4-DAY COMMUNITY JUNGLE (SAN MIGUEL DEL BALA)

Price
$360.00
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In this four day tour you will get to visit the Tacana community of San Miguel del Bala and learn about their culture and traditions plus also visit the world famous Madidi National Park and spend your second night in an ecolodge there. You will see first hand the community lifestyle and visit the surrounding rainforest with a knowledgeble local guide. You will learn about traditional hunting techniques, forest medicines, visit a jungle waterfall and can take a jungle hike to a canyon. You will also see how this community owned lodge benefits from the tourism project buy funding various project with the village.

OVERVIEWOVERVIEW

In this four day tour from Rurrenabaque you will get to visit the Tacana community of San Miguel del Bala and learn about their culture & traditions plus also visit the world famous Madidi National Park and spend your second nght in an ecolodge there.. You will see first hand the community lifestyle and visit the surrounding rainforest with a knowledgeble local guide. You will learn about traditional hunting techiques, forest medicines, visit a jungle waterfall and can take a jungle hike to a canyon. There will be  a delicious lunch cooked by the skilled local cooks. You will also see how this community owned lodge benefits from the tourism project buy funding various project with the village.

ITINERARYITINERARY
DAY 1
You will be picked up from you accommodation or from the airport and taken to the office (pickup from the airport is also included if arriving the day before). After a short briefing your guide will take you and your bags to the motorized canoe that awaits you in the port of the river. From there you will be taken up the Rio Beni 45 minutes to the lodge, where a refreshing tropical fruit juice will welcome you. After settling into your private cabin your guide will take you back in time as he leads you through the rainforest and shows you the ancient trapping methods of the Tacana. Learn how the Tacana outfoxed their prey with unique and interesting traps that helped them catch dinner. Your guide will show you how each trap works, as well as the medicinal plants the hunters would collect as they checked their traps. After returning to the lodge you can go wash up and sit down to a delicious lunch (vegetarian options included with advance notice), which includes all locally grown ingredients. Go rest in a hammock after lunch and enjoy the tranquillity of the river and sounds of the jungle. After you are recharged your guide will take you to visit the community of San Miguel, a Tacana village, and experience how tourism and your money has helped the San Migueleños improve their day-to-day lives. Take a stroll through the village as your guide explains how the community is organized. Visit the school, your guide’s home, learn how to weave, make a thatched roof, and squeeze sugar cane yourself and enjoy a sweet and refreshing drink (best served with some lemon). Your visit to the community of San Miguel will give you a look at how the Tacana villagers live day-to-day as well as let you see the great things your money is doing as a client of the community owned lodge! Enjoy your dinner and relax the rest of the evening in your cabin or in the hammock hut. 


DAY 2
Your day starts with tropical bird songs and a nice breakfast by the river. Once you are done your guide will sit with you and explain the day’s activities. After breakfast you will take the canoe a bit further upriver to the mouth of a stream that flows into the Rio Beni. From there your guide will lead you along the stream for a short 20-minute hike up to a waterfall that has a natural pool below where you can take a refreshing dip after your hike and relax in the soothing waters. The trek is a bit challenging, so make sure you consult with your guide before setting off if they feel you can handle it. The reward of your hard work is to sit underneath the waterfall and let this natural masseuse soothe your tired muscles. There are two options of activities for this afternoon before heading further upriver:
  • 1 - San Miguel's Phamacy - You can go with your guide and experience San Miguel’s pharmacy, taking a walk into the forest with your guide to explore the wonders of medicinal plant life. Your guide will share his knowledge of the forest and the abundance of plant life that the Tacana have used for years to help with basic ailments such as stomachaches and colds all the way to dealing with anemia and other more serious conditions. Experience what the forest has to offer, and eventry to take some medicine with you for your next run-in with bad street food in La Paz. 
  • 2 - The Canyon - You can go to the canyon and experience the cool and damp ecosystem. Explore a canyon 150 meters long with all the wonderful creepy crawly things that dark damp places have to offer. This unique trek can be a short walk through the canyon to explore another world, or you can take a 3-hour trek from San Miguel del Bala along the river, which eventually runs through the canyon as a grand exit to the river. As you exit the canyon a boat will be waiting for you to take you back to Rurrenabaque.
Return to the lodge, enjoy a nice dinner, turn in for the evening and get ready for your big trip deeper into the jungles of the Madidi National Park. 
 
DAY 3
After an early breakfast your bags are put onto the canoe and you begin your journey 1.5 hours up the Rio Beni into the Madidi National Park. You then make a right onto the Tuiche River. The Tuiche is a smaller, more intimate river that allows for more animal and bird watching opportunities. Once you arrive at the cabins you put your things down and head out to explore the area or rest and relax until lunch is served. San Miguel del Bala offers 8 trails that will be your access into the deep forests surrounding the cabins. Each trail varies in length and difficulty, and your guide will let you decide as a group where and what level of trails you would like to take. After dinner your guide will take you out on a night trek. Take in the sounds and see how the forest really comes alive and transforms at night. 


DAY 4
You have a chance to explore the entire morning after eating a great breakfast. Wake up extra early if you want to go see the macaws leaving their nests for a day of hunting in the forest, or leave this activity for when you are about to return to Rurrenabaque. Just communicate your desires to your local guide, and this flexible last day will end with a lunch and a relaxing 3-hour boat ride back to Rurrenabaque - you will get dropped off at the airport if having a late flight on the same day. 

INCLUDED / NOT INCLUDEDINCLUDED / NOT INCLUDED
INCLUDED
  • Airport and / or accommodation pickup and dropoff
  • Transportation in motor boat
  • English-speaking guide
  • Cook and meals, drinking water
  • Accommodation in lodges - mosquito nets, beds, sheet/cover
 
NOT INCLUDED
  • Entrance fee to Madidi National Park - 200 Bs 
  • Travel insurance - recommended 
  • Extra beverages
  • Breakfast on first day, dinner on last day
  • Sunglasses and sun cream 
  • Insect repellent 
  • Others not mentioned

IMPORTANT INFORMATIONIMPORTANT INFORMATION
  • This tour starts in Rurrenabaque and DOES NOT include the cost of transport for getting there. We can arrange flights for getting to Rurrenabaque. We cannot be responsible if you book a tour and then you cannot find a transport to Rurrenabaque on time - please make sure you know how to get to Rurrenabaque before booking this tour (you can also book flights through us together with the tour and we will confirm the tour only if flights are available too). There is a minimum group size of 2 people for this tour to be confirmed (you can make a booking of one person and we can check to see if there are others booked for that date).
  • Groups are usually from 2 to 8 people in size and there may also be other groups in the lodges. If you wish to book for just one person you can pay a single person supplement to guarantee departure (depending on availability) , please choose this option when booking below.
  • Malaria is extremely rare in the pampas and jungle near Rurrenabaque and there has not been any cases contracted locally for many years.That said, there are plenty of mosquitos in the area so it is considered a possibility. Other insect bourne diseases such as yellow fever and dengue are in the area so a good insect repellent and long sleeve shirt plus long trousers are essential.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please read through these common questions & answers - if you cant find what you want to know send us your questions using the Ask a Question button

How does rainy season affect the Pampas & Jungle Tours & Rurrenabaque Flights?

You will read various reports about how rainy season affects Bolivia and traveling there - many of these will contradict each other simply because Bolivia is a large country, with different conditions throughout and also people experiences with weather will vary from place to place and also from year to year. In general (although there are various opinions on this) rainy season is considered to be from Oct/Nov through to Mar/April. Rain can occur outside these months of course especially in lowland and jungle areas but the rainfall is definitely more during these months. Usually up until December there is not too much and we tend to get periods of a few days when it rains and periods of a few days when it does not. From Jan onwards until Mar/Apr there is more frequent and heavier rain and this can cause some problems  but it is still perfectly possible to visit Bolivia during this time as long as you take some possible delays into account (which you should do any time of year anyway due to the chance of protests and roadblocks!). 

Pampas and Jungle Tours - These tours run year round and in general rain does not stop tours from going. The exception is when there has been very heavy sustained rainfall and the Rurrenabaque area becomes flooded (the pampas, the jungle floor, the local roads and even the town itself). This is not common but has happened some years and you just have to check local news prior to departure times or ask us for latest info.
Rurrenabaque Flights
The main issued caused by rainy season for Rurrenabque is delays to the flights between La Paz - Rurre and Rurre - La Paz which can regularly be delayed due to weather. We advise flying the day before your tour and flying back early am the day after you tour in order to give yourself some time for delays. Also if you have something you have to be back for such as an international flight we recommended having one more buffer day before to make sure. Delays of a whole day are possible. The way it works when there are delays is that your flight reservation can be looked at like a number in a queue, so if there was a flight or flights scheduled earlier than yours delayed then the passengers booked on those flights are first "in the queue" to get the next avaialble flight out. This is why we recommend not relying on getting the first early morning flight to start a tour or the last flight of the day to return to La Paz as during rainy season you are often bumped forward due to delays on previous flights.
Most people fly to Rurrenabaque but there is also a bus service that takes about 18 hours in dry season. In rainy season this journey time can rise to as much as 40 hours as the road is washed away, blocked with landslides and becomes a river of mud. We strongly recommend against trying to take this bus in rainy season (we don't really recommend it in dry season!).
How often are the Rurrenabaque flights cancelled?
We can't say how often exactly because this is mostly dependent on weather conditions but we can say that cancellations happen more often in the rainy season than in dry season, in particular from January to April but they can happen at any time of the year. All you can do is check the weather forecasts, ask us what the recent situation has been like and be flexible.
We advise that you always try to book the earlier flights though as this gives you the best chance of getting on a flight that day. Whenever the first flight is cancelled then the people booked on that flight will be first in the queue to get the next flight that goes out (and all the following flights will after) so if you are on the later flights they can be pushed over until the next day. This is just an example and of course everything depends on the conditions clearing up meaning flights can safely leave.
The airline informs us of cancellations usually the day before the flight - we will let you know as soon as we get the information. This is why we strongly recommend you check your e-mails the day before your flight (or even the same morning if having a late flight) so that you can check if there have been any changes. We inform you of any changes via e-mail and you must also be aware that changes can be last minute and too late for us to inform you before leaving for the airport sometimes.
Do you pick me up at the airport for flights to Rurrenabaque?
Depending on the individual tour this might be included with the tour or a chargeable extra. Please ask at the time of booking with us or check the tour description in the Included/Not Included  or product FAQ section. For example if you book a tour at the MashaquipeChalalan or Madidi Jungle Ecolodges, then yes a pickup will be arranged for no extra price (whenever you arrive, even if it's the day before). Also, these companies will provide a transfer back to the airport at the end of the tour. Other operators such as Indigena Tours or Bala Tours can provide a transfer to/from the airport only if you book a private tour or by special arrangement.
If you do not have a pickup arranged it is easy to get from the airport to Rurrenabaque as there is always transport waiting to meet the flights arriving. Sometimes there is an Amaszonas bus and sometimes just local taxis. The fare should cost around 15 to 20 Bs and the journey is about 20 minutes.
Is there malaria in Rurrenabaque and in the areas where pampas and jungle tours take place?
Whilst it is feasible that malaria could exist in Rurrenabaque, the pampas and the jungle areas nearby because there are plenty of mosquitoes, there have not been any reported instances of malaria. We do not consider it necessary to take malaria tablets for our tours but if you wish to do so then you should bring them with you as you might not be able to get the brand/type you want in Bolivia. There is the possibility of Dengue fever and yellow fever also, so you must protect yourself from insect bites as much as possible. You should bring a good insect repellent with you as there are not many good options available to purchase in Bolivia.

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