Tour Spotlight time. Thinking about what tour to take on your trip to the Bolivian Amazon. Let this blog guide you with great up to date information on tours and prices. This weeks Tour spotlight will move away from those community tourism businesses and direct some attention to the small private sector businesses that exist in Rurrenabaque.
There are over 20 operators in town that will be competing for your hard earned money. As you know, in life, you get what you pay for, so if you are looking for a budget operator (which there are plenty of), expect to sleep in a crowded dorm with below par mattresses and mosquito nets. This blog tends to look for the more quality operators, and likes to promote those operators who are also participating in a certification program that improves both the services of the operator and the environmental awareness of their operations.
Today’s spotlight goes to Mashaquipe (Ma-sha-kii-pay). This operator is ran by retired Madidi National Park rangers, so you know they have a vast amount of knowledge on the jungle. They also offer pampas, which, I must admit, I havent addressed too many tour operators who offer this popular product yet. There will be much more to come, I promise.
Masahaquipe offers 3 day/2 night tours to the jungle and pampas. They specialize in Jungle tours and have their own lodge inside the Madidi National park.
They also offer expeditions/trekking into the jungle for 8 to 10 days if you are the adventurous type.
I think what makes these guys unique is their willingness to adapt and change their business to better suit the needs of today’s tourist. They are pioneers in the trekking model for jungle trips, and are extremely flexible in terms of creating your own experience.
The prices range from 40 dollars (shared rooms) per day- 50 dollars (private rooms) per day for their jungle tour (these are as of December 2010). The pampas tour is competitive pricing with all the other agencies who offer it, which is around 700 bolivianos for the 3 day/2 night tour.
They have a website that has some pretty good info (in spanish only) at http://www.mashaquipe.com/
Rurrenabaque 