Filled with water and animals in the heart of the jungle
The Bolivian Amazon is a great way to see the Amazon if you do not make it to Brazil. Beni Department offers a great view of the Amazon and is located just a short plane ride form La Paz.
As Rurrenabaque is the most popular place to go with many tourists flocking their each year, I decided to go to the road less traveled and fly into Trinidad, and just a short ride from the airport, you will find one of the best eco lodges in the world!!!
Chuchini Eco Lodge is a family owned business in the heart of the rain forest with different types of excursions you can take and some of the best guides available. Efrem Ibis who is a Bolivian has a degree in veterinary science and can spot a bird a mile away and can also identify just about any animals. His wife Miriam is from Switzerland and is one of the most kind people answering any questions before your arrival. She speaks a variety of languages including English, German, Spanish, and a bit of French. Their Eco Hotel is beautiful and serene and the food at this place was excellent combining local Bolivian food with western style food. The fresh juices were always great especially after a long excursion in the jungle or the boat rides out on the river.
You can do any length of days you want here as there is so many activities. Walking through the jungle to see lagoons is a popular activity as well as the boat rides to see many different species of birds as well as primates, and the Pink River Dolphin. You may even decide to do night excursions on the boats to spot the Alligators, Crocodiles and Caiman or enjoy a day on horseback through the wilderness. You may also want to do a mud bath next to the river with so many different minerals in the mud or go fishing for piranhas. This place just about has it all and staying at least four nights is recommended.
They also have a great museum on the site which is dedicated to the Pre- Colombian Beni civilization. This civilization was around between 4000 BC to 1200 AD and the culture made about 200,000 artificial hills aqueducts, channels, embankments, artificial lakes and lagoons, as well as terraces. They had a very complex society, but had probably been in decline for a few hundred years by the time the Spanish arrived. Their complex system can be seen in the photos below with many items that were used for rituals that you may not have found in other parts of the world at this same time:
The Land around here is of course a rain forest with a lot of water and dense jungles. The waterways are navigable only by boats and the jungles though very dense are filled with pathways that were created years ago by the Beni Culture. You can walk amongst the great Baosi Trees that have been around for a very long time or watch some of the parasitic vines swallow up other trees.
A bonus for our river cruise was the elusive sloth which are very hard to photograph and stay very hidden. As we were driving, one was spotted in the tree in pretty good sunlight. He was extremely high up, but I was able to snap some good photos of him/her.
As I have been photographing primates for many years now, I have found that trying to photograph these guys were extremely difficult due to how high they go up in the trees and how little sun is sometimes let in. Nevertheless I ran across Capuchins, Howler Monkeys in which you can hear their screeching call for a long distance and a beautiful but naughty squirrel monkey.
There are over 300 bird species in and around the Eco Lodge, lagoons and rivers. Photographing them was a bit difficult because of the light sometimes and the movement under the trees. Some of the birds that I found interesting were the Hoatsin bird which looks like a bird leftover from dinosaur times, Jacana, Ibis, Coucou Heron, Comorant, Black Color Hawk, Needle HeronBlack Eagle, Turkey Bell and different species of King Fisher which I photograph a lot in Africa.
Within the bird family I saw different types of parrots and macaws. The Blue and Yellow and Red and Green were some of the most prevalent ones in the area. You can also see a few different parakeets around the area as they were the most interesting to photograph.
Besides the birds, you can see many different amphibians and reptiles. Among the ones I witnessed was the Boa, Rainbow Snake, two species of crocodiles, alligators, and turtles happily sitting up on logs getting some sun.
One of the biggest attractions in the area is the Pink River Dolphin. They usually get their pink color as they grow up and the males may be more pink than females. They are related to some of the other freshwater dolphins in the Amazon River Basin. As they do not usually jump out of the water like the salt water counterparts it is extremely hard to photograph them.
With all of the wildlife seen in the area it is no wonder why they have a Greater Rhea hanging around along with Capybaras!!!!
With such a wide array of flora, fauna, and fun, it is no wonder I was not ready to lave this lovely place after four nights and five days. The photography was wonderful, the hosts were great, and all around Chuchini Eco Lodge is a great environment and a place to just do what you want to do.
One response to “The Bolivian Amazon”
Wow,
Quite amazing!!!
Which species of baboons ‘coueins’ are these