Santa Cruz de la Sierra is Bolivia's commercial centre and largest city, and home to the country’s main international airport. Unlike high-altitude La Paz, it is situated on the Priya River in the hot tropical lowlands, east of the Andes Mountains and is the starting point for most Bolivia wildlife holidays & birding tours to Santa Cruz & Grand Chaco, with a guide.
Founded by the Spanish in the 1500s, Santa Cruz is a cosmopolitan city with many museums and restaurants. It has a diverse population ranging from overall-wearing Mennonite to Altiplano immigrants, Cuban doctors, Brazilian and Japanese settlers, as well as fashionable ‘Cruceños’ (local residents). Plaza 24 de Septiembre is the city’s historic central square and the site of its magnificent rose-brick Metropolitan Cathedral. The vibrant narrow streets are crowded with suited businessmen sipping ‘chicha’ (a fermented-corn drink) at street stalls, whilst locals lounge on benches in the main square listening to ‘camba’ (eastern lowlands) music. On Bolivia wildlife holidays & birding tours to Santa Cruz & Grand Chaco, with a guide, you will find that restaurants close for ‘siesta’ and little stores line the porch-fronted houses selling cheap, local products.
Further to the east in the isolated Gran Chaco region, the greenery fades into flat scrubby red-earth expanses backed by stark highlands. This is where you’ll find Bolivia’s hottest town, Villamontes, and a series of remote, difficult-to-access reserves where wildlife abounds and few people tread. At 3.44 million hectares, Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park and Integrated Management Area is the largest national park in Bolivia. It was formed to protect the tropical dry forest of the Chaco lowlands, and is the destination for many Bolivia wildlife holidays & birding tours to Santa Cruz & Grand Chaco, with a guide.
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We have been arranging Bolivia wildlife holidays & birding tours to Santa Cruz & Grand Chaco with a guide for over 20 years.
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