Rurrenabaque: Bolivia’s Gateway to the Jungle
Rurrenabaque, located at an elevation of about 300 meters (980 feet) in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia, is a small town that has become a hub for eco-tourism and adventure travel. The town’s appeal lies in its proximity to two areas: the Pampas and Madidi National Park, both renowned for their incredible biodiversity. However, Rurrenabaque’s global fame can largely be attributed to the dramatic story of Israeli backpacker Yossi Ghinsberg.
In 1981, Yossi Ghinsberg, along with 2 other friends and guide, set out to explore the Amazon jungle. Their adventure took a terrifying turn after the raft Ghinsberg sailed with Kevin Gale has crashed, leading to them separating and an intense and harrowing survival story in the heart of the rain-forest. After 3 weeks of being lost and struggling to survive, Ghinsberg was miraculously rescued. His tale of survival, later chronicled in his book Jungle (which was later made into a movie – the book is better!), brought international attention to the town, putting Rurrenabaque on the map for backpackers. It was a mecca for Israeli backpackers in Bolivia and at its peak times, in the early 2000s, had 3 daily flights from La Paz full with backpackers (mainly from Israel).
How to get to Rurrenabaque
You can get to Rurrenabaque either from La Paz or from the direction of Santa Cruz. It’s possible to fly but we took the bus.
From La Paz
All buses from La Paz to the jungle leave from terminal Minasa. Here there are multiple bus companies who offer night-service for the ~14 hour ride. The company that is considered the best is Flota Yungueña (100-120 BOB). There are more companies like Trans Totai (we took them) that are a bit cheaper (70 BOB) – the bus is older and only semi-cama but we could still sleep.
We did not go from La Paz, but joined the Bus from Coroico (Yolosita). You can read more here: How to get from Coroico to Rurrenabaque
Want to do a multiday hike from La Paz and end in Coroico? Check out this post: El Choro Trek Bolivia: How to do it Self-Guided (2024)From Santa Cruz Direction
Apparently it’s also possible to reach Rurrenabaque by a loooong (more than 24h) bus-ride from Santa Cruz, via Trinidad.
The information we have is that buses going directly from Rurrenabaque to Santa Cruz only leave twice weekly (Thursday and Friday) and cost ~250BOB.
What is there do do in the village
Well first and foremost: Relax in a hammock! It’s hot and humid here so give your body some time to get used to it, especially if you come from the chill altitude of La Paz (the pressure is also different). All hostels in Rurre have a hammock 🙂 See our tips below.
If you feel like doing a bit of walking, you can go up to Mirador La Cruz. It’s a nice walk that gives you a view of Rurrenabaque from above and already a little bit of jungle-feeling. A round trip is possible – starting at Calle Camacho and ending at Calle Santa Cruz. Note the way can be muddy and slippery at times, so proper shoes and hiking poles can be handy. Towards the end of the route near Calle Santa Cruz there is a natural pool you can swim in – it wasn’t so clean when we were there. It’s empty during the week but we heard it gets full of locals on weekends.
Coffee, Frappes and Food. We felt that it’s too hot here to drink regular coffee so we discovered Frappes! Some kind of shredded ice, sweet coffee drink. Roots Cafe serves a yummy but expensive one that is less sweet than in other places. Locals advertise Frappes as healthy, but when we asked them about it and the amount of sugar they use to prepare them, they just started laughing :)… For food we liked Juliano’s Restaurant and headed regularly for gluten-free Gunapes, Pan de arroz and other treads to the Mercado Campesino (after 17:00). Read more here: Gluten Free Bolivia.
There is also a french bakery, with yummy pan de chocolate, but it’s only open in the morning (till 12) and sells out fast, so come early.
On the riverfront there is a street-market every Sunday morning, and its also a great place to watch the sunset and the unloading of banana-boats.
Read more about our favorite sunset spots in Bolivia here: Best Sunset Spots in BoliviaTours to the Selva and Pampas
There are many agencies in Rurrenabaque and they vary in their reputation and quality of service, so read reviews from other travelers before making a choice. As in Uyuni, you can custom-make your adventure lasting from 2 nights to 2 weeks. We’ll describe here the most common offers that are also mostly cheaper.
Pampas tour
The Pampas is a swampy area located to the east of Rurrenabaque and rich in wildlife – from the world’s largest rodents – capybaras, through river dolphins, anacondas, monkeys, birds and many many types of alligators. A pampas tour will include transportation to the starting point of rio Yacuma, from there you’ll go by boat to a lodge built by your agency. This is where you’ll get your meals, much-needed-showers and some hammock time between the tours. From there, you’ll go on excursions aimed to find different types of wildlife and even fish piranhas (or as Patricia calls it: feeding piranhas 🙂 you can understand how good we did…).
The “classic” tour is 2 nights, 3 days, and costs 700-900BOB, not including the entry to the national park which is 150 BOB. This tour is very common and we found many agencies in town offering almost the same.
We ended up doing it with Fluvial and highly don’t recommend it. Our guide was not giving us any information about wildlife and looked suffering most of the tour. The thing we found the most infuriating was that he was feeding the animals!!! This was not at all what we meant when we wanted to see nature, and was also unnecessary – wildlife is abundant with no need to interfere… We felt our visit was destroying the place. It’s also not legal as it’s a nature reservoir and we’ve complained in the tourist office and left a google review stating that.
When to Visit the Pampas?
TL;DR: we don’t know 🙁
We visited at the end of the dry season at the beginning of November. At this time, the river is at it’s lowest level which might effect your trip – some routes are not possible to pass by boat and are done by car instead. We were 7 people + guide, and often had to shake and move the boat to get out of the mud, or even disembark and walk some bits (near the caimans and mostly ticks:( ). According to the agencies, 2024 was an extremely dry year and is normally better, but might be preferable to come a bit earlier.
Our guide was not so clear regarding the best time to visit, but said that during the hard rainy season months – Jan-March, heavy rains may be a limitation. Mosquitos are also at their peak at this time of the year.
What to bring to a Pampas tour?
The “musts”:
- Toilet paper (our lodge didn’t have any)
- Head torch (for seeing animals at night)
- Repellent
- Long sleeve shirt, preferably white, against mosquitos during the evening and early morning (check if your agency offers them; you can also buy used ones in the 2nd hand stores in Rurre).
- Sunblock
- Wide hat – most of the day is in the hot sun (check if your agency offers them)
- Charger – our lodge had electricity for a few hours during the night
- Towel, soap, shampoo – shower is a real treat after all the sweat…
Don’t bring food, as the animals may find their way to your cabin and eat it.
Adding here a few things that would make our time in the lodge a bit nicer:
- Lock – there rooms are not locked and there are many people in the lodge. We’d feel safer having a lock with us.
- Small towel – if you have, it can be an upgrade to take it with you – things get sweaty out there. (It’s not a must but if you feel like, there are some 2nd hand stores in Rurre where you can get one cheap).
- Laundry powder – it was nice to wash a really smelly shirt, especially that we had 4 more days ahead of us
- Games / Book – you’ll have some free time in the lodge
Selva (Jungle) Tour
A tour to the jungle is an opportunity to learn about this magnificent ecosystem and about the locals who call it home. You’ll learn about plants – how to identify them, their traditional uses as medicine or food and much more. Some take place in the Madidi national park (entry is 200 BOB) but some are at the outskirt area so entry is not required.
Some agencies offer survival excursions where you build a raft and a shelter and need to get your own food from the forest. Some offer semi-survival where you also take food with you, but eat only twice a day and try to collect some additional food from the jungle. There are also companies (like madidi travel) that own a lodge in the jungle and make excursions from there.
We chose a tour which doesn’t include any of it – we hiked to a shelter that already existed and cooked there the food we brought. On the way, our great guide Raynaldo was telling us about plants and cutting our way with his badass machete. He also had fascinating stories about longer excursions in the jungle he took part of, the dangers and amazing moments. At night, we took our head torches and went searching for snakes, frogs and spiders.
It was a great experience to sleep in the jungle with all the animals and life bustling around us!
The “classic” selva trip is not as common as a pampas trip and agencies often will try to talk you out of it – don’t listen to them 🙂 We know Fluvial and Ben Jaja Tours offer a 2 night, 3 day tour that also include one night at a local community. We also had activities in the community – making chocolate, yummy sugar cane juice and jewelry from jungle seeds. This was a really cool experience.
What to bring to a Jungle (Selva) tour?
In addition to the “musts” (already mentioned in the Pampas part), I wish I would have brought my hiking pole with me. Going to our camp and back was loads of going steep up and down on slippery ground.
Combined Tour – Pampas and Selva
We got many recommendations for Ben Jaja Tours. It’s operated by a french guy and most of the customers are also french 😉 We booked a 5day/4nights tour and payed 1650 BOB (including all entry fees). The first 2 nights were in the Pampas, 1 night was in a community (San Miguel del Valle) and another night camping in the Selva. We were super happy with Ben, the agency and the organization. However note when there are not enough people for a pampas tour, you will be paired to a different agency (like we did in Fluvial) so it might worth being flexible about your plans to do everything in his agency.
Hostels
We stayed in two different Hostels in Rurre. We are always searching for hostels with a guest-kitchen but did only find one in Rurrenabaque: Hostal Santa Ana (Google Maps).
Also looking for hostels with a kitchen in Bolivia? Read this post: Hostels with a Kitchen in BoliviaHostal Santa Ana was ok, affordable (100 BOB for a double room with shared bathroom, 120 with private), very central and the kitchen was nice but there were almost no other travelers, which is why we changed hostels after a few nights.
The second hostel we stayed at was El Lobo Hostal (Google Maps, hostelworld, booking.com). Here we found a more social vibe and nice common areas with a pool and lots of hammocks. It’s a bit less central but directly on the riverfront. Price was 140 BOB for a double with private bathroom (we could get a cheaper price in booking.com than directly in the hostel).
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