ASCENCIÓN DE GUARAYOS, BOLIVIA

Ascensión de Guarayos is located 300 kilometers North of the city of Santa Cruz. It is the capital of the province of Guarayos, in the Department of Santa Cruz. Its population is primarily of Guarayo origin, thus its name. It is surrounded by lakes and lagoons. The highway between Santa Cruz and the city of Trinidad, in the Department of Beni, to the North runs through Guarayos territory, which is mostly hilly and forested. It takes about 5 hours by car to reach this town from Santa Cruz.

Photo © 2003-2007 Daniel Beams.

It is a very impoverished region. The roughly 3000 inhabitants of this town have very few opportunities to make a living. Forestry (logging) is the predominant industry in this area and forests have been highly degraded in the last few decades by hunters, illegal loggers, and forest fires. Like other many other towns in this region, it used to be a Jesuit mission town. Though not part of the 7-town Jesuit Missions circuit that is widely promoted to tourists, it still has a small orchestra which plays Renaissance and baroque music by composers such as Bach and Vivaldi. Artisans are skilled at making violins and cellos carved from exotic species of Bolivian wood.

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