Rurrenbaque Tours - Madidi Travel

Schmuck, yes, Threeshire "hits the nail .." in # 7. (And this expression is the same in my language, Danish. But the phrase (metaphor) "connect the dots" is 'new').

Four days more have passed without a clarification from the poster/user who started this thread and discussion, and without replies from other people, who have visited the Serere Reserve or know it from inside.
In a way it is more remarkable that until now we are 'only' three users who try to question or oppose the serious accusation against the Madidi National Park. But okay, this is just a travel forum, and this thread has only some few readers.

The Madidi NP has many eyewitnesses and friends, not least UNDP Bolivia, CI Bolivia and WCS. These and other reputable organizations have staff members who thorough know the Madidi NP, for instance in connection with the project Chalalán Ecolodge.
I am sure that if somebody would tell some of these organizations about this TT discussion, we would get the wanted information.
Besides thousands of tourist have visited the Madidi NP, and hundreds of volunteers and paid employees have worked (or are working) in projects there or in Rurrenabaque.

About the Serere Reserve/Sanctuary: Many of the tourists who have visited Serere have written entries in their travel blogs, and it is easy to find recent entries about visits in Serere by using the Google Blog Search. Search for "Madidi Travel" (with quotation marks). And make another search for Serere Rurrenabaque (with plus signs). (Serere alone will return blogs about Serere in other senses).
You can choose "Sort by date" instead of "Sort by relevance".

These reports about how tourists understand how Ruiz, Serere and Madidi Travel work and brief their guests are interesting. Some of the guests pass on information that is one-sided, and accusations like the one in the opening post in this thread are found.

I do not wish to harm the business of Madidi Travel, cf. my post above, # 6. The purpose of this forum is to exchange and discuss information about Bolivia in relation to travel. The point is to exchange recommendations and to help fellow travellers by replying questions and by adding new angles. This forum is also used as a huge knowledge bank. Search e.g. for "Madidi National Park" (with quotation marks), and you will find useful posts. Most TT users do not ask questions themselves, instead they search or go some weeks back.

Pearlycole who started this thread did the right thing; contributed to this forum by telling about a good experience, and recommending a tour operator. I have checked what other TT users have written and what travel bloggers have written about this tour operator, and I can confirm that all these posters are satisfied and write positively.

But both the pros and cons have to be mentioned, and to be found when searching the TT. To travel is also to learn about the society, and it is a natural part of a tour and a stay that the guide and staff members tell about the background and situation of the area and the company.

Let me put the negative this way: Listen to the story of Serere, but to be sure to reach a balanced understanding, do also listen to other sources.

In the start of this post I mentioned the Conservation International (CI) and the Chalalán Ecolodge. The homepage of the Bolivian CI is mostly 'under construction', so use the search function at the CI international page, or use Google to search for: "Conservation International" Bolivia
This will lead to a CI page about Chalalán, telling among other things that Chalalán receives about 1,000 tourists a year.

I also mentioned the WCS = Wildlife Conservation Society. I can refer to How Does WCS Protect Madidi?

As an example of how to use this TT 'knowledge bank', I mentioned a search for "Madidi National Park" (with quotation marks).

In fact this search reveals an other side of the story of the Madidi NP, told by Threeshire in the thread 'Madidi National Park', 12-Jul-2007.

Threeshire, do you have an update about this petition ?
And how to combine the petition and your post from 12-Jul-2007 with the present discussion ?

Another interesting subject 'revealed' by the mentioned TT search:
Mashaquipe Ethno-Eco Tourism, mentioned in the thread 'Supporting indiginoues communities in Rurrurenbaque', 09-Aug-2007.

It is also easy to find travel blogs telling positively about Mashaquipe, so when choosing a tour from Rurrenabaque there are many options.

And in this context, the competition of tour operators:

This thread is about Madidi Travel.
Not to be mixed up with Madidi Amazon Travel

The homepage of Madidi Amazon Travel tells:
"Madidi Amazon Travel is a privately owned and operated local Bolivian and Canadian tourism enterprise promoting mostly indigenous socio-cultural tourism in the nation of Bolivia. Because of our past experiences in international foreign aid, we promote and encourage local residents to start their own ventures through capacity building, proper administration, marketing practices and local experiences - sustainable development. Madidi Amazon Travel basically supports ethical businesses."

So, if Madidi Travel and Serere tell they are the "only true eco-friendly operator in this town" (a quotation from the blog entry 'Rustic Rurrenabaque' by Felicia Wong, Apr 20, 2008), just check this post, mentioning:

Chalalán Ecolodge
Mashaquipe Ethno-Eco Tourism
Madidi Amazon Travel

Thanx Erik07
Well done. Unfortunately Rosa Maria Ruiz's "prejudice's" are being preached to her guests { she is the only one who knows what should be }
In today's Bolivia, many have that attitude vis-a-vis having a narrow almost God-like attitude, not only regarding Eco and these Parks.
IMO it is a recipe for their own self made disaster, when their energy / knowledge / experience could be so productive.
Thirteen years ago Rosa Maria Ruiz was doing so much, and now later, so much venom, and for many reasons, not all of which were of her own making. But many were.
Madidi came into being because of many, not just her. It was not her private fiefdom, and indeed, I would not be surprised that she attracts a certain set of problems to her existing "Park".
Times, they are a changin' in Bolivia.
Sure there are problems, but Bolivia does much better regarding her Amazon than any other country having Amazon territory, having the highest Eco Certified Forests, percentage wise.
Sorry for the rant, but an insinuation saying:
"Especially since the reason it´s no longer in the park is because they weren´t happy with some of the unethical practices that were going on inside the park and they didnt want to be in any way associated with that. "
is not today's reality in Madidi, but rather a personal, ancient feud, that she lost and was evicted from the Park.
Ruiz brought many of the problems on herself years ago, and she, like many of the 15% "White" Bolivians today are having trouble adapting to the new reality, and from that perspective she was ahead of the curve in learning the new reality.
And being a "Team" player is part of that reality, which is why all the other operators interact, with the exception of Ruiz.
As I previously sad, Too Bad, So Sad.
She could have contributed so much.

Hi,

as you can see this is also my first posting on this forum, just as the person who started this thread. I have been using thorntree for about 3 months now since my trip began but have not posted as yet. Hopefully i will post more times on my trip to give my experiences of what i find (i state all this to autheticiate that i am not working for /advertising one particular company).

just as the person who started this thread, i also went on a 3 day jungle tour of the surere region next to madidi national park with madidi travel. I also had an amazing time. I was very impressed with the excellent eco friendly accommodation (no electricity, carefully designed cabins that blended in with the jungle giving excellent panoramic views of the jungle etc), with the tasty nutritional food much of which is grown organically in the surere region and of course the excellent, informative, guides. Everything we experienced in the jungle at surere promoted conservation and eco friendly practices. there was no hunting, no using machetes to cut new trails into the jungle and no macho type jungle experiences which many tours seem to promote and unfortunately many people seem to sign up for, ultimately helping further destroy an area which they have come visit.

i do realise that there are many other good companies located within the madidi national park and i am not promoting madidi over any of these ethical, eco friendly companies. like the person who started this thread, all i wanted to do with this post was to simply share with people my experience of an excellent tour i had in the surere region. so when i found this thread and read some of the background and murky/grey stories that were in the earth island institute report i was quite disturbed.

i, like everybody else, have no real clue of the truth that went on in the madidi national park that led from one of the pioneers of the creation of the park (rosa marie ruiz) to be ultimately excluded from the park (either by force or by her own stubborness).

what i think i can shed light on in this thread is a personal experience i had with meeting rosa marie ruiz.
i only met rosa marie ruiz once i came back to rerurrenbaque from my tour. she has not been in the jungle now for approx 2 yrs as she was attacked by a caimen while having a morning swim in the lake which she has swam in every morning for over ten yrs. she had a lucky escape but sustained a major injury to her leg, forcing her to a long term stay in hospital.

she seems a very charasmatic lady who deeply cares about the local indigenous people, the jungle and especially its conservation. while my wife and i were talking to her some little street urchin (possibly not politically correct term?) children whom we had spotted earlier on the street, begging and being turned away by almost everybody, were sitting in her office. they were pretty wild kids with no education and consequently they set about flicking through loads of documents and generally wrecking (not intentionally). instead of turning them away, ruiz allowed them to stay and gave them little treats. they seemed to turn up to her office daily and knew that for a few minutes they had somebody who would not turn them away and would actually help them if only a little.

i know this is all a bit long winded but i truly believe that ruiz is a person who genuinely cares for people and the environment. i do not want to pass judgement on any past history as i think it is almost impossible to decipher what the truth is. i suspect, like in any conflict where land, money and ultimately power are concerned many underhand dirty tricks were used by those who wanted to get wealthy from the forest and its treasures. however, i definitely think that ruiz's heart is in the right place. i know for a fact that she operates ethically and truly believes in protecting the jungle and its wildlife.

so, to summarise, like the first poster of this thread i would also highly recommend madidi travel for doing a jungle tour. by booking a tour with madidi you can book in the confidence that your money is supporting eco friendly and ethical travel principles. i do recognise however that there are other eco friendly and ethical operators in the area. i hope this all helps in any decision making for future travellers to this area.

Thank you moo

Thank you Moo.

Welcome as a poster to this travel forum.
It is good to have things looked at all sides (or more sides). Your story is important.

This forum is unique.

A little detail: You call the place (the region) Surere. I read the name as Serere.

Only just seen latest posts are some absence from the forum.
"Serere" is the correct spelling. It's the name of the screaming, prehistoric-looking birds that flap around in the trees along the banks of lakes down there.
Moo's post is fine. Good for Madidi Tours. But the issue on this thread, I repeat, was not the quality of their services but vague and unfounded allegations made by Ms. Ruiz against other parties ans passed on in the OP.

My read of it is, that there is not, and was no basis for the allegations, now or ever.

I was surfing the web looking for news of Rosa Maria Ruiz, and came across this thread. I'm not sure if I'm too late to join your discussion, but could not let some of the statements from Schmuck and Threeshire stand because they are flat wrong regarding Ruiz. I can only conclude that you do not know her personally, and that you are drawing your conclusions from inadequate thirdhand sources. I met Ruiz in college and she was my first wife.

The statement that drove me to respond was Schmuck's statement in the 11/30/08 thread that, "she like many of the 15% white Bolivians today are having trouble adapting to the new reality." Nothing could be further from the truth. Ruiz has been a champion of indigenous cultures her entire life. She drew this sensibility from her mother, who was a one woman development agency, who accomplished such projects as the road to Apolo entirely on her own. Community development is her family business, not in the sense that they are in the business of making money, but in the sense of that is what they do. Her mother who died a few years ago, was considered a saint by most (literally), due to her work with impoverished populations.

Ruiz's problem is not with indigenous leadership. It is with her ability to get along. She is difficult to work with. She only has two ways to do something, her way and the wrong way. She can be a bitch to deal with. (After all, I am divorced from her.) But don't question her motivation. She is strictly motivated by altruism, not personal gain.

Ruiz's Bolivian stories always sounded like tall tales, but in my experience with her, every single one of them turned out to be true! I think that Schmuck's comment that, "my read of it is that there is not, and was no basis for the allegations, now or ever" is wrong. My only knowledge of what happened in the Madidi with ECObolivia (etc) is what I read in Christine Fennessy's article, but the allegations described there have a ring of truth to them. Ruiz may be prone to some exaggeration in her explanation of why her current lodge is outside the park, but believe most of what she said about the turns of events. She was seriously upsetting many people's plans about exploitation of the Madidi region, and they took care of her. I'm sure she has resentments and sour grapes about how things turned out. The Madidi reserve was a lifetime dream for her, and all her efforts turned to ash. You'd still be pissed off too, if that happened to your life's work.

Lastly, a comment about her as a traveller and tour promoter. I travelled extensively with her for years at a time, in South America back in the 1970's, and there is no better person to travel with. She taught me to see Latin America through a Latin American's eyes. She always finds the best in every area. She knows emergency medicine, and can tell you that the blister growing on your toe is really a nest of insects that you better clean out pronto. I can think of no person more qualified to design tours of that area, or who I would want planning out my Bolivian travel. Moo1979 was totally on track with his impressions of Ruiz. Threeshire and Schmuck - you should eat your words, or at least some of them.

Too bad, so sad.
Ever heard the apt description that "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" ?
Aptly applies to brilliance { if that is a description, apt here? } bordering on "Ownership" of the results of an idea ! { or Ideal ! }

Still don't see the difference do you!
And yet you write "She only has two ways to do something, her way and the wrong way."
And she definitely does not get the difference.
Not the first time that someone whose mantra was " My way or the Hi-way " ended up taking the Hi-way themselves!
My information is that she never married { legally }.
I would suggest you re-read the postings here.
Some inaccurate " accusations" were made in the original post {OP } regardingand posting " they weren´t happy with some of the unethical practices that were going on inside the park "
THAT is what is what is being attacked by Threeshire and myself ! We are not attacking Rosa Maria Ruiz for having beautiful thoughts about Madidi, however she is being attacked for accusations that flow from her as against others who donot not and have not in the past agreed with her in doing things "HER WAY"
Everyone needs to have a first post on Thorntree, but three first posters on this thread??

Schmuck - just curious. You must have crossed paths with Rosa Maria, because your interest in her is so intense. What were the circumstances?

BTW - your information is wrong. We were married legally in 1973, in my parents living room, by a county judge. I was there.

And, I do agree with you that the results are sad, indeed.