The Sureste Cruceño

Often overlooked by travellers, the region known as el sureste cruzeño (roughly translated as "southeast [of] Santa Cruz", or "southeastern Santa Cruz [Department]") is one of Bolivia's best-kept secrets...and full of contrasts. Look at it on a map and you may think there's not much there outside of the Santa Cruz-Brazil railway, some curiously named mountain ridges, and lots of swamps. You'll find all of these here, but much more as well. Everything from rarely visited indigenous communities to intact battlefields from the days of the Chaco War; endless flora and fauna of the Amazonian basin as well as those of the almost-extinct Chiquitano dry forest; petrified forests of the Serranía San José to lush waterscapes of the Pantanal; prehistoric ruins and paintings to modern free trade zones and five-star resort hotels, it's all here.

Traditional house in the Sureste Cruzeño	Rainbow over the Serranía Santiago

Two provinces traditionally comprise the Sureste Cruzeño, Chiquitos and Germán Busch, although the latter is better treated as part of the Pantanal. There are five towns of note: the old Jesuit mission settlements of San José de Chiquitos, Santiago de Chiquitos, and Santo Corazón (which is technically in the Pantanal but historically closer to the Sureste); the fomer military outpost-turned-oasis Roboré; and the rapidly growing agglomeration of Puerto Suárez, Arroyo Concepción, and Puerto Quijarro, which together form the gateway to Brazil and the Pantanal ecosystem.

There's also an abundance of off-road activities in the region: this is prime bird watching, fishing, and hunting terrain - amongst the finest in the entire Western Hemisphere. It's also home to three national parks, and the most remote sections of the country. Some of its serranías and bañados have yet to be explored, and in places one can go for miles - even days - without seeing a sign of human habitation. More new species of life are discovered here annually than almost anywhere else, earning the Sureste Cruzeño the title "nature's masterpiece" in botany and zoology circles.

This is the Bolivia you will never forget: the endless horizon, the unnamed peaks and pathless forests, the ancient tribes and colonial villages, all set amidst a lush, verdant backdrop of green and blue that never ends. This is the Sureste Cruzeño.

The energy-radiating El Torre: Chochís	Abuelo dancer: Santiago de Chiquitos

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