Bolivia travel blog by Mark Berman -
Sept 2015
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The beautiful city of Tarija is situated in the south of Bolivia, east of Tupiza and 2-3hrs north of the border of Argentina. Tarija is in the heart
of wine country and is a great place to spend a few days or more. A 55min flight from Santa Cruz brought me here and I enjoyed 4 days exploring the
city and enjoyed a wine tour also. The city was founded in 1574 and is a pleasant place to walk around, the weather is quite hot and the city has
a sizeable student population. City Tour
The central plaza is the best place to start exploring Tarija - Plaza de Armas Luis de Fuentes y Vargas. Around this
plaza are some government buildings and some very nice restaurants and some banks and atm machines. This is also where the tour buses leave from to
take you on the various wine trails. Other sights around the city of Tarija itself include several churches, plazas, Bolivar Park (Parque Bolivar), historic
buildings, markets, the occasional colorful street mural, the Blue Castle (Castillo Azul), the Flowers Park (Parque de las Flores) and various statues
and monuments. Tarija has plenty of ice-cream shops and you can pick up a slice of pizza to eat on the streets. Tarija is very non-stress,
an easy-going place with friendly people and families, it's very un-citylike! Spend a few days here and you will feel refreshed for more travel!
3 Wine Tour Options
There are 3 options, The Wine Route (Ruta del Vino), The Wine and Singani Route (Ruta del Vino y Singani) and
The Campina Chapaca Route (Campina Chapaca). Each route takes 4hrs and costs around $20USD each. I went on the first route (The Wine Route). We
visited a couple of wineries where they grow the grapes and process them into wine, they took us to see an amazing canyon (Canon de la Angostura)
for some sight seeing and great views and we visited the Old House (Casa Vieja). We did our fair share of wine tasting along the way and at Casa Vieja
we tasted 11 wines! It was a nice half-day and a scenic experience indeed. If you are really keen you can do a combo tour - one in the morning and the
other in the afternoon.
South to Bermejo and Argentina
From Tarija bus terminal I took a 2hr 50min car ride south to
Bermejo near the border of Argentina and spent the night. This journey takes 4hrs in a bus, go by car!
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Tarija has beautiful countryside surrounding it with many vineyards.
Flowers in the gardens beside the vineyards at Kohlberg in Tarija.
Simon Bolivar on his horse, monument at Parque Bolivar in Tarija.
Historic building, a government building beside the main plaza in Tarija.
