Acknowledgments

This site would not have been possible without the assistance of several individuals, to whom I am most grateful.

First and foremost, mil gracias to Don Gallagher (USA) for his unerring design and technical wizardry. This site exists largely because of his endless patience and commitment to making happen what many said never would be a reality.

A prime motivator to whom I owe an especial debt of inspiration and thanks is Deanna Swaney (USA), a travel writer (and former editor), and the individual to whom I first made mention of my intent to hurl the Chiquitania into cyberspace.

Early-on collaborators to whom are due a profusion of thanks are Thomas and Denise Wallis (Bolivia) for never-ending hospitality and solid advice; Seth Nickinson (USA) for laying much of the groundwork whilst a PCV in Santa Cruz; María Rivera Z. (Bolivia), whose detailed analyses of the Chiquitania's socio-economic infrastructure are without peer; and Zulema C. Pauker C. and her familia cariñosa (Bolivia), for unflagging support and much assistance. In addition, Carla Herrán C. (USA), formerly of Mancomunidad Municipios Chiquitanos, and Cecilia Kenning M. (Bolivia) of APAC - Bolivia's leading cultural NGO - deserve muchísimos aplausos for consistently making available essential information and patiently answering an endless litany of questions.

Antonio Barrón Y. (Bolivia) merits an award for bravery (and naïveté) in entrusting me with the vehicles of A. Barron's Rent A Car, which by now have seen almost every road, trail, and ditch between Santa Cruz and Puerto Quijarro, and bear the scars to prove it.

Dr. Benjamin Box (UK), Julius Honnor (UK), and Alan Murphy (UK), all of Footprint Travel Guides, also merit much praise for their collaborations.

The works of architect Dr. Eckart Kühne (Switzerland) and art historian Dr. Gauvin A. Bailey (USA), pre-eminent scholars in their fields, provided a wealth of information. I am humbled and honoured to have their names affiliated in even the smallest manner with this site.

Walter Guasase T., and before him, his late brother Wifredo (Bolivia), both maestro carvers of the highest calling, allowed me unfettered access to their treasure of incomparable Chiquitano wooden art, some of which appears on these pages.

Much information of the scholarly sort came from two wonderful priests: Padre Dr. Roberto Tomichá C. (Bolivia) of the Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo in Cochabamba, and Padre Antonio Menacho, S.J. (Bolivia) of the Colegio de Sagrado Corazón in Sucre. Their works on the history of the Chiquitania inspired me to take their research to the next level, as it were, albeit in English. Additionally, the works of Dr. Oscar Tonelli Justiniano B. (Bolivia), perhaps the greatest living historian of the region, were of immense value. Likewise, Richard Gott's (UK) Land without Evil: Utopian Journeys across the South American Watershedyielded some interesting background data on the region's colonial past.

Dr. Daniel Beams (Canada) and Willy Kenning - Bolivia's best-known aerial photographer and author of several photoessays of the Chiquitania, Santa Cruz, and Bolivia as a whole, were gracious enough to permit the use of a number of their photographs, the beauty of which surpasses my feeble attempts to describe.

Again, Cecilia Kenning M. (Bolivia) of APAC, and the Hon. Jesús Herman Antelo L. (Bolivia), former ambassador to Chile and proprietor of Santa Rosa de la Mina - probably the country's only surviving estancia dating to the colonial era - went far beyond mere hospitality and into the realm of forever indebted to for their help in opening doors and paving the way in many things. Also essential in this regard have been Monseñor Carlos Stetter, O.F.M., current bishop of the Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco, and his college Monseñor Antonio Bonifacio Reimann Panic, O.F.M., the present vicar apostolic of the Apostolic Vicariate of Ñuflo de Chávez..

Demetria "Nena" Rojas R. (Bolivia) was instrumental in tracking down information, people, places, and things in my extended absences from mi bien amada Chiquitania and patient enough to accompany me on many of my journeys within it. (She is also the lovely model on the San Xavier and Concepción pages.)

If some pages read better than others, it's likely due to the kindness of individuals (all but one of them former Peace Corps volunteers) who provided key commentary, data, and photographs, in particular:

• Ashley Bessire (USA): San José de Chiquitos
• Tyler Condon (USA): San Ignacio de Velasco
• Geoff Keough (USA): San Xavier
• María Beatriz Medína D. (Bolivia): San Miguel de Velasco
• Denice Dublin (USA) and Willy Moore (USA): San Miguelito (for which, see San Ignacio de Velasco)
• Joe Stevens (USA): Santa Ana
• Shannon Trilli (USA): Santiago de Chiquitos

In Memoriam: Wilfredo Guasase T.

This site is dedicated to an anonymous little girl I saw only once at the San José de Chiquitos train station.
.