Madidi National Park

Madidi drops from over five thousand metres in the Andes to around two hundred in the Amazon basin, and that altitude range packs an extraordinary number of habitats into one park: glacial peaks, cloud forest, dry valley, savanna and lowland rainforest. It holds a share of the world's bird species that is out of all proportion to its size, along with jaguar, spectacled bear, giant otter and pink river dolphin. The community-run lodges on the Tuichi river, notably Chalalán and San Miguel del Bala, were among the first Indigenous-owned ecotourism ventures in South America and remain the standard way to visit, with guides from the villages who know the forest as a working landscape rather than a curiosity.

What you actually see

• Community lodges on the Tuichi - Indigenous-owned operations with village guides.
• Night walks and river trips - caiman, frogs and nocturnal mammals after dark.
• Macaw clay licks - riverbank clay banks where parrots gather in numbers.
• The pampas alternative - flooded grassland trips from Rurrenabaque with easier wildlife viewing.

When to go

May to October is drier, with easier river travel and fewer mosquitoes. The wet season from November brings higher rivers, heavier rain and more difficult flights. Flights to Rurrenabaque are small and frequently cancelled by weather in any season.

Honest expectations

Wildlife in dense rainforest is heard far more than seen, and visitors expecting a safari will be disappointed; the pampas trips deliver more sightings but in a very different, less pristine setting. Some pampas operators have a poor record on animal handling, so choose carefully. Flights are unreliable, and the overland alternative from La Paz is a long journey on the notorious Yungas road.

Nearby

Rurrenabaque is the gateway town; the Yungas and Coroico lie on the road back to La Paz.