The pampas — wildlife at eye level
On this Madidi National Park photography tour we start on the narrow Yacuma River, in a small boat, low to the water — where pink river dolphins surface an arm’s length away, capybaras line the banks, and caimans look at you – eye to eye. It’s the easiest big-wildlife shooting in the Amazon: no long treks, just the river, the light, and animals that don’t spook easily. Two nights at a riverside lodge, out at dawn and dusk when the river is most alive, plus a night run to find caimans by flashlight.
Deep Madidi — canopy, macaws, and giant otters
From the pampas we climb into the rainforest proper — Sadiri’s ridge trails and canopy lookouts for toucans, tanagers and monkeys — then drop onto the Tuichi River, running upstream past macaws and kingfishers to a lonely lagoon where a resident family of giant river otters works the water. Tapirs, ocelots, and, if the river gives it to us, a jaguar on a sandbar. This is the wild heart of the park.
1. Small private groups (max 10), out at dawn and dusk by boat and canoe — low to the water, where the wildlife and the light are.
2. We cross the Andes overland — La Cumbre Pass and the old “Death Road” down through the Yungas — then fly you back to La Paz at the end, so you get the whole transition without a day of backtracking.
3. Three different Amazon worlds in one trip: the pampas (Yacuma), the mountain rainforest (Sadiri), and the deep river jungle (Tuichi). Most trips give you one.
4. You just carry the camera. I handle the boats, the lodges, the permits, the timing — all of it. Low altitude, easy pace.
Max 10 guests
Low altitude, gentle pace
I put you where you need to be
1. You’re leaning on the real deal. I wrote a book on Madidi and did a first descent via kayak of the Tuichi River in august 1996 — I take you where I’ve stood myself.
2. You shoot from the water, at eye level. Small boats and canoes, out at first and last light, close to dolphins, otters and caiman — not a bus, not a boardwalk.
3. You get many ecosystems, not one. Andes and puna, pampas, cloud-forest ridge, and deep river jungle — the solid sweep of Madidi’s thirteen life zones.
4. You get the truth, not a sales pitch. I won’t promise you a jaguar on a date. But, I put you in the right water at the right hour for the best odds, and tell you straight what the river does. Patience and access is the key.
Season: roughly April to November, the drier months — better for travel and roads, and better for wildlife concentrating along the shrinking water. The wet season is greener and harder to move in, and of course…it rains…a lot! Nothing wrong with that, but harder for photos and keeping gear dry.
If you have any question about when to go, or what other trips you can run together with a Madidi trip, let me know. Click here.
