Samaipata, Bolivia
Encyclopedia
The town of Samaipata (2,926 inhabitants in 2001) is located in the department of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Department
Santa Cruz, with an area of 370,621 km², is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia. In the 2001 census, it reported a population of 2,029,471. The capital is the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The state is one of the wealthiest states in Bolivia with huge reserves of...

, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

. Samaipata is a Quechua word that means: The Height to Rest. With its delightful subtropical climate and an altitude of 1600-1800 m it tempts foreigners to settle. The little village is kind of a Micromundo where now about 25 nationalities live together in harmony and peace. It lies about 120 kilometers to the southwest of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...

 in the foothills of the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 on the way to Sucre. It is a popular resort for inhabitants of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...

 due to its much cooler climate. As such, there is regular bus and taxi service to Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...

. The town is small with numerous colonial buildings and narrow cobbled streets. There is a good range of hotels and restaurants to suit all budgets. There are numerous tour agencies and guided tours operators.
International as well as local tourism makes this into one of the few "boom" towns of the area. It is strategically located near several tourist attractions such as El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata , also known simply as 'El Fuerte', is an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Santa Cruz Department, Florida Province, Bolivia. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, and is a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and...

, the Amboro National Park
Amboró National Park
Amboró National Park in central Bolivia is a nature reserve with over 800 species of birds, over 125 mammalian species including puma, ocelot, and the rare Spectacled Bear. Covering an area of 4,425 km² , it is protected from human settlements, hunting, mining and deforestation, though...

, El Codo de los Andes, several waterfalls, rapids and lagoons, as well as well-preserved colonial towns such as Vallegrande
Vallegrande
Vallegrande is a small colonial town in Bolivia, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, some 125 km southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is the capital of the Vallegrande Province and Vallegrande Municipality and serves as a regionally important market town...

, Pampagrande
Pampagrande
Pampagrande , Bolivia lies about 200 kilometers to the West of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in the foothills of the Andes at an altitude of 2000 meters. This tiny community on a river of the same name suffers from financial hardship...

, Postrervalle, Santiago del Valle, Pucara
Pucará
A pucará is a term that refers to the ruins of the fortifications made by the natives of the central Andean cultures and particularly to those of the Inca...

, and others. It is also the first stop in the several tourist trails to Sucre
Sucre
Sucre, also known historically as Charcas, La Plata and Chuquisaca is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and the capital of the department of Chuquisaca. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of 2750m...

 and Potosi, and the Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 route.

History

The valley was originally populated by people of the Chane
Chânes
Chânes is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.-References:*...

 culture dedicated to agriculture, hunting and gathering. The Chanes are famous for their densely populated villages, their ceramics and graphic designs, and most importantly the construction of the temple at El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata , also known simply as 'El Fuerte', is an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Santa Cruz Department, Florida Province, Bolivia. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, and is a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and...

. They cultivated mainly corn and peanuts, and were rather peaceful. There are several Chane burial sites all through the valleys and pampas of Santa Cruz between the Siberia mountain ridge and the Guapay river.

The region was later conquered by Incas as they expanded to the southeast from their native Peru. The Incas reached a pact with the Chanes and built a city at El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata , also known simply as 'El Fuerte', is an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Santa Cruz Department, Florida Province, Bolivia. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, and is a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and...

.

The Guarani warrior tribes coming from the south invaded the valley and defeated both Incas and Chanes. The Guarani hordes kept raiding the valley and the nearby region well into the Spanish colonial times.

In 1618, Pedro de Escalante y Mendoza founded Samaipata, as point of contact between Santa Cruz and Vallegrande
Vallegrande
Vallegrande is a small colonial town in Bolivia, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, some 125 km southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is the capital of the Vallegrande Province and Vallegrande Municipality and serves as a regionally important market town...

. The town moved from its original location in a place known as Castilla to its current location a few kilometers west.

People

Samaipata is quite cosmopolitan and diverse for being such a small town. Local Samaipateños from old families are descendants of Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

 colonists from Vallegrande
Vallegrande
Vallegrande is a small colonial town in Bolivia, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, some 125 km southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is the capital of the Vallegrande Province and Vallegrande Municipality and serves as a regionally important market town...

 and Santa Cruz (many of whom were of Sephardic origin) and the local Guarani natives that had invaded the valley prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. Beginning in the 1880s, some Arab families settled in Samaipata, they were follow by a few Croatians and Italians, all of which mixed and assimilated to the local population.

After the road that passes by the town was paved in the 1960s, many migrants from all over Bolivia (mainly from nearby Santa Cruz, but also Cochabamba and Sucre) settled in this charming little town. Since the 1970s, several Germans, Dutch, French, Argentines and a few Japanese also moved to Samaipata and made it their home.

Economy

The local economy is mainly dedicated to tourism, agriculture and crafts. Local farmers produce organic vegetables such as tomatoes, artichokes, lettuces and green beans. The region is also famous for its production of fruits such as peaches, grapes, plums, chirimoyas, strawberries, blackberries and figs. There is also a significant production of honey, marmalades, cold cuts, homemade wines, herbal infusions, lavender, art pieces and artisan crafts.

Climate

The climate is temperate, semi-dry and mild with an average annual temperature of approximate 19.5 °C. During the winter months cold fronts called Surazos come from the Argentine Pampa
Pampa
The Pampas are the fertile South American lowlands, covering more than , that include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba, most of Uruguay, and the southernmost Brazilian State, Rio Grande do Sul...

s and enter the plains and valleys of Santa Cruz, this cold winds combined with the altitude can reach temperatures below freezing. In the summer, the days are warm and the nights cool.

El Fuerte de Samaipata

Nearby is the pre-Inca ruin of El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata
El Fuerte de Samaipata , also known simply as 'El Fuerte', is an archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Santa Cruz Department, Florida Province, Bolivia. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, and is a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and...

. It is not actually a fort, but a temple. This is Bolivia's largest pre-Inca site.
Declared a world heritage sites by UNESCO in 1998, this archaeological complex presents pre-Inca (Chane), Inca, and colonial Spanish ruins. The temple was originally built by Arawak people most likely belonging to the Chane culture that inhabited the surrounding valleys and the pampas to the East. The temple was carved on an enormous rock. The Incas also built a city adjacent to the temple and established trade and alliances with the Chanes to protect the territories from the constant invasions of warrior Guarani tribes that raided the region from time to time.
It is believed that both Chanes and Incas were eventually defeated by the Guarani warriors, and by the time the Spaniards colonized the region, it was already dominated by Guarani tribes, and El Fuerte was already destroyed. The Spanish colonizers also built a town next to the temple, but it was later abandoned when the inhabitants moved to base of the valley.
There are several interesting features including a sloping ramp, pronounced by flying saucer enthusiast Erich von Däniken
Erich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...

 in his book "Chariots of the Gods
Chariots of the Gods
Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past is a book written in 1968 by Erich von Däniken...

" to be a launch platform for spaceships. Some of the site is now cordoned off due to damage caused by visitors walking on the rock carvings.

Laguna Volcan

A perfectly circular lake in the crater of an extinct volcano in the village of Bermejo (42 km. on the way back to S. Cruz.) There is vehicular access through a cleft in the crater wall. A footpath encircles the lake. Beautiful.

Las Cuevas.

Also of interest nearby, Las Cuevas , a pleasant walk by streams and waterfalls. There a several pools and beaches where the locals swim and disport themselves. A small charge is made for entrance.

Che Guevara.

The nearby village of Vallegrande
Vallegrande
Vallegrande is a small colonial town in Bolivia, located in the Department of Santa Cruz, some 125 km southwest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is the capital of the Vallegrande Province and Vallegrande Municipality and serves as a regionally important market town...

is famed as the place where Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara was burried in local airport grounds. After he was executed in La Higuera, by the Bolivian army and the CIA, his corpse was transported to Vallegrande and lied in state in the hospital, thus exposed to the world. Here there are various memorials and museums.
Tours of his travels and activities in the region can be arranged in Samaipata

External links

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