Day 1: Rurrenabaque – Chalalán Ecolodge

Welcome to Rurrenabaque! If you flew in the morning*, our guide will pick us up from the airport and transfer us to the Chalalán office in Rurrenabaque for a short briefing. For the next adventure, we will be taken to the port to board a motorboat that will take us to Chalalan Lodge. The trip will take 5 ½ hours sailing the Beni and Tuichi rivers. First, we will pass through the Canon del Bala (Bala George) in the Beni River. After, the boat will turn into the Tuichi river to enter the Madidi National Park. The richest biodiverse park in the world. During this amazing boat ride, we will have a chance to appreciate and enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Amazon and will observe wildlife in the river’s bank, such as Capibaras, Tapir, Macaws, Toucans, Caimans and with luck a jaguar. Once we arrive to the Chalalan port, we start a 25-minute walk to the lake where the cabins are located. There will be a reception and welcome in Chalalan Lodge, then the guide will show us to our rooms. Shortly after lunch, we will have a short walk through one of our trails where our guide will do rainforest interpretation and share about traditional use of natural resources. The return to the lodge will be by canoe, this will give us a chance to observe some species of monkeys and birds. At night, after dinner there is an optional guided tour to observe some nocturnal wildlife, like insects, nocturnal birds and along the Lake shore some caimans glowing eyes. (L, D)

*If you flew in the afternoon, we would welcome you and take you to your hotel.

Day 2: Chalalán Ecolodge – Madidi National Park

We wake up to a rainforest symphony of wildlife sounds. After breakfast, we have a guided walk –3 to 4 hours—in Tapare trail or similar. A chance to observe some wildlife like, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, capuchin monkey and many other species of birds such as toucans, macaws, parrots, eagles, and guans. Our guide will give us more information about the rainforest, and by noon we will head back to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, after some rest, we will hike another trail to keep looking for more wildlife, learn more about plants and animal behaviors. Upon return to the lodge, there different optional activities, handcrafts taught by community members, a canoe ride on the lake, video presentation about our community and the Madidi National Park. After dinner, we are invited to an Uchupiamonas night where our guides will explain their customs and rituals of the Uchupiamonas Indigenous people (B, L, D)

Day 3: Chalalán Ecolodge – Rurrenabaque

This last day after an early breakfast, we will take one last short walk in the trails and have one more opportunity to observe wildlife. We will return to the lodge to have an early lunch. As soon as we are done, we start our walk to the port to go back to Rurrenabaque. This boat ride is only 3 hours long, as we will be going with the current. Keep your senses alert because there are always chances of spotting more wildlife in the riverbanks. Upon arrival to Rurrenabaque, the guide will take us to the airport if we have a return flight to La Paz scheduled or take us to the hotel. (B, L)