Bolivia, Madidi Expedition

DAY 1 LA PAZ - SADIRI

Flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque. Upon arrival in Rurrenabaque, transfer from the airport to the port to take a 5-minute boatride to San Buenaventura, a small town across Rurrenabaque. From here, we will be transferred by car to our next overnight location, Sadiri Lodge. The lodge is located at the entrance of Madidi National Park and its speciality is to look after birdwatchers. We will enjoy also some short hikes around the lodge. (L/D)

Accommodation: Sadiri

DAY 2 SADIRI - SAN JOSE DE UCHUPIAMONAS

Trekking from Sadiri Lodge to San José de Uchupiamonas. We will hike around 6 hours (28km) from Sadiri to San José de Uchupiamonas. San José is the most important town within Madidi National Park. Once we arrive in San José, we will get to know the locals and make ourselves comfortable in their houses, where we are going to spend the night. Dinner will be served in a common area and we will be able to share nice jungle experiences with them! (B/L/D)

Accommodation: San Jose De Uchupiamonas

Hike Sadiri – San Jose de Uchupiamonas: 6 hrs/28 km

Support vehicle available

DAY 3 SAN PEDRO DE UCHUPIAMONAS - CHALALAN

After breakfast, served at each house where you will be staying, we will depart by boat to Chalalan on one of the most beautiful rivers Bolivia has, the famous Tuichi River. The boat ride takes about 2 ½ hours and with a little luck we will see some of animals Madidi National Park has to offer. Once we arrive at Chalalan’s port, we will walk 30 minutes through the jungle until arriving to the lodge. The lodge is also located within the park and has the most beautiful lake! We recommend you take the lodges canoes and sail at the end of the afternoon around the lake and you will most certainly see different types of monkeys! An amazing experience! By night we can either take the boat again and look for alligators, or have a night hike around the lodge discovering nocturnal wildlife. We could find some praying mantis, sword nose bat and a variety of tarantulas. (B/L/D)

Accommodation: Chalalan for 2 nights

Boat time Chalalan – Santa Rosa: 20 min.

Hike Port – Santa Rosa : 30 min.

Optional afternoon & night hikes

DAY 4 CHALALAN

Today, we will stay in Chalalan’s surroundings and enjoy the area. It has many different, well-marked, hiking trails in the surroundings of the Lodge. According to our wishes and our desires, we can do a couple of these trails. Everything of course in agreement with the guide. Recommended is the hike to the other side of the lake up to the Viewpoint of Chalalan Lake! Afternoon free to relax, take a quick swim in the lake or enjoy another hike with our guide. At night, we could repeat one of the activities we did the night before, pick another one or simply just rest in our comfortable cabins. (B/L/D)

Hike: 2 to 5 hrs

DAY 5 CHALALAN - REFUGIO MASHI

Today we will head south towards Refugio Mashi, near Chalalan, where we are going to spend next couple of days. After breakfast, short hike to the port and we are going to take ones again our motor boat for around 20 minutes downriver. Arrival at the Refugio’s port and walk through the Wabu Path until we reach the camp on the banks of Mashi Lagoon. This hidden place has also many hiking trails to enjoy, for example the Lucachi Trail where we are going to hike for around 3 hours and we will see a labyrinth of exotic trees and plants that lead to the nesting place of some bird species such as the red macaw, blue-yellow macaw and other smaller birds from the same family. During the tour, you will have the opportunity to observe an endemic specie of the Madidi, the lucachimonkey. Then we will walk back to the camp. After dinner we will have the opportunity to join on a night walk into the jungle. (B/L/D)

Accommodation: Refugio Mashi for 2 nights

DAY 6 REFUGIO MASHI

After breakfast, then we will enjoy a walk along the Tejón trail, for about 3 hours. In this trail we will have the opportunity to see peccaries, capuchin monkeys and red howler monkeys. And to make it even more interesting we will learn about different species of trees within the primary forest, some of them being more than 300 years old. Some of these species have a higher value in the market than gold. Some of these giants are the famous mara tree and cedar. There will also be chances to spot a variety of birds, such as macaws, toucans and the ancient bird of serere. Then we will walk back to the camp. We will enjoy lunch at the camp and will have some time to recover energies to go ahead exploring the jungle. After lunch, we will have some time on the Lagoon Mashi. This is going to be the perfect time to go fishing for piranhas. If we get some good fishes, we will take them for dinner. At night we will enjoy a cultural talk with our guides. They will share with us some local tales and legends of their communities.  (B/L/D)

DAY 7 REFUGIO MASHI - RURRENABAQUE - LA PAZ

Early wake up in the morning (05:00) to move on to River Tuichi to see the sunrise in the jungle, listen to the different sounds of it, identifying some species of birds, insects and mammals. Then, we will return to the camp for breakfast. This is the time of the day when the red howler monkeys start singing calling for females. Birds will join to the orchestra to indicate that a new day has begun. We will start walking into the Piwarola Trail where we will learn about medicinal and poisonous plants and how the communities use them as medicine and food. Later we will move back to the camp for lunch. After lunch we will return to Rurrenabaque taking the Wabu Trail to the port in River Tuichi where our boat will depart on the way to Rurrenabaque. We will be in the town at 16:30 so that you can catch the latest flight back to La Paz. (B/L)

Boat time Santa Rosa – Rurrenabaque: 3 hrs

Hike: 2 hrs