Roaming South America

Samaipata, Bolivia: Where the Tourists Visit, But Don’t Own the Place

June 19, 2026

Samaipata, Bolivia, population about 13,000, sits at an elevation of 1640 meters (5380 feet). The town is built around a central plaza and sits in the mountains. The town was founded in 1618 with the name "Ciudad del Valle de la Purificación de la Santísima Virgen" which means, "City of the Valley of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin." It had been known as Castilla during the Colonial period. Maybe the Blessed Virgin was purified, but their water certainly isn't - don't drink the water, you'll be sorry.

Some websites say that this site has the “World’s largest petroglyph.” But that is probably better phrased as “one of the world’s largest carved rock monuments” or “often described as the largest carved rock in the world.” “Petroglyph” can be too narrow here, as well, because the site includes channels, niches, animal figures, terraces, and architectural remains, not just rock drawings. UNESCO says the red sandstone monolith is about 220 meters long and 60 meters wide.

UNESCO Heritage Sites - Part 3

June 16, 2026

My previous 2 blogs talked about some of the towns (pueblos) east of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. After going out to Roboré and Santiago de Chiquitos, I returned to the town of San José de Chiquitos. San José is the turn-off point to do the northern circuit of the Jesuit Missions. The first stop is San Rafael. From there, you visit San Ignacio, Concepción, San Javier, and San Julián. Those are the towns with the UNESCO Jesuit Missions churches that survived the centuries and were restored in the 1980s and 1990s. The first blog of this series also spoke about the Jesuits and their missions, and the second blog also spoke about the Mennonites who live in this part of Bolivia.

UNESCO Heritage Sites - Part 2 - And the Mennonites

June 13, 2026

My previous blog was about some of the towns (pueblos) east of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. After going out to Roboré and Santiago de Chiquitos, I returned to the town of San José de Chiquitos. San José is the turn-off point to do the northern circuit of the Jesuit Missions. The first stop is San Rafael.

From the heat of the Amazon to the cold of the Andes

June 9, 2026

First, this blog is out of sequence. I wrote it and then forgot to add it to the schedule. So, here it is, a couple of months late.

Back on March 4, I arrived in Huancayo after spending about a month in Perú's Amazon region. It was warm, humid, and comfortable - T-shirt weather. Then I headed into the mountains. Since then, it’s been more than a month of higher elevations, colder air, and buildings with no heat. I don’t like the cold. Not just the outside cold, but the inside cold. The kind where you wake up and hesitate to leave the blankets because the room feels like a refrigerator.

UNESCO Heritage Sites - Part 1 - The Jesuit Missions

June 6, 2026

A Big City with Little of Interest

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Population, a lot. Actually, it's around two-and-a-half million. The city was founded in 1561, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of where it sits now. After being moved several times, the city finally settled here in this place by the Pirai River in the late 16th century. The city sits at the base of the foothills of the Andes and in the greater Amazon basin. It didn't really start to grow until the early to mid-20th century, when agriculture, livestock, and farming really took off. Then, the city grew big and in a hurry. The problem is that the city is not well-maintained. It grew faster than the government can keep up with.