La Guardia: Local History and Natural Environment

La Guardia brings together a specific local history and a perspective on nature within a broader municipal context: the designated jurisdiction of Lomas de Arena Regional Park also includes the municipality of La Guardia.

Local History and Church Connections

José Vicente Soliz founded La Guardia on November 26, 1826. The exact date gives the town’s history a clear point in time. The Parroquia Purísima Concepción de La Guardia is the municipality’s main church. The founding date and main church offer two different ways into the local and municipal history: one anchors La Guardia to a dated event, while the other represents the municipality’s religious institution. If you would like to consider the history of a destination as well as its landscapes, this combination offers a specific starting point.

Lomas de Arena in the Municipal Context

The designated jurisdiction of Lomas de Arena Regional Park includes the municipalities of La Guardia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Cabezas. La Guardia is therefore part of an area whose jurisdiction spans several municipalities. Lomas de Arena is also designated as a Parque Natural y Unidad Natural de Manejo Integrado Departamental. These two protected-area designations complement its classification as a regional park and clarify the municipal context of the natural area.

Lomas de Arena features white sand dunes and small, clear lagoons. The park offers birdwatching facilities including covered observation platforms, paths and roads, as well as open areas surrounded by vegetation. This brings together different aspects of nature: dunes and lagoons shape the landscape, while observation platforms and open areas offer their own opportunities for birdwatching. If you would like to plan your trip around landscapes and nature observation, these specific features can help you decide what to focus on.

When looking for a holiday apartment, you can first consider whether you would like to focus mainly on the municipality’s history and church connections, or on the landscape and birdwatching during your stay. This distinction helps organize your travel plans around specific interests and supports a more suitable choice of location.

Santa Cruz in a Broader Context

The wider destination of Santa Cruz offers a different geographical perspective. The Valles Cruceños cover around 13,000 km² and lie at elevations between 1,200 and 2,000 metres. They include the provinces of Florida, Vallegrande, and Caballero in the Department of Santa Cruz. The Valles Cruceños are home to inter-Andean dry forest, Bolivian-Tucuman forest, Serrano Chaco, subtropical humid forest, and Puna vegetation. The Área Protegida de los Valles Cruceños is reported to have 374 bird species, including the endemic red-fronted macaw and the Andean condor. These landscapes and species belong to the regional context of Santa Cruz and add to the picture at the level of the wider destination.

Another natural attraction in the wider destination of Santa Cruz is Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. Its habitats include evergreen rainforests and palm forests, as well as Cerrado, swamps, savannas, gallery forests, and semi-evergreen dry forests. These different habitats form a diverse natural profile within Santa Cruz and a distinct regional point of interest for anyone interested in landscapes.

Chiquitano culture is also part of the regional perspective on Santa Cruz. It developed mainly in Chiquitanía, in the Department of Santa Cruz, and combines the traditions of the Indigenous Chiquitano people with Jesuit influence introduced in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nature and cultural history thus represent different themes within the wider destination. When planning your trip, comparing them can help you decide whether to focus more on landscape diversity or cultural history.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Buena Vista, Barraca Víbora.

Go to the broader travel overview: Santa Cruz.