DAY 2

Breakfast at the hotel and then a shuttle to the airport for a quick flight to Rurrenabaque. After checking-in to the hotel, head out to explore the jungle town of Rurrenabaque.

Fiesta de Beni : (November 18th) is an annual festival that brings in many people from the surrounding remote villages. There are horse races, cockfighting, canoe races, rice threshing competitions and a beauty pageant.

Rainy season: is late November through March with the highest rainfall averaging late December through March. The rainy season can make things quite muddy and flooding is common in some areas and occasionally the entire town. Mosquitoes are also more prevalent and animal sightings are less prevalent. Go BIG only offers private tours late December throgh March.

Rurrenabaque, known locally as "Rurre", is a small town of about 20,000 people that was founded in 1844 along the shores of the Alto Beni river. It is nestled between Madidi National Park and the Pampas del Yacuma Municipal Protected Area, so it is a great jumping off point for exploration of the jungle and the wetlands.

The town has seen many economic booms, first a rubber boom in the late 1800s and then the production of quinine from the cinchona tree bark. The harvesting of hardwoods was prominent until recently, largely due to most of it in the area had already been removed, but also due to the creation of Madidi National Park. In the last decade there has been a small boom of jungle gold mining, but by far the biggest recent boom is ecotourism.