San Rafael de Velasco
San Rafael is a country town in the department of Santa Cruz in the South American Andes State of Bolivia.
Location in near space
San Rafael is the central place of the district ( bolivian: Municipio) San Rafael in the province of José Miguel de Velasco. The city lies at an altitude of 408 m in the region Chiquitanía, a trackside as yet unspoilt countryside between Santa Cruz and the Brazilian border.
Geography
San Rafael is located in the Bolivian lowlands in the semi- humid climate of the warm tropics.
The average monthly temperatures vary during the year, only slightly between 20.8 ° C in June and 26.8 ° C in October, where they are almost constant from September to March at 26 ° C. The annual mean temperature is 24.5 ° (see climate chart San Ignacio de Velasco ).
The annual rainfall is in the long -term average at 1257 mm. Three-quarters of the precipitation falling in the rainy season from November to March, while in the dry season hardly fall 30 per mm per month in the arid months of June, July and August.
Traffic network
San Rafael is located in the north-east nearly 472 kilometers by road from Santa Cruz, the capital of the department.
From Santa Cruz leads from the paved highway Ruta 4 over 57 kilometers to the north over Warnes to Montero. Here she meets the Ruta 10, which runs eastwards for a distance of 279 km and the towns of San Ramón, San Javier and Santa Rosa de Roca crosses as asphalt road. In the remaining 60 kilometers to the provincial capital of San Ignacio de Velasco, the road is unpaved, well on its 310 km long way further east along the Brazilian border on San Vicente to San Matías and further into the Brazilian city of Cáceres.
From San Ignacio to the south leads the highway Ruta 17 72 km in the south via San Miguel de Velasco to San Rafael and then on to San José de Chiquitos, from there via the Ruta 4 south to Roboré and Puerto Suárez.
Population
The population of the town has risen in the past two decades to more than double:
UNESCO
The city is known by one of the Jesuit Reductions of Chiquitos, which were declared in 1990 a UNESCO World Heritage Site.