Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Santa Ana
About 20km north of San Rafael on a different road back to San Ignacio, the village of
SANTA ANA
is home to perhaps the least architecturally imposing of the mission churches
of Chiquitos. Occupying one side of a large grassy plaza where donkeys graze and school-
children play football, the
Iglesia de Santa Ana
has not yet been fully restored and as such
retains an intimate, rustic charm more in keeping with the sleepy atmosphere of its surround-
ings than the grandiose edifices of San Rafael or Concepción. There's some speculation as
to whether this is the original Jesuit church at all - built entirely of wood, it has none of the
usual IHS signs and may have been rebuilt shortly after the order was expelled in 1767.
San José de Chiquitos and around
About 130km south of San Rafael, the dusty town of
SAN JOSÉ DE CHIQUITOS
is home
to a distinctive mission church, and also stands on the railway line that runs east from Santa
Cruz to Puerto Suarez, Quijarro and the Brazilian border. Despite this (for Chiquitos) abund-
ance of
transport connections
, like the other mission towns San José has a torpid feel and is
now nothing more than a dreary frontier market town and supply centre for the surrounding
cattle ranches and Mennonite colonies.
