Madidi Jungle Ecolodge

Opened to visitors in early 2011, Madidi Jungle Ecolodge was founded and is still run by four indigenous Uchupiamona families on their community land inside Madidi National Park. Reaching it takes three hours by boat, upriver along the Beni and Tuichi from Rurrenabaque. It is a compact stay, with ten cabins in total, four with private bathrooms, six sharing, sleeping no more than 18 to 20 guests at a time. Every guide, cook, boatman and cabin attendant is Uchupiamona or Tacana, several with more than a decade in the forest, reading animal tracks and bird calls the way others read maps. Around the lodge, 40km of named trails wind through rainforest inside the national park, itself home to an estimated 1,200 bird species, among the highest counts recorded anywhere. A rock face an hour's walk away hosts nesting macaws and parrots. Guides lead walks in small groups of four or five, by design, to keep the forest quiet and the wildlife visible: spider monkeys, capybara, tapir, caiman, and, occasionally, jaguar. Night hikes go out with flashlights for frogs, insects and tarantulas. Meals draw on regional recipes and local, organic produce. You can fish for piranha in nearby streams and lagoons, released once caught, or take a longer trip to Santa Rosa Lake for canoeing and a swim.