Sweating in the tropical paradise

When traveling from La Paz to Santa Cruz, one wonders if they accidentally boarded the wrong plane and traveled to another country. It is so different here. There is more motorized individual traffic and of better quality. After all, the city is Bolivia's economic center, even when it comes to drugs. But tourism is secondary. This lively and especially very hot city is a nice change from the cold of the Altiplano. Here, you need air conditioning to sleep, while in the Altiplano, where it's almost 0 degrees Celsius at night, you need warm clothes. Finally, shorts and a T-shirt! We only briefly visited the city center because the main reason for our trip is 5 hours away by bus from the city.

It is called the Chiquitanía, a baroque jewel that has blossomed back to its former glory thanks to a Swiss architect named Hans Roth. A total of 6 wooden churches, including charming villages, stretch over 950 km. These towns were founded by the Jesuit order, who managed to convert the Guaraní by promising them protection from slavery as well as various forms of support such as craftsmanship and musical education. We managed to visit two of these towns (San Javier and Concepción) and return to the city in just one day. That included a 10-hour bus ride.

The churches are all similarly built and do not differ much from the village. Beautiful wood carvings and paintings make them a World Heritage site. In addition, a treasure trove of indigenous baroque music has been found here, which can be experienced once a year at the Baroque festival. That is still missing from our list. Who wants to join?