Madidi National Park

Viewing a Pygmy Owl

Madidi National Park was not on our radar before this trip. Back in the US, we figured that if we were going to go to the Amazon, Brazil was the place to go; however, we kept hearing from other travelers that the Bolivian Amazon was beautiful, the best place to see animals, and inexpensive (well, relatively inexpensive). After arriving in La Paz we headed to a travel agency (America Tours) to book a trip. We thought about just flying to Rurrenbaque but we had done little to no research and to stay on schedule we needed to leave ASAP. Fortunately, we stumbled upon America Tours (right across from the Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking office), which books tours to two community run ecolodges. The agent stayed an hour after closing while we made our decision and booked our flights and lodging. Little did we know what we had stumbled onto. What really swayed our decision, I think, was a 2000 National Geographic article sitting on the agent’s desk that mentioned the Chalalan EcoLodge. At that time the Bolivian government proposed flooding part of the park area to create a dam, which could be used to create electricity that would be sold to Brazil (something along those lines). I assume that the plan didn’t come to fruition since we ended up there. The lodge was mentioned as (1) an example of attempting to provide access to the rainforest in an ecofriendly way and (2) an alternative way for the community to make money besides deforesting the area.

If it hasn’t come across yet, we LOVED the place, and would highly recommend a trip to the lodge and park. Being at Chalalan felt like being at summer camp – but for adults! Most moments during the day and even some at night were scheduled with activities; our favorite was the evening walk where we saw an enormous tarantula come out of its hole. When we weren’t on a walk or canoe excursion we were being fed delicious food and served freshly squeezed juice.

To reach Chalalan, we took a 6 hour boat ride up the Rio Tuichi. On the way we passed a cliff wall where roughly 80 pairs of macaws nest. Apparently they eat the rock, which contains minerals. It was here where we first began to regret not packing our zoom lens. With a pair of binoculars, borrowed from our guide, you could (fortunately) see the birds up close. When we were without binoculars we watched the macaws’ silhouettes in the sky.

Tree Frog

Most of our time on this trip was spent with two other couples (American and Australian) and our guide Andres. Andres was very passionate about his community’s work in the rainforest and spent some time relating how the lodge was created and how the profits are used. On our guided walks he was excellent at spotting animals and even attempted calling them (although it was unsuccessful for us). On the other hand, we had a lot of luck spotting wildlife in our room. Once the sun went down there were quite a few “red cockroaches” (not their scientific name) that crawled over everything. It was quite disturbing at first but we became used to them (as much as one can) pretty quickly as they were more annoying then anything else. In our room we also spotted a huge brown spider and a long-legged monkey frog. From our window one afternoon we could also see Capuchin monkeys swinging through the trees.

On our last night before dinner we sat down at the end of the dock with one of our trip companions who told us to that around 7pm the bats would come out. We weren’t sure what to expect but a few moments later they were flying over our heads – a few a little too close for comfort. I have always been afraid of bats but the sight was quite spectacular.

List of the Flora and Fauna Viewed

We didn’t have a wildlife guidebook and this is what we could remember. Some of the names may not be exact.

11/23 Afternoon Hike: