Home to a vast number of Amazonian wildlife in wide-ranging habitats from savanna to dense rainforest, the far-flung Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado is a UNESCO's World Heritage site and a national park of global significance. It is administered by Sernap (sernap.gob.bo) and every visitor must register their trip in a park-information office in La Paz or Santa Cruz. Your tour agency can also register you.
Waterfalls & Rivers
This is some of the most dramatic and beautiful scenery in northern Bolivia – expect rivers, rainforests, waterfalls, plateaus and rugged 500m escarpments. This national park is one of the largest and most intact parks in the Amazon Basin, with an altitudinal range of between 200m to almost 1000m, giving it an incredible wealth of habitats. These include evergreen rainforests, palm forests, cerrado savannahs, swamps, gallery forests, and semi-deciduous dry forests.
Tours normally take five or six days, starting in Santa Cruz and spending the first and last nights with the Piso Firme community. A 10-hour boat ride up Itenez and Pauserna Rivers takes you into the depths of the park. The accommodation is in campsites, near waterfalls and lakes – it's truly magical. There are long treks (five to six hours on average) around the many waterfalls in the park; local guides will help you spot wildlife and tell you about different aspects of the fascinating flora and fauna.
Ancient History & Species Galore
The park's geography dates back over a billion years to the Precambrian period. The cerrado savanna habitats found on the Huanchaca Meseta have been isolated for millions of years, giving scientists an incredible opportunity to study this unique environment.