Once upon a time

The old train was quite slow: 400 kilometers in 12 hours. But there was no choice and, besides, the full moon whitened the sky that night and the tropical forest of Bolivia looked like a surrealist paint, full of twisted shadows. And at the very end of the road the beautiful village of Santiago de Chiquitos was to be found, and the amazing plateau that surrounds it. A place where, at last, one can feel free to dream again.
In the middle of the night, the train arrived to Roboré. In the train a fellow passenger said: that place is hot. And hot it was, at 9 am, and even worse later. Dusty too, and not too welcoming. Maybe it was the heat, or the lack of a decent place to eat or sleep, or the presence of so many soldiers. By noon I needed to get out.
After all, I was lucky. I got a ride to Santiago de Chiquitos, some 20 kilometers ahead, with the owner of the best hotel in the region, the Beule. The dirt road ended in a bautiful plaza, surrounded by very nice houses. This was the first stop of the 'Jesuit circuit' in this region of Bolivia.
The church is not very special here. But the nature is amazing. The village background is an amazing 'sierra' or very sharp mountain range, and an endless sea of green trees called 'bosque tropical chiquitano'. And this place is so far from everywhere, without internet or mobile phones. A very nice place to get lost, by the way. Or to find yourself.
The priest is an Italian from Bolzano, Eusebio Pircher, who came here 50 years ago. He confirmed that in the 1980's one of the priests, while cleaning the church, burned a trunk full of music scores brought by the Jesuits in the 17 and 18 centuries, and forgotten after they were expelled from America in 1767. And that some of those were saved by a carpenter from Santiago, José Suarez, who used to live right around the corner from the church. That was one of the first clues of what is now known as the Archivo Musical de las Misiones Jesuitas de Chiquitos, an international treasure.
Last Sunday, a small orchestra (violins and cellos) and a chorus of children from Santiago, conducted by a US menonite woman that went there as a volunteer, played in the church of Santiago de Chiquitos 5 baroque pieces composed in the Bolivian tropical forest some 300 years ago. No one knows who the authors were. The lyrics of one of the songs was in Chiquitano, the indigenous language.
Eusebio also told me that I should go to the top of the plateau, that seemed to be far, and high. But it was done, and it was an amazing experience. The plateau is like an island in the sky. A Brazilian friend I made there over a few 'Paceña' beers, who was searching for minerals, said that those formations had risen to the sky. Well, you can imagine the inmense forces behind all this changes. Worse than climate change, for sure.
The top of the plateau if full of amazing rock formations. It is like being in another planet. Or, really, like walking on top of an island in the middle of a green ocean. Not much else can be said. Soul, heart and mind were much better when I came back to Santiago and sat in the plaza to watch the stars and the milky way.
It was hard to leave that place . And it is even harder not to think that I should go back there. But this internet connection was found some 5 hours of travel later, in San José de Chiquitos, which is a bit far. There is a contrast: this town of San José has a lot of economic activity, but it is dirty, dusty, hot and the green seems to be far, even if you know that if you walk 5 blocks you are already in the tropical forest.
But, there is an amazing church here, made of stone. This is the first amazing one in the 'Jesuit circuit'. One of the most important features: the little angel heads hanging inside the place. They are a bit 'evil', in my opinion.
(Luis Cordova, in San Josè de Chiquitos, Bolivia, waiting for a bus to San Ignacio de Velasco)