If you want to see the dinosaur tracks and wander around the caves in Toro Toro, you have to hire an official nearby guide from the park’s central tourist office in the main plaza area. Going through the park on your own is strictly forbidden for safety and also for preservation reasons. Once you register…
Toro Toro National Park is known worldwide for holding thousands of incredibly well-preserved dinosaur footprints, huge karst cave systems, and deep limestone canyons. Up in the high Andes, this geological place gives a rare, touchable view into the Cretaceous period. People who love palaeontology and also thrill-seeking visitors come here to walk directly beside massive…
Getting into Noel Kempff Mercado National Park is not as simple as just showing up. Usually, you need to secure a chartered scenic flight out of Santa Cruz, or you must commit to a gruelling multi-day overland and river passage during the dry season. Because the park sits so far off, in the Amazon basin…
Lomas de Arena Regional Park is a protected area of about 14,000 hectares, set just south of Santa Cruz. It’s known for tall sand dunes mixed in with tropical savannahs, plus a few lagoons scattered here and there. This singular ecological transition zone feels like a desert, placed right in the middle of the jungle….
You can reach El Fuerte de Samaipata from Santa Cruz by taking a shared taxi (trufi) from the Ex-Terminal, or by booking a guided day tour. Expect about 2.5 to 3 hours each way, depending on the day and the pace. The drive winds in a really beautiful way through the foothills of the Andes,…
Yes, Santa Cruz de la Sierra is absolutely worth a visit because of its tropical climate, vivid food scene, and reputation as a strategic doorway to major national parks. And unlike the higher-altitude Andean cities, this lowland metropolis has this particular Caribbean vibe, with green plazas and pretty modern infrastructure, and honestly, it makes you…
Santa Cruz de la Sierra gives this lively tropical lowland feeling that sits in clear contrast to the high Andes, with busy plazas, huge eco parks, and a few rather rare desert scenes just beyond the city limits. Some top attractions to check out include:
Tiwanaku functioned as the spiritual and political nerve centre of a very advanced pre-Columbian polity; it controlled much of the southern Andes between 500 and 900 AD, well before the Inca civilisation appeared. At its highest point, the urban area held as many as 40,000 people; thanks to clever, raised-field farming methods, these structures shielded…
The Tiwanaku archaeological site sits about 72 kilometres from La Paz and is usually easiest to reach by booking a half-day guided tour. If you prefer to go independently, you can catch a public minibus, colectivo, that leaves from the Cementerio General area. It is strongly recommended to hire an English-speaking guide, since the ancient…
The Casa Nacional de la Moneda is an enormous colonial-era mint and museum that processed the staggering silver wealth pulled from the Cerro Rico mines, essentially financing the Spanish Empire for many centuries. Sitting on a whole city block, the fortress-style complex is often viewed as one of South America’s best historical museums. Entry is…