Bolivia Guide
Santa Cruz and the Eastern Lowlands
Samaipata
Some 120km west of Santa Cruz on the old mountain road to Cochabamba, the peaceful little town of SAMAIPATA is enjoying growing popularity as a tourist destination amongst Bolivians and foreign travellers alike. Nestled in an idyllic valley surrounded by rugged, forest-covered mountains, the town enjoys a cool, fresh climate compared to the sweltering eastern plains, and has emerged as a popular weekend resort for people from Santa Cruz – appropriately enough, since its Quechua name means "rest in the highlands". Innumerable good walking trails run through the surrounding countryside, the beautiful cloudforests of the Parque Nacional Amboró are within easy reach, and just 9km outside town stands one of Bolivia's most intriguing archeological sites: the mysterious, ruined pre-Hispanic ceremonial complex known as El Fuerte. All this makes Samaipata the kind of place many travellers arrive in planning to stay a couple of days and end up staying a week or longer – indeed, a growing number of European residents have settled here permanently, setting up hotels, restaurants and tour agencies. They've also helped establish Samaipata as the flagship of modern organic agricultural techniques in Bolivia, and the surrounding farms produce many of the non-tropical vegetables consumed in Santa Cruz.