Arroyo Concepción

Arroyo Concepción is not so much a specific municipality as it is a 1,483-acre (600-hectare) enclave of beauty sandwiched between its less attractive neighbours, Puerto Suárez and Puerto Quijarro. Technically it appears to be part of Puerto Quijarro, but no one really knows for sure.

In any case, the Bolivian Navy's fifth district has its headquarters here (visitors are not particularly welcome), but Arroyo Concepción is dominated by one and only one thing: a five-star hotel resort complex, the eponymously named El Pantanal Hotel Resort. It sits on a bluff and holds a commanding view of the beautiful, slow-moving Río Paraguay, and in the distance the Brazilian border and the beautiful, old, white-roofed city of Corumbá. There aren't too many places in the Chiquitania where you can live in unbridled luxury, but this is one of them, and for less than US$100/day at that. Besides, by the time you make it this far you'll want a bit of easy living no matter how intrepid a traveller you are, even if it means rubbing shoulders with big game hunters (yes, they stay here, too).

In its short existence, the hotel is already famous as having been a meeting place between the then-presidents of Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay upon its opening. It also is famous for once having had a casino, but all those bolivianos disappearing into the hands of Brazilians soon put a stop to that.

And then of course there is its location. It has slowly dawned upon its absentee owners that it is ideally suited to offer tours to the Pantanal. You begin to sense this when visiting its Web site, which used to offer all sorts of reasons to visit (e.g., karaoke, disco, indoor(!) tropical gardens, the obligatory never-used jogging trail, money laundering - just kidding) but barely mentioned the fact that the complex sits in the middle of one of the world's most important ecosystems. Now the site may as well be online portal to the Pantanal.

Apart from the hotel complex and the fact that one technically crosses the border between Bolivia and Brazil here, Arroyo Concepción is almost non-existent. But if you want to see the future of upscale Bolivian eco-tourism, this is where it's at.

Places to Eat in Arroyo Concepción

Places to Stay in Arroyo Concepción

When to Visit Arroyo Concepción

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