The village is only accessible on dirt roads and is located at an elevation of 134 m. The place at the Beni rapids was discovered in 1846 by the Bolivian scientist José Agustín Palacios.

He had a theater and tennis courts built, a luxury hotel overlooking the rapids, and a modern hospital.

Cachuela Esperanza had the first X-ray unit of Bolivia, and millionaires from Rio de Janeiro und São Paulo were flown in by seaplanes.

In the past, the most significant personality of the town was Nicolas Suárez Callaú, the "rubber king", along with the tin barons Patiño, Hochschild and Aramayo one of the most influential tycoons of Bolivia.

Moreover, in 1925 Cachulea Esperanza was the birthplace of Eugen Gomringer, son of a Swiss and a Bolivian girl, who is seen as the father of "Concrete Poetry".