Blogs from Madidi, Beni Department, Bolivia, South America - page 2

We wanted to have a few days in the 'Amazon' which from what we´d heard was best and cheapest in Bolivia, north of La Paz. It isn´t really the Amazon proper, actually Madidi on the river Beni which flows into the Amazon. The only problem is that it is either a 20 hour rough bus ride or a flight away on a little plane. From the horror stories we´d heard of grown men crying through fear of the bus tumbling off a cliff and of 20 hour journeys on rubbish buses turning into epics with breakdowns and landslides we decided the better option of taking the plane, which is substantially more expensive but only takes 40 mins. So we set off for La Paz airport at 5am to get our flight an hour later and join ... read more

Das Staedtchen Rurrenabaque noerdlich von La Paz ist ein guter Ausgangspunkt, um den bolivianischen Urwald zu entdecken. Da die Anreise mit dem Bus langwierig und nicht ganz ungefaehrlich ist, goennen wir uns zum ersten Mal auf dieser Reise einen Inlandflug. Der Anflug mit dem 19-plaetzigen Propellerflugzeug ist ungewohnt, aber aeusserst interessant, da wir direkten Blick ins offene Cockpit haben. Die Hitze bei der Ankunft erschlaegt uns fast und wir brauchen einige Zeit, bis wir uns an das tropische Klima gewoehnt haben. Nach rund 2h Bootsfahrt flussaufwaerts auf dem Rio Beni erreicht man den Madidi Nationalpark, welcher fuer seine Biodiversitaet bekannt ist. Wir verbringen insgesamt vier Tage im Park, wobei wir waehrend zwei Tagen ein Trekking mit Campieren im Urwald machen. Begleitet werden wir von einem einheimischen Fuehrer und einer Koechin. Die restlichen zwei Tage verbringen wir ... read more

A3 Tour - A2 Amazon Zoo Matka on jo edennyt kovaa vauhtia ja tätä kirjoittaessa olemme jo käyneet viidakossa, palanneet sieltä ja ehtineet autiomaahan. Matkanteko on täällä sen verran hidasta, että nytkin on 2 päivää mennyt ihan pelkästään matkustamiseen, ensimmäinen päivä jokiveneellä viidakosta ihmisten ilmoille ja lento takaisin La Paziin ja sen jälkeen seuraavana päivänä ensin lento Aricaan ja sieltä Antofagastaan ja sen jälkeen 4 tuntia bussilla autiomaahan. Yhteydet Boliviasta Chileen maateitse ovat ihan mahdottoman huonot - tässä ihan lähellä on rajanylityspaikka Ollague mutta mikään kaupallinen yhtiö ei ylitä sitä rajaa - emme siis olisi päässeet oikein millään konstilla sitä kautta tälle Chilen puolelle rajaa joten jouduimme tekemään melkoisen lenkin päästäksemme rajan toiselle puolelle. Mutta se onkin sitten ihan toinen tarina. Vihdoinkin viidakkoon Pak... read more

Written by Gali: Onto the jungle portion of our journey... This was the second excursion we took from Rurrenabaque. Madidi national park is a MASSIVE reserve, occupying 1,900,000 Hectares of land, which range from the snow capped mountains surrounding La Paz to the humid jungles way up in Northern Bolivia. As well, there are approximately 4,738 species of plants, 156 types of animals, and 867 bird species. The jungle is much more of what Dani, Seth and I expected from the Amazon in terms of plants and trees. It was stunning!!! We had yet another wicked tour guide, Eric, who happened to be Brad Pitt’s guide some years ago, it was surprising to learn that Brad Pitt had been to Bolivia. The tour set out from Rurrenabaque where we boated on both the Beni & another ... read more

We went back on forth whether or not we were going to come to the jungle... again. We felt we had done so much jungle stuff in Malaysia that we almost skipped this. Then we went in and talked to Rosa Maria in La Paz. She started Madidi travel and founded the Madidi National Park, where all the tourists of Bolivia go to see the Amazon Basin. She was a staunch advocate for saving the rainforest and even had a National Geographic article written about her and the park in 2000. She single handily convinced us to go to the rainforest and more importantly, she convinced us to go with her company. So many operators here are bad for the environment. They pick up the animals or treat them poorly. Rosa Maria had opened a new ... read more