Bolivia - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 211

EAST FROM SANTA CRUZ TO THE BRAZILIAN BORDER
From Santa Cruz, the railway line runs some 680km east to the Brazilian border across
a seemingly endless expanse of forest and tangled scrub, gradually giving way to the vast
swamplands of the Pantanal as the border draws near.
The last stop on the railway line in Bolivia is Puerto Quijarro , a dismal collection of shacks
surrounding the station. If you're heading on to Brazil, you're better off pushing on to the
border at Arroyo Concepción.
ACCOMMODATION
Tamengo C Costa Rica 57, Puerto Quijarro T 03
9783356, W tamengo.com. This hostel, six blocks from

2

the train station at Puerto Quijarro, is a good resort-
style op tion if you decide to stay. Dorms B$60 , rooms
B$240

a small museum (Mon-Fri 10am-noon,
3-5pm & 7-9pm, Sat 10am-noon; B$10)
in the municipal Casa de Cultura on the
central Plaza 26 de Enero, which houses an
unexciting collection of local archeological
finds and photographs of Che.
The most comfortable place to stay
is the friendly Hostal Juanita ( T 03
9422231; B$80-100 for room with
private bathroom), and the best
restaurant is probably the German-run
El Mirador (evenings only; closed Mon),
which offers a daily selection of tasty
meat and trout dishes.
La Higuera , the hamlet where Che
Guevara met his end, lies about 50km
south of Vallegrande and can be reached
by taxi or lorry in two to three hours,
or by getting buses to Pucará from
Vallegrande and getting local transport
from there. It's a miserable collection of
simple adobe houses with tiled roofs and
a one-room Museo Histórico del Che
(opening hours timed with tours so ask
around; B$10), with the atmosphere of
a shrine, complete with relics including
Che's machete, bullets and ammo clips.
Both Vallegrande and La Higuera can
also be visited on a tour; try agencies in
Samaipata (see p.213) or Santa Cruz (see
p.212). Daily buses run to Vallegrande.

eighteenth century, a handful of Jesuit
priests established a series of flourishing
mission towns, where previously hostile
indigenous Chiquitanos converted to
Catholicism, adopting European
agricultural techniques and building
some of the most magnificent colonial
churches in South America. This
theocratic, socialist utopia ended in 1767,
when the Spanish crown expelled the
Jesuits from the Americas. Six of the ten
Jesuit mission churches have since been
restored and are recognized as UNESCO
World Heritage Sites. Their incongruous
splendour in the midst of the wilderness
is one of the most remarkable sights
in Bolivia.
The six missions can be visited in a
five- to seven-day loop by road and rail
from Santa Cruz. A rough road runs
northeast to San Javier and Concepción ,
then continues to San Ignacio (from where
the churches of San Miguel , San Rafael and
Santa Ana can all be visited by taxi in a
day). From San Ignacio, the road heads
south to San José . Buses connect all these
mission towns as far as San José, from
where you can get the train back to Santa
Cruz or continue east to the Brazilian
border. Alternatively, many agencies
organize tours to the missions, including
shorter two-day trips that take in San
Javier and Concepción only; tours can be
arranged in Santa Cruz (see p.212).

CHIQUITOS: THE JESUIT MISSIONS
East of Santa Cruz stretches a vast,
sparsely populated plain which gradually
gives way to swamp as it approaches the
border with Brazil. Named CHIQUITOS
by the Spanish, this region was the scene
of one of the most extraordinary episodes
in Spanish colonial history. In the

THE CHACO
South of the Santa Cruz-Quijarro
railway line, the tropical dry forest
gradually gives way to the Chaco , a vast
and arid landscape that stretches beyond