The region around Santa Cruz de la Sierra is one of the areas that is as diverse as it is rarely visited. There is something truly amazing to discover here: The former mission villages of the Chiquitanía, whose wooden churches were built by indigenous people and belong to the Unesco World Heritage, seem as if they had fallen out of time. Apart from that there are endless plains with bizarre rock formations rising out of their red earth, allowing views as far as the Gran Chaco, hot springs, which meander like a river through tropical vegetation for kilometres, or huge sand dunes in the vicinity of Santa Cruz, interspersed with water holes, and finally the spectacular Amboró National Park.