Santa Cruz is located in the lowlands. Though the Andes start just about an hour away, Santa Cruz is as flat as it gets. To highlight the flatness, the nearby Rio Piray is surprisingly wide for it’s 1 meter depth.

It’s is very sandy and is surrounded by bands of mud at least as wide as the river itself. Supposedly the river tends to move around quite a bit and a dam has been constructed to keep it from moving towards the city as it has done in the past.