As large as 7 million square kilometres, the Amazon covers 60% of the Brazilian territory but also the countries of Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. The Amazon forest is a dream we share with a lot of travellers in the hope of encountering a large wildlife diversity and living a unique travel experience.
In Bolivia, and more precisely, near the little town of Rurrenabaque, we hopped on a 3-day tour, looking for anacondas, pink dolphins and piranhas.
Here is a detailed guide on how to organise a Pampa tour in Rurrenabaque, filled with our best tips and advice for a successful tour in the Bolivian Amazon.
WHY GOING ON AN AMAZON TOUR FROM RURRENABAQUE
The adventure into the Amazon starts with a 40 min flight from La Paz, taking us from 4,100 to 800 masl… Goodbye woozy altitudes and cold climate, Hello humid and heavy breeze! From the dryness of the highlands to the luxuriant Amazon basin, it is a drastic change we gladly welcome after a few months in high and chilly altitudes.
From the plane, after passing close to the mountain Illimani culminating at 6,438 masl, the lowlands of the Amazon quickly appear under the shape of a windy river making its way through dark green forests. As we disembark our medium-sized plane, our breath is immediately taken away by the moisture of the air and the beautiful landscape that surrounds us.
Rurrenabaque will be our first stop for less than 24 h, just enough time to find an tour agency that will take us on a 3-day tour the next day. The most common tours that can be taken from Rurrenabaque are either the Jungle tour or the Pampa (we explain the difference at the beginning of this article).
If the above didn’t already convinced you to visit the Amazon in Bolivia, here are 6 more reasons!
- It’s one of the cheapest places to visit the Amazon
- Wildlife is thriving
- You will fish and eat Piranhas
- It’s a lot warmer than in La Paz!
- Swimming with pink dolphins is a once-in-a-lifetime experience
- It’s only a 40 min flight from La Paz
Choose your tour | pampa or jungle
The town of Rurrenabaque itself is nothing much different from other towns in Bolivia (except Sucre maybe). The houses made of red brick are still unfinished and unpainted. The electric wires hang all around the place and the roads are still uneven. Maybe the biggest change would be the lack of “Cholita” since the population isn’t Aymara or Quechua, but Tacana, a native Amazonian ethnicity.
From Rurrenabaque, there are two types of tours that can be taken: the Pampa and the Jungle tour. While the first one is oriented toward wildlife sightseeing, the second focus on the native culture. If unsure of which one to take, a combination of the two can be arranged for a week-long in the Amazon.
The Jungle Tour
By leaving straight away Rurrenabaque by boat along the Beni River, the tour takes the visitor to the Madidi national park. The 2 nights will be spent in hammocks, right in the middle of the Jungle, or luxurious eco-camp, depending on the tour you choose and how much you are willing to pay.
The aim of the Jungle tour is to learn about the Amazonian rainforest, the people and their culture. Day walks will give the opportunity to learn about local culture as well as plants and their medicinal use, while only night strolls will target nocturnal wildlife.
The Pampa Tour
The tour starts and finishes with a 4-hour drive onto a bumpy gravel road. Once the little village of Santa Rosa is reached, the visitors hop on a boat that will take them to their eco-lodge and throughout the following days, to all the activities.
The aim of the Pampa tour is to see as many wildlife as possible, which in fairness won’t be that hard. Expectations are therefore to spot squirrel monkey, capybara, macaw, caiman, crocodile, and anaconda. The guide will also take the group to swim with pink dolphins and fish piranhas.
What to expect from a pampa tour in Rurrenabaqu
Amazonian wildlife
After a great night at our hostel spend participating in a Pub Quiz, we met our fellow companions at the agency we had chosen: Fluvial tour agency. The 5 of us hopped on a 4WD and drove toward the wetlands of Santa Rosa.
Later on, after a brief stop halfway, and another one for lunch, we arrived by a river where we met many other backpackers on the way back from their pampa tour. As we switched our sits from the jeep vs theirs on the boat, they all smile at us, satisfied, striking at us how amazing their trip was.
Within 30 min all the boats left the bank of the river to go to their eco-lodge, except for ours. A 6th traveller whose flight from La Paz had been delayed was on his way and the guide decided to wait for him.
While we waited for about 3 hours, our guide brought us onto the boat to find wildlife. It only took a couple of minutes until we saw a few crocodiles and a capybara family putting mud onto their body. This rodent that looks like a giant rat, does this to protect itself from mosquitoes and sandflies’ bites.
The brown river shaded by giant trees is an eerily beautiful and peaceful place that we all try to take in as much as possible. As the tour continued we saw more birds such as bird of paradise. Not long after, big surprise for everyone… our first pink dolphins! We were not expecting to see them this easily but according to our guide, in August, the river is low which helps to notice them. These dolphins are however very fast which make them hard to observe and photograph…
This river dolphins also called Boto, takes its name from the colour of its skin. This pink colour only appears with age as it is caused by a repeated abrasion of the skin. The younger ones tend to have a greyish tint.
Looking for crocodiles by night
As the day goes on, the 6th person joins us and the guide finally brings us to our Eco-Camp consisting of wooden sheds on stilts. That night, we hopped back onto the boat for a night cruise. With our torches, we looked for crocodiles and caimans which are more active at night.
If it wasn’t enough for our heart to only see the reflection of the light in their eyes coming in and out of the water, our guide started making deep throat noises which were quickly followed by a few loudest ones coming from the water. It was truly creepy and frightening to have this type of conversation with crocodiles!
One the way back, we all sat down in the dark, lights off, the boat guided by oar, watching the millions of stars above us and listening quietly to the nocturnal wildlife sounds. A pure moment of magic.
For more Bolivian wildlife, check our article about Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Anaconda quest
After a night of hide and seek with mosquitos, we woke up to the pampa’s noises. A lullaby sang by crickets, birds and monkeys. After breakfast we went back to the boat for a couple of minutes, just to cross the river and hop off at the start of the trail which led us to a swamp. On our first full day in the Pampa, we are looking for Anaconda!
Jenny, not really convinced by all this, had a small freak out when a crocodile made a very loud noise that sounded just like the roar of a Jaguar… Already nervous by the hunt for a snake, her biggest fear, she managed to stay strong and continued the walk in the wetland.
After 40 minutes of looking for an anaconda, our guide finally found one. An incredible sight that the 6 us couldn’t believe. All the other tourists had told no snake had been found for the past week… Our luck then! The guide immediately catches the Anaconda to show it to the group closely.
Note : we will not share any picture of the anaconda being held for the reason that we do not agree with wildlife being touched or caught in the wild for the only purpose of a souvenir picture. It is important to choose tours and guides that respect the wildlife.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that many tour agency share the word about responsible tourism and wildlife protection. It however doesn’t mean, as tourists, we cannot stand for our believes when the occasion arise. In fact, when our guide decided to bring the snake back to the camp to show it to the other groups, we asked him to not do such a thing and leave the poor anaconda go on with its day.
A couple of people supported us and the guide agreed to free up the anaconda. Sadly, this type of situation is probably not uncommon.
Piranha fishing
In the afternoon, we all got ready to go piranha fishing with the idea to eat what we catch! It was Steven’s first time and we had a lot of fun trying to catch the fish. It is actually quite hard as the piranhas only bite a little bit but never close enough to the hook. They have very small mouths and are very fast.
On the way back, we stopped at the “bar”, a place where tour groups hang out playing soccer or volleyball while waiting for the sun to hide behind the horizon. Now, that was a nice evening, but as you would expect, we ended up under the attack of a mosquito army which made the whole experience a bit less enjoyable.
Swimming with pink dolphins
On the paper that looks amazing. But when you think about it twice, it is quite scary. Remember what we did the past 2 days? Yes, watching crocodiles and caimans and fishing piranhas… Are you really expecting us to jump into this water?
Well, despite whatever people will tell you, the water you swim in is not by miracle only filled with pink dolphins… all the above are present and probably much more. The water is also so murky it is impossible to see through. Are we in a horror movie?!
“Don’t panic!” said the guide… “If the Dolphins are in the water, nothing else will take the risk to stick around”.
In fact, the pink dolphins are known for attacking crocodiles, and the piranhas will only start their meal if there is a wound or blood. Steven spent a while swimming around trying to get closer to the dolphins. They were two, very fast, moving around the place, but we never got the chance to approach them.
Jenny also jumped in the water and enjoyed a relaxing time, sitting on a boué. It is such an incredible experience to swim in an affluent of the Amazon river and watch crocodiles and caimans chilling on the bank of the river, mouth open, taking on the heat of the morning sun, only a few meters away from us… a bit scary but unique.
How to get to Rurrenabaque?
The main entry point to reach Rurrenabaque would be La Paz. There are two ways which are flying or taking the bus.
Flying to Rurrenabaque
At the time of our visit, Amaszonas ran about 6 daily flights for a cost of €165 minimum return. We bought a one-way ticket directly at the agency in La Paz as our credit card would not work on the website (which as of 2024 isn’t working). We bought the way-back ticket in Rurrenabaque once we knew our return date.
A military airline also runs flights once a day but at the time of our visit, their only plane to Rurrenabaque was being repaired. It is usually cheaper to fly with them. To know the timetable and book the flight, check out their website: TAM.
NEXT READ: What to do in La paz?
It is not rare for the flights from La Paz to be cancelled or delayed. We got lucky, but out of our 4 other companions on the Pampa tour, 3 had issues with their flights. They all chose to fly with the earliest flight (on two different days) to start their tour immediately after landing.
The australian couple got their flight cancelled and were rescheduled on the next one, they decided to stay an extra day in Rurrenabaque and start the tour the following day. The other one also had a delay issue. We had to wait for him for 3 hours on our first day. The 5th person with us, took the bus, and had no issues!
If you can, make sure to allow time and maybe like us, stay in Rurrenabaque before and after the tour. If you don’t have the time, but have booked your tour in advance from La Paz, the agencies will usually arrange something for you and take care of changing you return flight tickets if needed.
Taking the bus to Rurrenabaque
It is for sure the cheapest way to go to Rurrenabaque from La Paz (around 8€ one way with Turbus). It is also an interesting journey. A very bumpy one, on an unpaved windy one car size road…
Have you ever heard of the Death road? Yes, the one that you can cycle and that is following 1,000 m cliffs high. Well, the tremendous project to build a road for vehicles to avoid the death road is still ongoing 20 years later. While a big part of the road has been paved and enlarged, there are still 3 passages that require the cars, trucks and buses to take the same old “death” road.
And this is only to Coroico/Caranavi… After that, the project has not even started and the unpaved road is still used by cars going both ways, the drop is still very impressive and not for the weak hearts.
Tips: We recommend to sit on the right side of the bus on the way to Rurrenabaque (and on the left to get back to La Paz). On the way down, the drop is on the left, and since this is the only road in Bolivia you are obliged to drive on the left (to be able to see the cliff and not drive into it…), it can be very scary to sit on the side of the escarpment.
We have done this route twice to and from Caranavi in a 4WD, by night (the road is closed during the day for maintenance) and that was already really really frightening.
You can also bus from Santa Cruz de La Sierra. The trip is pretty much the same, bumpy, scary and long, but it can be a good way to visit Rurrenabaque without having to return to La Paz.
Where to stay in Rurrenabaque?
We stayed at the hostel El Curichal and we loved it!
We are pretty hard to please in terms of hostelling but at El Curichal the atmosphere is really good thanks to the owner. He is such a genuinely funny guy who is constantly entertaining with Quiz Nights and Rib BBQ! The rooms were cosy and the showers cleaned.
The swimming pool is huge. They had a couple of kittens who hung out on the beds, so if you are allergic better finding somewhere else, but if like us you are fond of cats, it is a must go to cuddle!
Booking a Pampa tour in rurrenabaque
To visit the Pampa or the Jungle you may wonder if booking in advance is best. There are no miracle answers, it all depends on your situation and the time you have.
Organising everything yourself
If you decide to organise everything yourself, you will have to buy your flight tickets, book a tour directly in Rurrenabaque and look for accommodation once in town. This is what we did and it worked perfectly fine. We arrived in Rurrenabaque in the morning, found a great hostel, went around to find a good deal with agency, spent the night and left for the pampa the very next day.
This is probably the best way if you have time and are flexible. We also believe that prices are lower when we organise everything ourselves.
booking a tour from La Paz
If you book your flight last minute, there won’t a big difference in term of price between a self-organised tour and buying one from an agency in La Paz. All in all, with the flights and thankfully a negotiated tour rate, we ended up paying pretty much the same amount as a couple we met who booked their tour through an agency in La Paz a couple of days before.
We think the agencies in La Paz can afford such prices by buying the flights at the local rate (an Amaszonas agent confirmed that Bolivianos pay the flight tickets more than 50% cheaper than non-resident) and selling it to the tourists to the official rate which is around €165 return.
Note: If you book your flight ahead or decide to take the bus instead, you will save a good bit in transportation.
set Price & negotiation
Tour agencies in Rurrenabaque are supposed to sell Pampa or Jungle tours at the same price: 1200 Bs per person. This minimum set price has been defined by government law and it is illegal for an agency to offer a lower price.
Note: This law was established in December 2016. So it is not new, and every agency knows it. Most of them actually display a sign from the government stating the law but there is no date.
The person at the desk told us they could give us a special price because we were lucky; the law is only effective from “mañana”… understand tomorrow. Yes, very lucky indeed, but shh “don’t tell anyone” in your group… They say this to everyone, every single day.
We found out it was still pretty easy to negotiate with some tour operators, but the best price we were offered was a bit higher than expected,
>>> 850 Bs without the National Park entrance.
We couldn’t manage to get lower than this. Some agencies such as Max adventure which was strongly recommended to us refused any bargain. We went with Fluvial tour operator, the same agency our Australian friends booked with from La Paz. We had nothing to complain about.
What if your flight is cancelled or delayed?
In case of flight cancellation or delay, the agencies are actually very flexible and will give you the choice on joining a tour the next day (what happened to the Australians) or will drive you all the way as soon as you land (what happened to the English guy we waited for 3 hours on our first day).
As it looks like, Amaszonas is also quite flexible and will change your return ticket easily if need be.
tips for a successful Pampa tour
- Leave your big backpack in La Paz, you won’t need all your stuff in the Amazon.
- The price for a private double bedroom is the same as for the dorm.
- There is no need to bring extra food, as you are well fed at the Eco-camp. If you do so anyway, do not leave the food in your bed but deep inside your bag, or the monkeys will find them and will eat them right in front of you as you will be taking hundreds of pictures of them. You will notice too late this is actually your food they are feasting on.
- Don’t forget a head torch. You will need it to come and go around the eco-camp and during the night boat tour. Don’t leave it unattended on your bed, it seems that monkeys also need light… ours was “stolen” at the same time as our cookies and bananas. They left Steven’s smartphone, though.
- Bring big socks (knee-high if possible) to wear with your wellies during the anaconda hunt in the wetland. Note that you will more than likely be wearing wellies with holes!
- Use insect repellent. If you only bring a hand-luggage and can’t bring more than 100 ml liquid bottle, you can find cheap insect repellent in Rurrenabaque. Look for “Off” in pharmacies.
- Book a nice place to stay on your way back. You will need an extra-hot shower and a very good bed upon your return. We chose the Wild Rover in La Paz for these reasons.
- Drink a lot of water on your way back, even before taking the plane. Going from 800 to 4100 masl in 40 min is not the most recommended journey and you will probably suffer mild headaches and dizziness. Drinking water will help decrease the symptoms and keep you hydrated.
Total cost of a pampa tour in Rurrenabaque
Total cost per person: €318 + food & snacks
See details below
Flights La Paz – Rurrenabaque
- La Paz to Rurrenabaque – Bs 679 (€87) – online booking with Amaszonas
- Rurrenabaque to La Paz – 600 Bs (€77) – online booking with Amaszonas
Total flights: €165 per person
Accommodation in Rurrenabaque
- Hostel El Curichal: 45 Bs pp/pn (€5.75) – dorm
Total accommodation: €11.5 per person
Pampa Tour from Rurrenabaque
- Tour Fluvial: 850 Bs (€108) – negotiated
- Entrance Rurrenabaque National Park: 150 Bs (€19)
- Tip: €5 per day
Total tour: €142 per person
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jen – Owner, writer & photographer – has lived for the past 10 years across Oceania and Ireland while also travelling long-term in Latin America, North America and Europe. She has visited more than 60 countries and set foot on every continent in the world!
>> Favourite countries: New Zealand, Bolivia, Iceland.
>> Wishlist: Svalbard, Japan, Botswana, Alaska.
>> Philosophy: “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.
Jen is a coffee nerd, passionate about photography, wildlife and outdoor activities. Her organisation and curiosity make her a great travel companion always looking for DIY and off-the-grid adventures. For more info, check out the About page.
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This sounds like such an amazing tour, guys! Thank you for sharing this experience with the rest of us! I really enjoyed your way of describing it. Ugh, I’m not sure I would have liked getting into that water either 😉
Exactly! Let’s stand up for animal rights and a more responsible travel industry! I strongly believe that I would opt for the same response of leaving the poor animal. But yes, you are right, properly doesn’t happen that often.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Becci. The water is at first scary, but once everybody is in, I am sure you would have jumped too!
Stumbled across your blog while reading up on South America travels, I thoroughly enjoyed reading several articles of yours and this one in particular. Will be heading to SA myself end of this year, solo, so I’m really nervous and excited for it. Will be taking up recommendations from your blog, so thank you! 🙂
Thank you Chelsea. You are going to have an amazing time time SA. And no worries, you will never be alone! If you go to hostels you will meet lots of solo travellers just like you. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us. We’ll be happy to help