Samaipata, Bolivia

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The town of Samaipata is located in the Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia. It lies about 100 kilometers to the west of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in the foothills of the Andes at an altitude of about 1000m. It is a popular resort for inhabitants of Santa Cruz due to its much cooler climate. As such, there is regular bus and taxi service to Santa Cruz. The town is small with numerous colonial buildings and narrow cobbled streets. There is a good range of hotels and restaurants to suit all budgets. International as well as local tourism makes this into one of the few "boom" towns of the area. Nearby is the Inca ruin of El Fuerte de Samaipata and a perfectly circular lake in the crater of an extinct volcano.