Las Misiones Jesuíticas (16.07.08 - 17.07.08)

Our private tour guide Iver and our driver picked us up at 6am. Apparently we needed to leave at this hour – something to do with a bridge. It turns out the bridge we have to cross to get out of Santa Cruz is only one way (each direction gets 20 minutes at a time) and shuts for three hours on Wednesdays for maintenance. Consequently the queue can be horrendous. We had to wait about one hour despite setting off so early. On the way Jon bought some cocoa leaves to chew. Jon describes them as being akin to rabbit food. I think they smelt really acidic and gross. I think we will stick to the tea for medicinal purposes.

The first of the two missions we visited was San Javier. There are eight missions (or reductions as they are known here) in total. I expected the scenery to be very tropical and the missions to be located in the jungle (perhaps my preconception was influenced by the movie). However, the eastern lowlands are not the Amazon Jungle, and the landscape is quite scrubby with palm trees everywhere and deep red soil – it reminded us of Zambia. Most of the trees, particularly the really tall ones, have been removed for farming. Therefore, the missions we visited looked nothing like the ones in my imagination.

Each mission has been arranged around a large central plaza. The church, priest’s house, cemetery, workshops and agricultural fields are situated at one end and the tribal chief’s houses are around the other sides of the plaza. Everyone else’s houses are in straight rows behind the chief’s houses, resulting in a very geometric layout.

San Javier (1691- 1767) was the first mission in the Chiquitos area. However, the present church we saw (83% original) was designed by Friar Martin Schmid (a German guru of sorts – brilliant at everything) and completed by him in 1752. The church is made out of wood that has been slotted together like a giant puzzle (no nails) to give it flexibility. It looks nothing like European cathedrals. In fact, it looks rather Amazonian to me. All the walls are covered in patterns painted in pointillism style and the angels and other figures have native looking faces except for their noses - very squashed looking and not particularly native from what I have seen so far. The interior with all its paintings and statues with gold and precious jewels would have looked, I believe, very awe inspiring to the original natives. Apparently, there are quite a few Masonic symbols in these churches but I am not sure how that fits in. Some believe this might have been one of the contributing reasons as to why the Jesuits were expelled from the area. It was good to have a guide as everything was in Spanish and we wouldn’t have learnt anything - I guess that is what we paid for.

Lunch consisted of more meat (what else) and a political discussion. It seems our guide would like Santa Cruz (along with the majority of Santa Cruz residents) to cut ties with the rest of Bolivia and in effect become its own country. He feels the indigenous government is not investing any money in Santa Cruz despite the fact that the majority of the country’s wealth comes from this region. After lunch we had a quick stroll around the village which consists of very basic houses. Those around the plaza are decorated in similar patterns to the ones in the church. The locals must have lots of kids as every house had a ton of children’s clothing hanging out to dry on the barbed wire fence – I guess it means you don’t need pegs. We also looked at the Stone of the Apostles – a sacred area with lots of large rocks the locals called an Iya, or spirit place, so the priests renamed it.

We continued on to the Conception Mission. This place was also designed by Martin Schmid so it looks similar. However, today it is only about 30% original. As it was the first mission to be restored (by locals and not international experts) it has not been as sympathetically touched up as the others have been. I still liked it though, especially because we could look at the carpentry workshops where all the old sculptures are restored and new ones are carved and furniture for the missions is constructed. They have a pretty good craft program for the youth of Bolivia happening here. Boys from around the country can spend their last year of school here and are taught wood work and restoration techniques in the afternoons. Some of the best students have been poached by European furniture companies. The only bad thing about all of this is that they are destroying virgin forest to so this. There is no such thing as plantation forests here.

In the evening we went to mass. We didn’t understand a word of it and I got very sore knees from kneeling – I couldn’t be Catholic. The music was interesting if not harmonious – three violins and a guitar and some very out of time singers. The best part was when they paraded the Maria statue around the courtyard with everyone singing behind it. Apparently it was the festival of the Virgin (I think) and this statue had made its way from one of the other missions for the occasion. I believe this sort of thing happens regularly here.

We set off early on Thursday morning to get back to Santa Cruz in time to catch the bus to Sucre. But first we went back to the wood work shops so I could buy some carvings – purely to help support the program! It was a good thing we left early as we ended up waiting about 1.5 hours for the bridge. We stopped at a town just outside Santa Cruz to view the resident sloths. I believe sloths are one of the ugliest creatures on the planet. They repulse me. Jon picked one up that was doing the most retarded crawl towards a tree but I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot barge pole. I made sure he disinfected his hands afterwards. Foul, foul and foul!

Note: I was surprised to learn that there are quite a few German Mennonites living in Bolivia. They are farmers and the men wander about in identical navy overalls and broad rimmed hats. Jon seriously thought the guys on the train were a bunch of intellectually disabled people on an excursion until I pointed out the women and kids in very conservative clothing that were accompanying them. They are the ugliest Germans I have ever seen (I better point out they are nothing like those I know in Australia who are all attractive). Way too much inbreeding happening here!