Chiquitos Province

This province, the true heartland of the Chiquitania, was formerly the largest in Santa Cruz Department and the country. An original province of Bolivia created at independence (1825), by the early 20th century the adjacent provinces of Angel Sandóval, Ñuflo de Chavéz, and Velasco were carved from it, leaving Chiquitos greatly reduced in size. (For the record, it now stands at 19,374 sq. miles (31,249 km2).)

Covered with thick vegetation, the province is mostly flat, resembling the Great Plains of the United States, only with a superabundance of lush flora. It is ideal for ranching, which is its economic mainstay. About one-third of the region is made up of oddly shaped, undulating mountain ranges called serranías, the most prominent of which are the San José, Santiago, and Sunsás. Although they can be reached from the railway, these ranges - amongst the oldest formations in the continent - are breathtakingly beautiful, yet still largely unknown. Some say they are haunted, and they do retain an eerie, other-worldly aura, even in broad daylight. Towards the eastern end of the province, the prairies gradually give way to low-lying wetlands that offer refuge to literally thousands of species of tropical wildlife.

Its original inhabitants, the Chiquitano (one of the region's main tribal groups, along with the Ayoreo, Guaraní, and Guarayo), lent their name to this area. That they have been here for many centuries is indisputable: the petroglyphs of Quimome and Motacusito attest to a civilisation tens of thousands of years old. Nearly half a millennium on, in the more remote stretches of the province, small groups of these peoples still live much as they did when the Spanish first arrived. As of 2005, there approximately 185,000 Chiquitano spread throughout eastern Bolivia, mostly here and in the neighbouring provinces of Ñuflo de Chávez, Velasco, and Germán Busch.

Don't forget the wide-angel lens: San José de Chiquitos mission complex façade, Chiquitos Province

The main towns - indeed, almost the only settlements - in order of their location from west to east along the harrowing Red Oriental railway, are Pailón, San José de Chiquitos (the provincial capital), Chochís, Roboré, and Santiago de Chiquitos. San José and Roboré each have about 15,000 inhabitants; the others are considerably smaller.

The railway, for all its ramshackle decrepitude, is the lifeblood of the province. The only road of any consequence runs from the north directly to San José, and is used by both trucks and buses. All other "roads" are more or less 4WD-only tracks, passable during the dry season only. There are two small private airstrips, at San José and Roboré, although there is no regularly scheduled service to the former, even with its status as the provincial capital. Figure that one out.

The departmental capital, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, now located in Andrés Ibañez Province some 165 miles (262 kms) west, was originally founded in here in 1561 by Ñuflo de Chávez, just a few miles outside of San José, on the site of the Parque Nacional Histórico Santa Cruz la Vieja.

An enormous tract of sandy terrain in the far east of the province (probably also to include parts of neighbouring Angel Sandóval and Germán Busch Provinces) is supposedly slated for use as a national park, the yet-to-be-declared Parque Nacional Lomerío. As with most of the provinces that make up the Chiquitania, there are sizeable populations of indigenous inhabitants here - many of whom make exquisite fabrics and clothing.