Santa Cruz de la Sierra

Santa Cruz sits at 400 metres on the eastern lowlands and is a different country from the highlands: tropical, humid, prosperous on soy, gas and cattle, and grown from a provincial town of fifty thousand in the 1950s into the largest city in Bolivia, laid out in concentric ring roads, the anillos, radiating from the old centre. That centre keeps a colonial plaza with arcaded walkways, sloths in the trees, the cathedral and a couple of museums, and the low houses with overhanging galleries that survive around it. Beyond the first ring the city is modern and sprawling. The people are cambas, with their own accent, food and a self-image quite distinct from the Andean west. It is the gateway to the Chiquitania, Amboró and the Jesuit missions.

History

Before the Spaniards the area was home to the Chané, an Arawak people led for some years by a cacique called Grigotá, and after Domingo Martinez de Irala explored the region in 1549, Ñuflo de Chavez founded Santa Cruz de la Sierra on 26 February 1561, 220 kilometres east of its present site, naming it after his home town in Extremadura. Chavez was killed in 1568, and amid attacks and quarrels the city was moved on 13 September 1590 to the Guapay river as San Lorenzo de la Frontera and finally on 21 May 1595 to its present place, though the name San Lorenzo stayed in use into the early 17th century (Wikipedia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra).

What's there

• The arcaded plaza - colonial galleries, cathedral and sloths in the trees.
• The ring-road city - the anillos structure of a fast-grown metropolis.
• Camba lowland culture - the food, accent and pace of eastern Bolivia.
• The gateway function - departures for Amboró, Samaipata and the missions.

When to go

April to October is drier and less humid; November to March brings heat, rain and mosquitoes. Surazo cold fronts can drop the temperature sharply in winter, which surprises visitors.

Things to know

The city has few conventional sights and much of it is modern sprawl; the plaza is the only really walkable part. Heat and humidity are significant. Traffic is heavy and taxis rather than walking are the norm. Mosquito precautions matter in the wet season.

Nearby

Lomas de Arena lies south; Samaipata is west.

Key facts