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
Involves minimal physical effort and is typically associated with leisurely activities. Activities are low-intensity or last less than a few hours each day.
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.
$1,5812-3 travelers
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
The trip was terrific with great planning on your part. Most of the adventures were not mainstream and somewhat off the beaten path which made it especially enjoyable!! We felt taken care of and you all were readily available to respond to questions and issues. I would highly recommend your company and friends have already expressed interest based on our pictures and excitement.
Gale Cantor
TrustScore 4.8 | 251 reviews
TrustScore 4.8 of 5
Based on 251 reviews on
1 day ago
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
2 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
3 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
5 days ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.