Madidi National Park, Bolivia

We treated ourselves and stayed at Chalalan Eco Lodge in Madidi National Park in the bolivian jungle. The lodge is quite unique as its inside the park and is owned and run by the residents of one of the few communities who live in the park. (for more info and pictures to make you jealous see www.chalalan.com).

We flew from La Paz to Rurrenebaque (closest town to the park) in a small 19 seater plane, landing on a grass runway surrounded by jungle.


The view from the plane was amazing. We were met at the airport by Rigoberto from Chalalan who it turns out will be our guide for the whole jungle trip. The next day we travel by boat down the Beni river for 5 hours to get to the lodge, wildlife spotting on the way. From the river bank its then only 30 mins walk to the lodge.

We have a fantastic room with private bathroom, which is basically a lodge all to ourselves. All the buildings are built using local methods and materials identical to those used at the village, and each ´room´ building is in a small clearing of its own.

Its really hot and humid as you might imagine, so after lunch we have a quick swim in the lake to refresh (the water is really warm). We then do our first trail with Rigoberto. He starts by explaining the medicinal uses of some of the trees and plants, he then tempts a tarantula out of her hole at the base of a tree using a stick with his spit on it. The first tarantala is quite small only about 2 inches across.... of course its one of the babies! later the mother is tempted out, she is about 8 inches across and apparently one of the smaller varieties in the jungle. We continue walking around the lake, and then get in a canoe and go back slowly around the edge of the lake looking at monkeys, birds etc. Our guide has an amusing habit of always saying our names ie ¨EMMA - do you know this tree?¨ ¨CEDD, listen do you hear that?¨

Our stay at the lodge is for 3 nights, and each day we do more trails, see more animals and discover our skilled our guide is. He can recognise and imitate the sounds of all the animals in the jungle. He knows the medicinal uses of around 70 plants. All this he learned from the age of twelve (16 years ago) when he started to go hunting in the jungle with his father and grandfather (long before it was protected as a national park). He knows what the animals like to eat, where and when they eat, sleep, mate etc.

One afternoon we do some handicrafts (yes, Cedd too) and make rings from the seeds of a jungle fruit (wild mango-coconut).

We also do a night hike looking for caimans in the lake - success! we see a young caiman and also a huge mummy caiman a few metres long.



On the last evening, there is a big party with traditional food (catfish wrapped in palm leaf and cooked in an open fire) and drinks, music and dancing. It turns out that our guide plays the flute too.

After a few too many ´puma milks´ its the end of our tour and time for bed.