Jesuit Missions Tours In Bolivia

Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located in the department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Six of these missions have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990.

In these Jesuit Missions it possible to  distinguishe a unique mixture of European cultural blend  with very little of the native culture. Since the local tribes were forced to convert themselves to the Christianity. Read More.....  (Jesuit missions tours)

Jesuit Missions Tours
San Javier, Concepcion, San Ignacio, San Miguel, Santa Ana
San Rafael, San Jose De Chiquitos

 Jesuit Missions Tours - Chiquitos

A trips to the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos is a physically and psychologically direct contact with the methods used by Jesuits to achieve the goal of changing the culture of the tribes in the region...Read More

Jesuit MissionsTours Details

Itineraries;    - 1 Day 0 Nights
                    - 2 Days 1 Night
                    - 3 Days 2 Nights
                    - 4 Days 3 Nights
                    - 4 Days 3 Nights - Combo-Santiago Chiquitos Route

- Photos
- Videos
- Chiquitania;  Maps
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 1 Day 0 Nights Jesuit Missions Tours

2 Days 1 Night - Jesuit Missions Tours

3 Days 2 Nights

4 Days 3 Nights - Jesuit Missions Tours

From the City of Santa Cruz

4 Days 3 Nights 

1th Day

At 8:00 we pick you up to take you to the town of Concepcion located about 295 kilometros from Santa Cruz

During this trip, and about 40 kilometers after leaving Santa Cruz, we passed through several small towns of people from the highlands of Bolivia (Altiplano) and also we pass close by some Mennonite colonies.

This trip is across a vast agricultural area, where the main production is the Soya, sunflower and other grains in smaller amounts.

Here, about 30 km way from the city of Santa Cruz, you can see the relentless advance of the agricultural frontier.

During this tour we will stop in San Javier, a town with 12,000 or more inhabitants and 542 meters on sea level

In San Javier most people are or have large native background.

This town was founded in 1691 by the Jesuits. In this town we visit the mission church and museum in the company of a guide.

He or She will show us different parts of the church, telling us about contruccion of the missions and the methodology used by the Jesuits to implement the changes in the Chiquitania and their area of influence.

The guide will give us also details of the restoration projects for the Jesuit Missions

Lunch at San Javier or perhaps earlier. Depending on how this trip has been developing.

After San Javier we go to the another missional town. Concepcion, which is located about 60 km more on the way.

Its elevation is 534 meters. And has about 15,000 or more inhabitants most of whom also descendants of the Zamucos or others trbes that were brought here against their will, to found this jesuit reduction

Concepcion was founded in 1708, with the Zamucos and ten others different tribes. Each one of these tribes used to worship different gods all of them represented in the nature of the forest.

In Concepcion in company of a guide, we visit the church and the two museums which are larger than the one in San Javier. Here too, the guide will give you a detailed explanation of the exhibiting objects, with an explanation of the restoration work of the Jesuit churches.

It is also possible we also visit the wooden workshop where the local people make the wood carving.

Dinner and overnight in Concepción. If  the first day the time is not enough to visit the church and museums, this can be done the 2nd Day.

2nd Day - Jesuit Missions Tours

After breakfast, we may stop at the church one more time for some more photos with a different sunshine angle

Continuing our trip to San Ignacio de Velasco, still 171 km away, which means about 3 or 4 hours because the bad road conditions.

Lunch will be at a simple small restaurant on the road, with only one or two meals to choose from, or it could be once we arrive at San Ignacio. Of course it depends on how you feel at the time.

San Ignacio´s church was redesigned and changed entirety in 1998. Although still keep some original wood work

San Ignacio de Velasco is the only church of the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos that was not declared world heritage by UNESCO.

The trip to San Miguel will be directly after arriving at San Ignacio depending on the time available to get to San Miguel before noon.

In San Miguel besides visiting the church we may go to the wooden and craft shop of the village, so you can buy some souvenirs right from the woodshop.

Dinner and overnight in San Ignacio.

3th Day

After breakfast and early morning, we start the trip to San Jose de Chiquitos distant 245 kilometers from this town

During this trip we will visit the mission of Santa Ana distant about 40 kilometers of San Ignacio de Velasco.

In village of Santa Ana we will visit the church and also we will try to listen to some interpretation of Baroque music, if the right people is in town.

After Santa Ana, we go to the jesuit mission of San Rafael, located 35 miles from Santa Ana. In San Rafael we have the oppotunity of visting the church of the town.

From San Rafael we keep going yo San Jose de Chiquitos still distant 170 km for travell this day.

The total time since leaving San Ignacio until we get to San Jose de Chiquitos can be 6 hours or more, this depends on the conditions of the roads

Once in San Jose de Chiquitos, we check in at our respective hotels or Hotals. or we go directly to visit the jesuit mission complex which has a museum.

This is a guided tour and includes several rooms where the recent restoration works have been discovered paintings of the Jesuit missionary era and beyond it

A visit to the church of San Jose de Chiquitos and its museum can be considered a final complement to the history of the Jesuits in the Chiquitos.

This museum was inaugurated on February 26th, 2011

Dinner and overnight in San Jose de Chiquitos

4th Day

If the day before the time was not enough to visit the church and the museum of San Jose de Chiquitos. This day is possible to do it after breakfast

Later we headed to the city of Santa Cruz distant about 5 hours away.

The whole road to the city of Santa Cruz is paved.

After arriving in the ciy of Santa Cruz we take to your hotel.

Some parts of this tour may be change to make it better.

End of our services. Thanks.

Please Read The Terms and Conditions of our Services

Tours In Bolivia is the only original source of this Itinerary.

Adverse climatologic conditions or social unrest can chage the original itinerary.

Tours In Bolivia is the only original source of this Itinerary

Tours In Bolivia also offers longer and shorter Jesuit Missions Tours.

Combination
Jesuit Mission of Chiquitos
Santiago de Chiquitos Chochis Aguas Calientes

 4 Days 3 Nights

From the City of Santa Cruz

4 Days 3 Nights

1th Day

At 8:00 we pick you up to take you to the town of Concepcion located about 295 kilometros from Santa Cruz

During this trip, and about 40 kilometers after leaving Santa Cruz, we passed through several small towns of people from the highlands of Bolivia (Altiplano) and also we pass close by some Mennonite colonies.

This trip is across a vast agricultural area, where the main production is the Soya, sunflower and other grains in smaller amounts.

Here, about 30 km way from the city of Santa Cruz, you can see the relentless advance of the agricultural frontier.

During this tour we will stop in San Javier, a town with 12,000 or more inhabitants and 542 meters on sea level

In San Javier most people are or have large native background.

This town was founded in 1691 by the Jesuits. In this town we visit the mission church and museum in the company of a guide.

He or She will show us different parts of the church, telling us about construction of the missions and the methodology used by the Jesuits to implement the changes in the Chiquitania and their area of influence.

The guide will give us also details of the restoration projects for the Jesuit Missions

Lunch at San Javier or perhaps earlier. Depending on how this trip has been developing.

After San Javier we go to another missional town. Concepcion, which is located about 60 km more on the way.

Its elevation is 534 meters. And has about 15,000 or more inhabitants most of whom also descendants of the Zamucos or others tribes that were brought here against their will, to found this Jesuit reduction

Concepcion was founded in 1708, with the Zamucos and ten others different tribes. Each one of these tribes used to worship different gods all of them represented in the nature of the forest.

In Concepcion in company of a guide, we visit the church and the two museums which are larger than the one in San Javier. Here too, the guide will give you a detailed explanation of the exhibiting objects, with an explanation of the restoration work of the Jesuit churches.

It is also possible we also visit the wooden workshop where the local people make the wood carving.

Dinner and overnight in Concepción. If the first day the time is not enough to visit the church and museums, this can be done the 2nd Day.

2nd Day

After breakfast, we continue our trip to San Ignacio de Velasco, still 171 km away, which means about 3 hours on a paved road

San Ignacio´s church was redesigned and changed entirety in 1998. Although still keep some original wood work

San Ignacio de Velasco is the one of churches of the Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos that was not declared world heritage by UNESCO.

The trip to San Miguel will be directly after arriving at San Ignacio depending on the time available to get to San Miguel before noon.

 In San Miguel besides visiting the church we may go to the wooden and craft shop of the village, so you can buy some souvenirs right from the wood shop.

 San Jose de Chiquitos distant 245 kilometers from San Igancio de Velasco

 During this trip we will visit the mission of Santa Ana distant about 40 kilometers of San Ignacio de Velasco.

 In village of Santa Ana we will visit the church and also we will try to listen to some interpretation of Baroque music, if the right people is in town.

 After Santa Ana, we go to the jesuit mission of San Rafael, located 35 miles from Santa Ana. In San Rafael we have the opportunity of vesting the Jesuit  church of the town.

 From San Rafael we keep going yo San Jose de Chiquitos still distant 170 km for travel this day.

 The total time since leaving San Ignacio until we get to San Jose de Chiquitos can be 6 hours or more, this depends on the conditions of the roads

 Once in San Jose de Chiquitos, we check in at our respective hotel or Hotels. Or we go directly to visit the jesuit mission complex which has a museum.

 This is a guided tour in the Museum and includes several rooms where the restoration works have discovered paintings of the Jesuit missionary era and beyond it

 A visit to the church of San Jose de Chiquitos and its museum can be considered a final complement to the history of the Jesuits in the Chiquitos.

 This museum was inaugurated on February 26th, 2011

Dinner and overnight in San Jose de Chiquitos

3th Day

In the case that for some reason the visit to the church o museum is not possible to do it today we would have to do it on our way back to Santa Cruz City

 After breakfast in San Jose de Chiquitos we return to the highway to   keep driving to reach Chochis. This small village is located about 90 kilometers from San Jose de Chiquitos

 During this trip on the paved highway, we will have the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful red tinted mountains  that seems to glow with the sun down  reflects on it like.  Especially for the first time visitors.

Chochis is on 250 on sea level. And it has about one thousand five hundred inhabitants.

 As we get close to Chochis we can see a special  mountain  named also Chochis (strong wind)

 This place is special for people that like the tranquility  and the beautiful landscapes

 In Chochis we could walk to visit one of its main attractions. Which is the Sanctuary Mariano de la Torre, the distance is only about 3 km. Also if visitors prefer you can go in the car

 Sanctuary  Mariano de la Torre is  a Church was built on a hill and it was designed and  by the  artifice of the restorations of the Churches of the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos Hans Roth in 1988

 Here you can appreciate the ability and talent of this person as well as the his recognition for the nature and for the local tribes, because in this place we can see wood carving  showing  native  species of trees. And a native man and woman in theirs original size

Beside from wood carving  what we can see is the usage of large amounts of local construction material.  As  red stones which seem to be used in all the walls and this looks as a very good combination  with the surrounding  mountains right outside the building.

 After Chochis we get back on the highway towards Aguas Calientes.

 Aguas Calientes which is a small community   almost on the side of the highway a few blocks block in driving in the community we get to a river known also with the same name of the community. In this river the water have a temperature of approximately 40 ° C with a sandy riverbed.

On both sides of the river in the part where there is no human presence the vegetation is exotic and lush.

This part of the river is called "Los Hervores"

 "Los Hervores" (The Boilers) is known like this because there are some places of the river where the depth is  below the the knee with small spots of water and sand that seems to boil and the sand bubbles rise to the top of the water current. At these Hervores the temperature seems to be higher than 40 º C.  The surface of the sand is not dense enough to support the weight of a person, so some one who step in this parts of the river  may suddenly  collapse down the whole,  but ony half of the body

Although this does not represent any physical thread,  you  may take care of your photo equipment or similar instruments. These parts are easy to see because the water is very clear

 Upstream the river is deeper but still it is hot

 Many local and nearby people as well as from the city of Santa Cruz and other parts of the country come to Aguas Calientes looking for   to find relief from some physical problems.

 Dinner and overnight in Santiago de Chiquitos

4th Day

 After breakfast we should start the day with a lot encourage for trekking.

We can start walking right from the village or we can use the vehicle for 3 or 2 kilometers to get closer to the trails. In some parts the trail is uphill.

The  treking time this day can be six or seven hours, usually over here the sun is very strong and the vegetation  is very low. We recommend you to take all the items you need for this kind of trekking.

 The trekking is not fast, rather is slow and always enjoying the great views.

These views are  different depending on how heigh you are and on what side of the plateau  of  Tucabaca Valley.

 Once we have walk around the top of Tucavaca Valley we need to get back to the town of Santiago de Chiquitos for lunch.

 We may have to have lunch in ´San Jose de Chiquitos to get back to the city at the end of the afernoon

 Once in the city of Santa Cruz we drop off at your hotel in down town

 End of our services. Thanks.

 Please Read The Terms and Conditions of our Services

 Tours In Bolivia is the only original source of this Itinerary.

 Adverse climatologic conditions or social unrest can chage the original itinerary.

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Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos

In the colonial era of South America, regions were controlled or divided  between Spanish and Portugueses. A big partion was remained untapped until the end of the seventeenth century.

When Spanish Crown, sent the Jesuits to founded several Jesuit missions in the regions that are now known as El Beni And Santa Cruz in Bolivia. The Spanish intention was economic among other  interests  and  to sit presence of the crown in  "conquered" regions since the Portugueses were approaching by what is  now known as Brazil

The Jesuits among others abilities new a lot about  architecture so they forced local people to constructed the churches.

The natives new much about music, but they were also forced to sing and play the notes brought by the Jesuits. Consequently  this was another great mutation to native  culture.

After the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish colonies, most of the missions were abandoned and deteriorated.

The Jesuit missions of the Chiquitania were unique in the preservation of their original structure. With the arrival of Hans Roth this conservation was essential  to be able to achieve a reconstruction with in its original lines of the temples. The restoration project began in 1972 

 Some parts of this text are from; Wiki Travel

The Jesuit Missions - Their History 

The first Jesuit missionaries arrived in what is now Bolivia (then known as Upper Peru) in 1572, having moved eastward from the Viceroyalty of Peru, where they had been established since 1568. They were preceded by other orders, amongst them the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Mercedarians. The Jesuits had petitioned the Spanish Crown for permission to enter its holdings in the New World for three decades before it finally was granted in 1566 by Phillip II, while the Portuguese King John III had given them leave to enter Brazil in 1549. For the first hundred years or so, the Jesuits invariably accompanied the Spanish military and were residents of its scattered garrisons. They were not authorized to establish frontier settlements without approval of the civil authorities, which, needless to say (given the authorities' suspicions of the Jesuits' motives) never happened. 

These early missionaries were almost exclusively native Spaniards. For the most part, they attended to the spiritual needs of the colonists in the arid Altiplano, around Lake Titicaca, and in the cities of La Paz, Potosí, and La Plata (present-day Sucre), where they established chapter houses, churches, and schools, the earliest being that of La Paz, built in 1572 (although not opened until a decade later). In 1587, three Jesuits reached the remote far eastern outpost of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, at that time located near present-day San José de Chiquitos. (It moved to its present location in 1621.) The following year, the Jesuit Fr. Diego Martínez began sporadic evangelisation of the nearby Itatine tribe. Other tribes, almost of them lingustically part of the Chiquitano (also known early on as Gorgotoqui) or Tupi Guaraní groups, soon were converted, with only the Chiriguano showing consistent hostility. 

The first chapter house in Santa Cruz was set up in 1592, and in 1605, the settlement was elevated to the ecclesiastical status of a bishopric (what we would call a diocese now). For many years, the Jesuits continued their peripatetic work in the region alongside the other missionary orders. Nowadays you won't find many Jesuits in the Chiquitania (although there are a few there). The Franciscans have been the main influence since 1931 - they were present in neighbouring Chuquisaca Department and throughout the Chaco from as far back as 1540 - and continue to staff the Apostolic Vicariate of Ñuflo de Chávez (headquartered in Concepción) and the recently erected Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco (as well as other area parishes, including Ascensión de Guarayos) to this day. An apostolic vicariate is similar to a diocese, except that for various reasons - scarcity of clergy or other resources, huges distances, and so on - it is administered directly by the Holy See through an apostolic vicar (whose responsibilities and powers are very similar to those of a bishop or archbishop). 

Nearly a century passed before the Jesuits grudgingly were given the go-ahead to expand into the Chiquitania (originally including the area now known as the Gran Chaco as well). They were already a force to be reckoned with throughout Upper Peru and elsewhere in the Viceroyalty of Peru. They had established no less than 29 settlements in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay alone (which had a total population of more than 100,000 native inhabitants in 1742). In Bolivia, they had been successful as well, with 30 villages established in the west and far northern reaches of the territory by 1705. Another 16 towns had been established between 1682 and 1715 to the northwest of Santa Cruz, amongst the Moxos and Guarayos regions. It is mute testimony to the indomitable courage and faith of the Jesuits - and the peoples they sought to convert - that of all the missions established in these areas, only those of the Chiquitos have survived, and they flourish to this day. The others have long been reduced to ruins.

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