This historically-focused tour explores Bolivia's ancient restored missions. Visit the center for the mission restoration project, Concepcion. While you are there walk through the restored Catedral de Concepcion and the museum that highlights the restoration project. The capital of the Jesuit missions is San Ignacio, where you learn about the largest and most elaborate mission church. This region is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its cultural accomplishment and history!
Highlights
Explore the capital of the Jesuit missions, San Ignacio
Visit the oldest mission town in the region, San Javier
Learn about the history of the mission church restoration project
Travel southwest from Santa Cruz into the Cordillera Oriental and pass the volcanic crater lakes as you make your way with your guide to Samaipata for a full day excursion. Samaipata's Quechua name means "rest in the Highlands" and is home to El Fuerte, a hilltop pre-Inca site that inspires much-debated theories. With its giant, carved rock slabs, it is considered to have once been a ceremonial center for an ancient urban settlement, and there have been New Age claims that it was a landing zone for ancient, alien spacecraft.
This morning, depart with your guide on a four hour drive to San Javier, the oldest mission town in the region. After visiting the city and enjoying lunch, continue for one hour to Concepcion, center for the mission restoration projects. Visit the restored Catedral de Concepcion and the museum that highlights the restoration of the various churches in the region.
Day 4: Jesuit Missions of San Miguel, San Rafael, Santa Ana, and San Ignacio
After breakfast, transfer for three hours to San Ignacio, the current "capital" of the Jesuit missions of the region. Learn the story of how the largest and most elaborate of the original mission churches was demolished and replaced by a modern structure that was destroyed after some hindsight and replaced with a reproduction of the original structure.
After lunch, continue to San Miguel to visit one of the most beautiful of Bolivia's Jesuit missions before going to San Rafael, home of the first mission church to be completed among the villages in the circuit.
On the way back to San Ignacio where you overnight and have dinner, stop in Santa Ana. The church in this village is more rustic than the others and provides a good depiction of the original missions with its earthen floor and palm-frond roof.
Day 5: Return to Santa Cruz
1 Breakfast, 1 Lunch
Return to Santa Cruz with a stop en route in Concepcion for lunch. Connect to an evening international flight, spend extra time in Santa Cruz, visit Noel Kempff Mercado Park, or fly to La Paz to explore the highlands and Lake Titicaca.
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Prices for are estimated based on inflation. Contact us to confirm pricing and availability for your desired departure date.
$1,487
Notes
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Contact us for flight costs and availability for flights to/from La Paz.
Initial deposit is $400, and most travelers will call our office and pay the deposit with a credit card.
Final payment is due 70 days (10 weeks) prior to departure by bank transfer, check or credit card. All final payments by credit card may be subject to a surcharge and maximum of $20,000 charge
Our guide and driver were very good with their knowledge and were very helpful with our questions. It was a very pleasant visit that would have been impossible to do on our own. Hotels and restaurants were fantastic. The special places we got to go to, like the kitchens, were great. Enjoyed the entire trip!
