Bolivia Trekking Questions

Best to book ahead with Amaszonas, if you can. The ´planes to Rurre are quite small (19 seats) and are usually full. You are unlikely to be able to get on the first flight, at the best will have to wait hours in the airport, and most probably will end up overnighting in La Paz anyway.

Re question 1 + 2:
Yes, book ahead. The risk of cancelled flights has been reduced by the new paved runway in Rurrenabaque (= Rurre) used since July 2010. Bad weather and poor visibility can still give cancellations, so always allow 1 - 2 days for possible delays to/from Rurre, have a flexible itinerary, and a plan B.
And remember that Rurre, the pampas and the jungle is worth the possible trouble.
A recent thread: Flights to Rurrenabaque, 20-Aug-2010.

I would book a return flight. And check the rules about money back.

Re question 3:
Yes, TAM - Transporte Aéreo Militar (The Bolivian Military Airline) - is an alternative. TAM has a flight five days a week La Paz - Rurre and back, using a Xian MA60, a Chinese aeroplane with 56 passenger seats. (I am not sure this info is current).

The TAM web site www.tam.bo</a> seldom works (and not today). About buying tickets see the thread Trinidad - Sucre by plane, 11-Aug-2010.

Previously TAM used the military airport in El Alto / La Paz, i.e. the military terminal with access from Avenida Juan Pablo II, instead of the civil terminal in El Alto International Airport. I do not know if this is still the situation. (Two month ago I flew the the route to Rurre with Amaszonas. I / we did not check about TAM).

Re question 4:
A pampas tour starts and ends with a long drive on a bumpy road, 3½ - 4 hours. So half of two days are used for transportation. That is why normal pampas tours are 3 days / 2 nights. I doubt you can find a ready 2 days tour to the pampas, but of course you can arrange something special, for instance going with one group out and going back together with the group that started the day before you.

Whereas you easily can book a jungle (rain forest) tour for 1 day, 2 days / 1 night, 3 days / 2 nights, etc.

You may choose a 3 days pampas tour plus a 1 day jungle tour. And perhaps you can arrange that the jungle tour starts the same afternoon when you return from the pampas, so you have the night in the jungle instead of in Rurre. You can reach the jungle in less than one hour by boat from Rurre.

But my advice would be: Make up your mind, choose one of the tours, pampas or jungle, instead of both.
This is based on that you apparently have a tight itinerary, that you only have a few days at disposal.

Also take in account that choosing / arranging / booking tours on location i Rurre require some time, depending on your thoroughness maybe half a day.

You are welcome back here for more information.

In general about Rurrenabaque / Rurre and tours tours from Rurrenabaque / Rurre I refer to the threads Experiences with tour companies to go to Rurrenbaque, Madidi etc?, 21-Sep-2010, and Rurrenabaque - buses, flights, jungle... our experiences, 21-Aug-2010.

Re question 5:
About Salar de Uyuni: I hope somebody else will reply.

above advise good - i will just update some of the flight stuff with latest info for you.

TAM is currently only flying 3 days per week and it is usually full a day or two before. Amaszonas (AMZ) have been flying around 3-4 time per day everyday, delays are always possible. It hasnt been all that busy and it has been possible to buy seat the day before sometime with AMZ bu tit is unlikely you will get on the first flight if you tried handing around.

Sometime else worth noting is that if you book with TAM and they cancel or are delayed you you decide to cancel then you only get a 70% refund that you will need to arrange yourself via the TAM office. If you book AMZ and you cancel (having waited for at least 1 days worth of delays) you can get a full refund and this is issued by the agency that you purchased you ticket from ( some agencies may deduct a processing fee though).

something else that is super important - THERE IS NO ATM IN RURRENABAQUE so if you do decide / are succesful in leaving direct from the airport make sure you have plenty of cash with you.

Even when the TAM website works , which is not that common, you can usually only purchase flights using a Bolivian card / ID - least that used to the be the case on the 6 days the site has ever worked.

Fine ! By joint efforts we get conditions cleared up.
Tunabagel, can you tell whether TAM uses the military or civil terminal at El Alto ?
About cash in Rurre: You can withdraw money from a credit card at the Prodem Bank, but it costs 5 % in commission.

TAM tends to change where they fly from so always best to check when booking. Recently they seem to be flying from the International airport though for the flights ive sold (to other destinations - not rurre , done really sell many with TAM to Rurre for the reason i pointed out above)

hi all, thanks for the great advice.
I have 6 weeks in Bolivia, so will opt for 3 days pampa and 2 days jungle. Trying to do the transfer pampa/jungle in 1 day is a great idea. Do you have any suggestions on a reliable agency to set this up?
So I'll book a return flight now and hope for sunny skies.

Yes, Bala Tours is a recommendable tour operator, and Konoo Tours is a recommendable tour / travel agency.

I too believe that Bala Tours is the only operator having a ready combo tour. For a pampas tour Bala Tours is probably the best operator, all testimonials are positive, and touching and feeding the wild animals do not happen.
Many of the other operators give their visitors / clients what they want, and apparently many travellers do not respect the nature and the animals, but want some smart photos as if the nature is a zoo / theme park and the animals just toys. See for instance the thread Rurrenabaque - FLUVIAL en Amazonical tours, 24-May-2010.

But Bala Tours is not cheap. The price has been discussed in previous threads, try a search here at the Thorn Tree for: "Bala Tours" pampas
Note that you can narrow your search.

Several other operators do both tours, pampas and jungle, and some of these may be able to offer a combination. From a typical pampas tour you are back in Rurre around 5:00 p.m.

For a jungle tour I would recommend San Miguel del Bala, but again, it is not a cheap option. The advantage is that SMdB has the lodge nearest Rurre, and with that the shortest transportation. (And the lodge and surroundings is in a genuine primary rain forest). Another advantage is that SMdB is community based, and with that a visit in the village can be a part of the programme.

If this option is of interest, you can ask SMdB about a tour start in the late afternoon. Or a tour end in the early morning. From SMdB you can easily reach Rurre before 9:00 a.m., when typical pampas tours starts.

SMdB also has a lodge in Caquihuara, a rainforest area along the Tuichi River in the Madidi National Park in Bolivia, west of the Bala Gorge. (Caquihuara can be spelt in more ways, BalaTours.com and KanooTours.com call it Caquiawara). So with or without an overnight stay in the lodge, you can visit Caquihuara from SMdB.

October is not the peak season, and most tour operators are flexible.

Two month ago I / we stayed in the SMdB ecolodge for 6 days, and we liked it and their lodge in Caquihuara very much. We visited the community San Miguel del Bala ( link to Wikipedia ), and it was great to find how the people benefit from their ecolodge.

A little about money in the travel & tourism business:
There is a difference between a tour operator and a tour / travel agency. A company can be both, but in principle an operator arranges / undertakes the tour (or stay), plus promotes and sells own services, whereas an agency promotes and sells services provided by other companies.

Normally when booking a tour the price is the same either you book through a tour agency or direct with the tour operator. The tour agency receives a commission (normally 15 %) from the tour operator. This commission is a payment for doing the promotion and sales work.

An advantage of using a tour agency is that you can buy a package including flight tickets or other transport. And when buying flight tickets through an agency, you can receive service from both the agency and the airline.

When booking a tour done by a company that is only a tour operator, it will make a difference for the operator that you book and pay direct, not trough an agency, as the operator then does not have to pay commission to an agency. This is a way to support the local business.

I also second san miguel de bala as a good option. I have recently been setting up closer ties to work with them and want to promote their service more for numerous reasons (which are mostly mentioned above by Erik). The current price for San Miguel de Bala tours is about 50usd per day for tours if 2 days or more , 1 day tours are 60usd. These will rise by about 5usd per day next year.

So both Bala and SMdB are not as cheap as the budget level pampas and jungle options BUT they are much more ecological responsible and sustainable / benefiting local communities. The standards overall are better also.

The prices of the budget pampas and jungle tours are too low and have been driven down by the unfortunate (and short sighted) way many bolivian companies choose to do business - simply by undercutting each other. This creates a vicious circle , as one person gets alot of business for a short period of time , until teh next person comes along and undercuts, who then gets some business and makes "some" money until finally prices are driven right down. Over the year Rurre has seen many agencies collapse due to these policies and participating in them simply means none of the companies make a healthy profit and the local economy does not benefit (low wages for staff , guides etc). Currently the average profit margin of pampas operators is 3% which is simply not sustainable , many will go bust because of this or at best have standards drop even further. A notable example was anoconda tours who had the lions share of the israli market (because they were cheapest) but they went under as the price they were charging couldnt cover their costs.. Isralis make up the highest percentage of visitors to Rurre at around 30% so they had a large customer base so it wasnt a lack of customers. There have been numerous attempts by the more sensible operators to implement minimum price levels in conjunction with the local authorities but it always ends up with the lesser operators that cannot compete on quality undercuting and the downward spiral starting again. Tourist themselves have to take some of the responsibility for this also though - even at current budget price of 450bs/65usd I regularly get people trying to bargain it down some even saying it is expensive!

So whilst Bala and San Miguel de Bala might seem expensive if your comparing to current pampas prices etc they are actually sensibly priced. The prices have not changed for over 3 years whilst prices in Bolivia have increased by around 30/40% in general.

tnx again for all very usefull advise.
I do respect nature, so am not into touching the creatures in it (I hope they don't touch/bite me either). I will not go for rock bottom prices, both for quality reasons and respecting the locals.