6 Sat Mar 22
SUCRE
I arrived very early at the Sucre Terminal and hung around till about 8 am. I booked a ticket to Truija in southern Bolivia, stored my luggage at the terminal, and walked into Centro Historical of Sucre to go on my usual walkabout and see sites.
Hostal Sucre. This lovely small 2-story hotel has a central courtyard with rooms surrounding it. Hospitality Legends. The woman at the front desk didn’t know the construction date of the hotel>
Museo de Arte Indigena ASUR. A long walk up to the high point of Sucre, this is an elaborate museum spread amongst several rooms. One is given a thick book in English for the subtitles. Primarily, there is a lot of weaving (including all the equipment necessary) – most incredibly intricate in design, but some (by men) are much simpler. Also, there are old pots, hats, skulls, and ponchos, as well as a large section on dance and music showcasing various ethnic groups. 25BS
Santa Clara Convent Museum. In a gorgeous ex-convent, it is a 2-story museum surrounding the large cloister with its garden. The history of the convent and a lot of religious art. 20BS
Alfredo Gutierrez Valenzuela Museum. A lot of gaudy furniture and gilt frames, ceramics, two photos and two paintings. It’s not worth the visit or price. 20BS
Museo Costumbrista. A museum of dress, much high society and many indigenous costumes. 20 BS
Casa de la Liberdad (Freedom Museum). This is the opulent building on the main square where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1825. There is a large meeting hall, many portraits, a history timeline and various artifacts. 20 for nationals, 30BS for foreigners.
Military Museum. Uniforms and the usual firearms, swords, portraits, busts, ship models and recounts of the Wars of Independence and War of the Pacific. Guided by army soldiers. 10BS
Treasure Museum. The price includes a guide who speaks English. Details the mining history of Bolivia – gold and silver (in Potosi) principally, minerals, gems, and a lovely building with stained glass including a dome. 30Bs
ON bus Sucre to Tarija. Emperador @20:00-06:30 100BS
Day 7 Sun Mar 23
The main terminal is far south of the city. Buses to Argentina were leaving late at night. I decided to go to Villazon on the Argentinian border but had over 12 hours to spend. I got a taxi into Tarija to see the NM sites. The taxi was 20BS and the bus back 2BS.
TARIJA
Paleontological Museum. Has several skeletons, the most interesting is a mastodon, giant armadillos, and two recreated giant sloths. Also pots, spears, arrowheads, skeletons, funeral urns and more. I arrived 15 minutes before closing (closes early on Sunday at 12:30). Residents pay 5BS, nonresidents 20BS (I whined as it was about to close and they still charged me 10BS
Catedral San Bernardo. The main cathedral of Tarija, it has a cut stone front and rough rock wall back. Surprisingly, all RC churches in Peru and Bolivia close at noon, even on a Sunday. It was closed when I visited.
Iglesia de San Roque. Grey with white trim, the back is brick and stone. It has one large central bell tower. It was closed on a Sunday afternoon.
Casa Dorada. Once a theatre, it has been closed for some time. It is a decorated 2-story building painted gold and silver with silver statues lining the roofline.
I sat in the City Park (a lovely space with many benches, a fountain, a gazebo and thousands of pigeons). I napped, read and eventually went to the lovely El Marques Restaurant for a late lunch. It was good but it was interesting to deal with a waiter with no common sense. I asked for lemonade and he brought a 2-litre jug, every instruction had to be translated and he still made errors.
The bus terminal is modern and huge but with no plugs anywhere. I sat in a massage chair, unplugged a toy riding car and plugged in my computer. When travelling so much on buses, it is hard to keep everything up to date.
I ended up spending most of the day here. The wifi was lightning-fast. The constant loud hawking of all the bus vendors got tiring.
Bus Taraja to Villazon on the Bolivia-Argentina border. The Argentina border town is Quiaca. Only two smaller bus lines go directly to Villazon – Trans Villa del Norte 40BS @21:00-01:30. The large bus lines going to Salta from Taraja all go through a different border crossing at Bermejo.
From Quiaca, there are buses (Balut, several times a day) to the WHS and Tilcara.
GO TO ARGENTINA
