La Guardia combines a dated local history with nature and cultural themes within the municipal context. The wider Santa Cruz destination brings additional, distinct landscape and cultural regions into view. These different scales offer various perspectives for trip planning: local history, birdwatching, and regional natural or cultural history.

Local History and Municipal Culture

José Vicente Soliz founded La Guardia on November 26, 1826. The Parroquia Purísima Concepción de La Guardia is the municipality’s main church. The founding date and the church’s status are two different cultural points of reference: the date anchors the town’s history, while the main church adds a religious institution at the municipal level. For culturally minded travelers, the founding provides a concrete historical reference point; the main church adds a municipal perspective.

Lomas de Arena: Protected Area and Landscape

Lomas de Arena is designated as a regional park and is also known as Parque Natural y Unidad Natural de Manejo Integrado Departamental. Its designated jurisdiction covers the municipalities of La Guardia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Cabezas. This places Lomas de Arena within a jurisdictional framework that spans multiple municipalities. For trip planning, this is a different scale from the history of the town of La Guardia: the park is a nature destination with municipal and regional significance.

The landscape of Lomas de Arena includes white sand dunes and small, clear lagoons. Birdwatching facilities include covered observation platforms, trails, roads, and open areas surrounded by vegetation. This brings together different nature interests: the dunes and lagoons shape the landscape, while the observation platforms and open areas are relevant for birdwatching. Check current visitor conditions before your visit.

Santa Cruz on a Larger Scale

The Valles Cruceños are a distinct regional landscape within the wider Santa Cruz destination. They cover about 13,000 km² and lie at elevations between 1,200 and 2,000 meters. 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. Their elevation and vegetation give this region a different landscape scale from the dunes and lagoons of Lomas de Arena.

Another distinct natural region within the wider Santa Cruz destination is Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. Its habitats include evergreen rainforests, palm forests, Cerrado, swamps, savannas, gallery forests, and semi-evergreen dry forests. This diversity makes the national park a distinct point of reference for the Santa Cruz natural region.

Chiquitano culture is also part of the regional cultural history of 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. This offers another regional perspective alongside La Guardia’s local points of reference: the town’s founding and main church on the one hand, and the distinct cultural development of Chiquitanía on the other.

Discover more destinations: Barraca Víbora, Buena Vista.

For the wider travel overview: Santa Cruz.