Boarding flight to Rurrenabaque
San Miguel Del Bala. Five days and four nights of what was close to, if not certainly, the highlight of our Peru and Bolivia trip over the past three weeks. And that’s saying a lot. After getting to La Paz this past Tuesday evening from Copacabana, we had one main goal in mind: to find a good tour operator to allow us to experience the Bolivian rainforest. We were feeling a little worn out from all the moving around from place to place and the bustle of moving our things from one hostel to the next, from one city to another. Time to turn ourselves and our trip experience over to someone else, and to visit a completely different ecological environment.
After talking with a few agencies connected with the many hostels in the Sagarnaga street area of La Paz, we decided to go with our Rough Guide Bolivia suggestion and looked at possibilities through America Tours (whose office happened to be right next to the well-reputed mountain biking company, Gravity Assisted Tours–the ones who lead you down the World’s Most Dangerous Road from La Paz to Coroico in the Yungas). A little hard to decide between the popular ecolodge of Chalalan and San Miguel Del Bala (both near or in the expansive Madidi National Park), but we decided to go with the experience organized by the Tacana community of San Miguel.
San Miguel Del Bala operation in Rurre
Can’t imagine a better choice. And over the next five days and four nights, we were lucky to get an incredible introduction to the people, the rivers, the surrounding rainforest, the animals and insects of the protected forest of the Madidi National Park. Finally making use of that bug spray, wicking clothes, hiking boots and a sense of awe from immersion in a wild, protected place–with the particular comforts afforded by our excellent guide Don Demetrio, the community members who cooked delicious and filling meals and the ones who took the time to further introduce us to the animals, the music and traditions of the area. From hiking a dark, wet canyon to taking an evening boat ride up the river to spot animals, or from watching a special ceremony for the earth deity Pachamama to fishing barefoot along Amazon river tributaries, wow–a really special experience.
A few thematic pictures to give you a sense:
Place
Walking up towards San Miguel Ecolodge
View across Beni River from main San Miguel ecolodge
Bunks at the San Miguel ecolodge
Enjoying the overlook at the ecolodge
Large river stones along the Beni river
Foggy morning entry into Madidi National Park
Unripened papayas in front of our Madidi lodge building
Rainforest Flora
A baby pineapple being cultivated
Protective spines on a tree
More spines on palm trunks
Shape of a dried leaf on the forest floor
Leaves of a whole other order of shapes and sizes
Rose pattern on fallen leaf
Spreading roots of the walking palm
Posing in front of a huge ficus tree
Animals and Insects
Night insect exploration in the rainforest
A web throwing spider in wait
A poisonous spider on the canyon wall
Macaus nesting in cliff wall at distance
Huge herd of wild chanchas at distance
Caiman sunning itself on river shore
Demetrio showing us the teeth of a fish he caught
This was the BIGGER of the fish I caught
River turtles sunning on a log
People, Community and Traditions
S sampling a palm seed
Practicing some traditional weaving in San Miguel
S giving the weaving a try
Looking at San Miguel's classroom for the kids
A boy from San Miguel with a puppy
Our guide Demetrio with his family
Night ceremony for Pachamama
Demetrio showing S the dyes in a certain plant leaf
Fellow Bolivian travelers Felipe and Melby
Demetrio with a wild pig skull .. remains of a jaguar kill
Landscapes: Rainforest and River
Traveling along the river to and from San Miguel
A hike through the dense forest
Demetrio guiding us through the canyon hike
Rainforest reflections
Rainforest foliage below hills beyond
Saying goodbye to Rurrenabaque, San Miguel and the Madidi rainforest
4 Comments
Please send a link to San Miguel Del Bala at info@sanmigueldelbala.com
hi Erik, sure thing– thanks for the chance to share our pictures and our incredible experience!
Thanks so much for stopping by my site. I really appreciate seeing your experience, and it makes me wish we’d had a little more time to get to know the community more. At our limited time (both of us only taking 2 1/2-week breaks from work) and budgets, we couldn’t really extend any more. It looks like you had a wonderful time there, and that the community enjoyed your company.
hi Nancy, thanks for dropping by. I really do love the way you mix your photography and your travel stories. We certainly did enjoy their company– much more than they did ours, I would think (heh).