river yacuma

We just arrived back from our trip with indegena tours yesterday and can't rate the service any better ! Our guide Jamie spoke excellent English and was a pleasure to spend 3 days with ! He was really chilled out and you can see he has a real passion for wildlife ! Our tour started in Rurrenabaque where we hoped in a jeep and took the 3 hour journey with Jamie and a slightly bonkers drive who liked playing music at its top volume ! We did lots of wildlife tours on the boat and Jamie was amazing a spotting the animals - he was still pointing them out on the way home ! We saw everything from jaguar, ostrich, tucan, gators, slots, capibara, and many monkeys ! One thing I will say is on these torus wildlife is to be seen and not interfered with! When we did our island walk looking for wildlife another tour company fletcha tours was also their , the guide spotted a snake and proceeded to pull it off a tree and use it as a prop for his group to take photos with! After one or two people had posed a girl took her turn and within a few minutes the snake had bitten her and was holding on to its captor . After much time had passed out guide Jamie had had to come to the rescue to help her guide remove the snake ! All and all our trip was excellent but I would highly recommend anyone do a lot if research to tge tour company and not just go with the cheapest or the first tour company that meets you at the airport bus in Rurrenabaque !

What an experience!!! The Amazon River is as warm as bathwater and yes, if you are game and gullible enough to believe your guide, you too can swim with cayman, piranhas and pink dolphins. If you need to use the toilet in the night I wouldn't recommend standing next to a tree - a 30cm from the face Green Mamba experience is not for the faint hearted. The Capybaras (very large rodents, like wombats) are cute as hell.

Just 5 minutes on the boat and you are surrounded by wildlife everywhere, amazing and the real jungle swamp feeling. Monkeys, birds, mammals and reptiles, they are all there! Go and look for the Anaconda if you dare. You can choose between backpackers party tours and the more serious and nature loving Tours with own lodgings and sometimes direct community profit for the local indigenous people.

The only good thing about Flecha Tours is the food. They really offer a great variety and it tastes great. But apart from that there are no positive aspects about the trip.First of all they put all the people who want to go in a dirty Jeep. In our case we were 9 people sitting in the back! You drive like this through the heat for three hours. Of course the guide speaks no English as claimed in Rurrenabaque.The worst is the horrible condition of the accomodation. The huts are very old and worn down. When it rained the beds became wet. Monkeys try to get into the room and as the roof is broken they succeed. From six toilets only two are working. I could go on like this.As you go into wet meadows to search for an anaconda they provide you with rubber boots. Unfortunately many of them are broken or very short so nearly everyone in our tour got at least one wet foot. All in all the pampas are definitely worth a visit but I can't recommend Flecha Tours to anybody.

I wasn't supposed to spend my pampas tour with Mashaquipe (I had booked with Dolphin), but I was switched to the company and boy am I glad I was.It was a truly unforgettable experience, from the piranha fishing to the wildlife sighting, and also swimming with river dolphins and having squirrel monkeys invade your boat. Our guide was Ismael, who was extremely knowledgeable about the environment, having lived in the area for his entire life.The lodge was impeccable: clean huts, fresh bed sheets, and great quality bathrooms. The food was also just as good.I cannot recommend this company enough - they will make sure you leave with stars in your eyes.

If you want to see: Black Caymans, white Caymans, capybaras, dolphins, monkeys, many birds, Anaconda, Sloths, pirahnas and very beautiful scenary without the difficulty encountered in the Jungle to spot them, you have to go there !!It's the Savana of south America

A well deserved 5* tour brought to us by Escorpian. Probably the cheapest tour we could find at 550 bolivianos. We stayed in an Eco lodge and were well looked after by our enthusiastic pampas loving guide toto. The food was yummy, plentiful, lots of varieties, catered well for vegetarians and vegans and lovely chef. Saw all animals advertised and were always made aware of our surroundings and not to disturb the habitats of the jungle. Mosquitos bit through my clothes so spray your clothes! Other than that it was a magical trip matched with like minded people

We did a two night three day trip with Indigena Tours and we were really happy with it. We went with Indigena because a friend recommended it, and specifically recommended her guide Tony. We didn't get Tony in the end, but we got Domingo who was a great guide! Very friendly, organised and enthusiastic. At the end of the tour we all went for a drink with him and met his lovely family.The food on the tour was good, the accommodation was clean, and the lodge staff were friendly. We saw heaps of wildlife. The only thing we didn't see was an anaconda, but other groups saw anacondas the day before, and Domingo made a really big effort to try and find one for us. We did see alligators, caimans, dolphins, monkeys, heaps of birds and even a sloth. I noticed an earlier review complained about people feeding the monkeys, but this didn't happen on our tour; we were told not to feed them when they came up to the boat. When we got back the company was eager to know if there was anything they could improve. After reading an earlier review I agree that a designated smoking area could be a good idea (but there weren't many smokers during our time so it wasn't a big deal). Only tips would be to take a couple of snacks/chocolate. The tour provides great meals but people in our group snacked a bit after dinner. Bring a bit of cash as in the spot where they take you by boat to watch the sunset there is a little store selling cold beers, wine, and small snacks. Finally, in addition to the clothes the company recommends you bring (long sleeve shirts and light-weight pants being key) also bring a warm top - our first night was unusually cold (though the lodge provided extra blankets as soon as we asked for them). Also, there's a long car ride and long (but very entertaining) boat trip to get to the lodge (& back) so really recommend the two night/ three day option, rather than only one night. Price was B900 per person. Thanks Domingo for a great trip!

We ended up booking with this company because our friend recommended it. We shopped around and found that it was the cheapest. Most of the time, cheaper isn't better, but with our recommendation we went ahead. The guy st the office was very professional, spoke very good English, and gave us faith. We have allergies, which we were told would be absolutely fine. Also an English guide was assigned to our group. We left the next day, met our group, which was the best part of the tour. Got in the car all loaded, our guide at the front, whom no one knew, because he didn't explain, introduce, or really say a word.Got to the first stop where lunch was nice (for Bolivia), simple but satisfying. Kept driving to where we got on our canoe. This was supposed to be the first sightseeing part of our trip, where we would stop, and find animals on the way to our hut. Every time our guide found something, he just pointed, said the name of the animal in Spanish and didn't even slow down. No explanation or the area, animals or even our daily schedule, so poor. Our guide couldn't even speak English. Thus was annoying, but he didn't even speak or explain anything in Spanish. Got to the hut, place seemed ok, jungle-like. A bit run down, and needed some attention, mainly mosquito proofing. So many holes in fly screens and gaps in the walls/roofs/doors.......etc We had to get ready to go to the sunset bar where we would see the sunset and then on our way back look for crocodiles and caimans in the dark. Sunset bar was ok, all the tour companies come here, there was probably 100 people....Not so tranquil, but all in all, quite a fun afternoon. There was volleyball and a soccer pitch to enjoy the company. We left for the evening crocodile watch on the way back to the hut. Didn't see any which was disappointing, but more so the guide. Again, no explanation or nothing. Didn't really go exploring for them, just took the route back. Dinner was looking decent, but for my gf and I, was quite dismal. Out of the 6 dishes, we could only eat 3, one being plain rice... Not very appetising. We asked our guide, who knew nothing about it and then got told that the cook knew nothing about it either!! At this point we were extremely disappointed. Anyhow, ate the food, was quite nice and then remebered that all our meals were a "buffet". So I asked for more meat and potatoes, and was told that is all we get. So not only were we restricted, we couldn't even fill ourselves up. To cut this short, things didn't get better, food wasn't better, guide got worse and tour was dismal. Anaconda hunting ended up in the guide running so far ahead that our group got split. Again no explanation. Piranha fishing ended up in the guide seeing how many fish he could catch and not teaching us anything about fishing or the fish. Dolphin swimming was quite fun, only because we (as a group) decided to do that instead of fishing as the weather was good. Especially after speaking to other groups whom were given the choice of what to do first, fishing or swimming. We left, and was always the slowest boat to get anywhere, which is annoying, cause we could spend more time doing things rather than trying to make it on the boat. Was driving back to rurrenabaque and our driver was crazy. Drove like we were on the run from police. We stopped for 15mins I'm a small town, where we think the drivers family lived. No toilets... The drivers response to that was a laugh, literally. No laughing matter when a toilet is in need. He sent us to the petrol station, which didn't have one, and he didn't even try and get to the closest one, his response was just, let's get back to rurrenabaque. Spoke to Johnny in the office, who was again very professional. We told him everything, he took it on and said to come back in a few hours after he had spoken to the chef guide driver and owner of the company. We ended up getting nearly half our money back, which was nice. But what really hit us hard is that when he spoke to the guide, the guide said we all left the anaconda hunt because we wanted to play volleyball and leave the mosquitoes. Thus was a total lie, especially when st that time of the day there aren't any mosquitoes...... All in all, extremely disappointed!!!! The other guides in this company were great. They just need to sort out a few things and they could be a great company.

Cannot fault this company. Great experience. We swam with wild dolphins, went pirhana fishing. Saw sloths, huge crocodiles, onkeys, eagles and snakes. Food was awesome and guides spoke great English. Highly reccommended. Been travelling for 12 years too so I don´t just accept any old company. Indigena really looked after everyone.

Indigena is a *good* company - their accommodations are clean (cleaner than many) and some of their guides are perhaps the best in the pampas. But I'm really not convinced on a lot of what their value add both as a tour agency and one that is 'eco.' Just a few comments that were not addressed by the company or owner: 1. Their lodge has a resident alligator and monkeys that know there is food. Guests will feed them. I did not see anyone discouraging guests doing this.2. Guests were smoking everywhere at the lodge. Eco or not, a company needs to designate an area for smoking. Every area, including the one common area of the entire place (with hammocks and seats for chilling at night or between tours) was a smoking area. I didn't appreciate that at all. 3. Their guides aren't all fluent in english, and some (like ours) will only do the "basics" of the tour - which by the way IS THE SAME FOR PRETTY MUCH EVERY TOUR AGENCY IN THE PAMPAS. Your tour is VERY MUCH dependent on how good your guide is. Our group (a mix of 3 different bookings, 5 different people) also did not get the guide that I had specifically requested (he WAS available but was NOT given to our group - no explanation was given).4. A guy in our group complained about his backpack being dirty at the end of the trip, the owner promised to clean it but it was never returned. Personally I wouldn't have complained as no biggie, but not to return the bag at all (after promising to clean it) is bad form.5. lastly, as mentioned, this tour is standard across most agencies in Pampas -everyone does the same thing more or less - fish, look for anacondas, swim with dolphins - so go with guides if you get recommended one....otherwise, I say go by price.

Hi there. we are a dutch couple, we did pampas 27-29 january with indigena tours. We were the only two in the group that date. I remember that the 27th night the ecolodge wasn´t flooded yet and we didn't have any problem to finish the tour. The 28th, another group of just 3 people arrived to the indigena lodge (a couple and an little older man). That day, the water started to cover the ecolodge halls. We asked our tour guide if that was unusual, he told us that the river had never ever reached the corridors since the lodge was built. During our second night at the lodge, we heard that someone had fallen into the water (which was the same level of the hall) but when our guide came over to help. he had already come out easily. i guess he slipped, even though there were hall guardrails everywhere. The last day of our tour, the couple who had arrived the day before decided to come back to Rurrenabaque with us (as a suggestion of INDIGENA) but Arthur (the man who had fallen to the river the last night) decided to stay and look for its camera and money which had lost the night before. He stayed alone in the lodge with the guide, the cook and the lodge manager.We thought we ALL must evacuate the lodge, because the river was raising its level little by little, but the INDIGENA staff stayed to help that 1 tourist, he didn't wat to leave, he wanted to look for its lost belongings.On the way back, the route wasn´t like the day we started the tour, all was being covered by water and we think INDIGENA made a great effort to evacuate the place.We were worried for the people who stayed at the ecolodge.Except the flooding (we know it was beyond the company's control) all the service was fine.*We were contacted by email by the company who asked our opinion about that days in pampas.hope the information is useful. thanks.

unfortunately we missed out on visiting the amazon basin while traveling thru colombia, ecuador and peru. we had only heard good things about many places and thought this was our last chance to do so. what a fantastic experience! Firstly, Indigena were well priced and had received many great reviews here on TA and also from a few other travelers we met in town. the 3 day pampas tour was fantastic - action packed and very enjoyable. swimming with pink river dolphins, catching and eating piranha, and observing wildlife galore. our guide, victor, was very knowledgeable and environmentally-friendly (he did not like when other guides fed or caught animals for their groups enjoyment - this is the wild and these animals are wild, just leave them be and enjoy the natural beauty of them in their natural surroundings!)unfortunately for Indigena, they had 1 guide filling in for them as their usual guides were sick - this guide did catch a wild animal for his group to hold and take photos with. this leads to poor practice and poor examples for other guides and groups. when 1 guide makes a poor decision like this it may encourage other people to want to hold wild animals. this will destroy the natural beauty of this wonderful place.

Had a fantastic time - Indigena is well worth the extra money over some of the cheaper tours. Our guide was Choco, we always felt safe, he was full of information and had a great sense of humour. Accommodation was fine, some might find it a little rustic but for backpackers it was perfectly adequate. The food was very good quality. We found a lot of wildlife, more than expected. Basically you spend most of the time on the boat cruising around the wetlands, at night caiman and anaconda spotting, during the day birds, monkeys, sloths, anteaters and capybara can all be found. Rurrenabaque is also a pretty relaxed little town which is well worth spending a day or 2 afterwards. I would highly recommend paying a visit if you are into wildlife watching, don't mind a bumpy ride or two and are not afraid of mosquitoes or sand flies

One of the absolute highlights of our five month trip in South America. This company was reccomended by a friend and we have since recommened to at least ten different people. We took a flight from La Paz to the amazing jungle town of Rurrenabaque. Showed up the day before and booked on this tour for I think between 700 and 900 Boliviano (very cheap).You take a 3 hour drive to where ther boats are (very bumpy road) but this allows you to meet your group. Then its about another 3 hour trip down the river in a long road where our guide pointed out a huge number of animals, caiman, tutles, birds and snakes. Really amazing.I think the difference between Indigena and the other operators is the food provided and the level of English spoken by the guide. We were hugely impressed with boat. Also on the trip you go searching for Anacandos, go fishing for piranha and go on a night trip on the boat.If you're in the area you definitely have to go the Amazon jungle, particularly Rurennabaque and definitely do this trip. Best trip we have done in our nearly 10months travel so far.