Rurrenabaque is a small town on the Beni river in the Bolivian lowlands, at about 200 metres above sea level, and it exists for travellers as the gateway to two very different trips. Upriver and into the hills is Madidi National Park, which by several counts is the most biodiverse protected area on the planet. Out across the flat grassland to the north are the Pampas del Yacuma, where the wildlife is not hidden in canopy but lined up along a slow brown river: caiman, capybara, pink river dolphins and anacondas.
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Most people arrive on a 45 minute flight from La Paz, and that flight is the reason this packing list is unusual. You leave an airport at 4,061 metres where it is 5°C and you land three quarters of an hour later at 200 metres where it is 32°C and humid. It is a drop of nearly 3,900 metres and a swing of nearly 30 degrees in under an hour, and you have to be carrying clothing for both ends of it.
What Makes Rurrenabaque Different to Pack For
You are packing for two climates in one bag
Almost nobody comes to Rurrenabaque on its own. It is a side trip from La Paz, and that means your luggage has to serve the altiplano and the tropics at once. The practical answer is to leave the bulk of your warm clothing in storage at your La Paz accommodation, which every hostel and hotel there will do, and bring only what the lowlands need plus one thin warm layer.
That thin layer is not optional, for a reason most lists miss. A merino wool base layer for women is worth its space in the jungle itself as well, because it dries, because it does not develop the smell a synthetic top does after four days without laundry, and because of the surazo.
The surazo is the thing nobody warns you about
A surazo is a cold front that pushes north from Patagonia across the Bolivian lowlands, most often between May and August, and it can drop the temperature in Rurrenabaque from 32°C to 10°C or 12°C within a day, with wind and rain, and hold it there for two or three days. Travellers who packed only shorts and vests for the Amazon are regularly caught out and spend a pampas tour genuinely cold in an open boat. One warm layer and a rain shell cover it.
Otherwise it is hot, humid and wet
The baseline is 25°C to 33°C with high humidity all year. The wet season runs November to March, with December to February heaviest, when the rivers rise, the pampas flood, roads become impassable and flights are cancelled for weather. The dry season, May to September, is the best time and also the surazo season. Nothing you own will dry properly in the wet season.
Insects are the defining daily problem
Mosquitoes in the jungle and, on the pampas, sand flies that bite ankles and are worse. This is a place where insect protection is a clothing decision rather than a bottle of spray, and where covering skin beats treating it.
It is remote, and the logistics are fragile
Flights are small aircraft and are cancelled for weather with no notice. The overland alternative is 18 to 20 hours by bus from La Paz down the Yungas on a road that closes in the wet. Cash is essential, connectivity is limited, and medical care is basic.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Rurrenabaque Packing List
Footwear
Most jungle and pampas lodges supply rubber boots, which are what you will actually walk in, but they supply them in the sizes they have. If you take a women's size below about 37 European, or above about 41, tell your operator before you arrive and expect to need your own, because ill fitting rubber boots over several days of wet walking cause blisters that end a trip.
Bring closed waterproof hiking shoes for the days you are not in supplied boots, and sandals or flip flops for the lodge, the boat and the town. Long socks to wear inside rubber boots, which is both a comfort and a bite prevention measure.
Clothing
Long sleeves and long trousers in light, loose, quick drying fabric, and more of them than you would instinctively pack for 33°C, because covering skin is the main insect defence and because the sun on an open pampas boat is severe. Two or three quick drying tops, two pairs of trousers, and one set of clothing kept dry in a bag for sleeping.
Neutral colours for wildlife watching, since bright colours and white are conspicuous. A swimsuit, for swimming with the pink river dolphins on the pampas, which is the standard highlight, and for the lodge.
One thin warm layer and one rain shell, for the surazo and for the flight. A packable rain jacket covers both the cold front and the wet season, and should be light rather than insulated so it does not become dead weight. A wide brim hat, and a neck tube or multifunctional neck tube, which is genuinely useful here for sun on the back of the neck in a boat and for insects.
For sun
The pampas boat runs for hours with no shade, and the reflection off the water is strong. A wide brim hat, sunglasses and high factor sunscreen, though note the sequence matters with repellent: sunscreen first, let it absorb, repellent on top.
Insect protection, which is its own category here
This is the section that determines how much you enjoy the trip. Permethrin clothing treatment applied to your trousers, socks, long sleeved tops and hat before you leave home is the single most effective measure and lasts several washes. Then a repellent with a high concentration of DEET or picaridin for exposed skin.
Sand flies on the pampas concentrate around ankles and feet at dusk, bite through thin socks, and the bites itch for weeks, so treat your socks and trousers and keep them on in the evening. A mosquito net is provided by reputable lodges, but confirm it. Antihistamine tablets and hydrocortisone cream for the bites you will get anyway.
Practical
A dry bag is essential rather than optional, because everything is moved by open boat and rain arrives without warning. A water filter or purifier, since lodge water is usually boiled or filtered but you will be a long way from a shop.
A torch or headlamp, because lodge electricity typically runs on a generator for a few hours in the evening only, and night walks are part of a Madidi itinerary. A power bank, and expect no charging for stretches. A quick drying towel. Binoculars, which transform Madidi where the wildlife is high in the canopy.
Cash in bolivianos, brought from La Paz. Rurrenabaque has ATMs and they run out, they reject some foreign cards, and the lodges and most operators are cash only. Bring what the trip costs plus a substantial margin. Take your passport, and keep your yellow fever certificate with it. Toilet paper, hand sanitiser, and a small first aid kit with rehydration sachets and any antimalarial your travel clinic has advised.
What to Wear on Each Trip
The Pampas del Yacuma
Three hours by road north to Santa Rosa del Yacuma, then a long slow boat on the Yacuma river, where the caiman sit on the banks and the capybara graze in the open.
Practically: this is the hotter, sunnier, buggier and more exposed of the two trips, and the sand flies are its signature problem. Long sleeves, long treated trousers, socks, a wide brim hat and a neck tube. Full sun protection. A dry bag for the boat. A swimsuit under your clothes for the dolphin swim. The anaconda search involves wading through marsh grass in supplied boots in full sun, which is the hardest hour of the trip.
Madidi National Park
Two to three hours upriver on the Beni into the park, to community run or private lodges, with canopy walks, night walks and long forest days.
Practically: forest is shadier, cooler and wetter than the pampas, with more mud and more mosquitoes than sand flies. Long sleeves and trousers, rubber boots, and a rain shell you can get at quickly. A headlamp for the night walk, and closed shoes rather than sandals around the lodge after dark because of snakes and ants. Leave the good camera in a dry bag between uses, because humidity and fungus ruin lenses.
The boat journeys themselves
Every part of this trip involves sitting in a long open or half covered launch for hours.
Practically: sun on one side of you the whole way, spray, and real cold if a surazo has come through. A hat that will not blow off, a layer, a shell, and a dry bag. Motion sickness is not an issue on rivers, but a numb back is, so a small cushion or rolled towel earns its place.
Rurrenabaque town
A small grid of streets between the river and the hills, with the Mirador El Mirador above it, a handful of bars and the operator offices.
Practically: light clothing and sandals. The walk up to the viewpoint is short, steep and hot, so go at dawn or dusk. The river bank is pleasant and the swimming there is not advisable because of current and caiman.
What Not to Bring
Leave your altiplano clothing in La Paz, which every hotel and hostel there will store, and bring one thin warm layer instead of none.
Leave shorts and vests as your only clothing, which is the standard mistake and which the insects will punish. Leave cotton jeans, which never dry. Leave white and bright colours for wildlife days. Leave a reliance on cards or ATMs. Leave anything electronic you would be upset to lose to humidity. Leave a tight onward connection, because flights out of Rurrenabaque are cancelled for weather regularly and you may lose a day or face a 20 hour bus. Leave the wet season, December to February, if you have any flexibility. And leave any operator who offers to let you hold an anaconda or handle wildlife, because the reputable ones do not.
Essential Resources for Women in Rurrenabaque
Emergency numbers in Bolivia: 110 reaches the police, 118 the ambulance service and 119 the fire service. Be realistic about what those numbers reach in the Beni lowlands: response is limited, and in Madidi or on the pampas you have no phone signal at all, so your operator and their radio are your emergency service. This is the strongest practical reason to book a licensed operator with a radio and a stated evacuation plan rather than the cheapest option on the main street.
Tourist support: Bolivia has a tourist police unit, but it operates in La Paz and the larger cities, not in Rurrenabaque, where a report is made at the local Policia Nacional office. The municipal tourist information office and the SERNAP park office in town are the useful points of contact for operator licensing and park entry. Choose your operator on safety record rather than price: boat overloading, missing life jackets and unqualified guides are documented problems here, and the fatal river accidents on this route have involved unlicensed boats.
US Embassy: the Embassy is in La Paz at bo.usembassy.gov and there is no consular presence in the Beni. Note that United States consular services in Bolivia have been reduced for years and the relationship is limited, so do not assume rapid assistance. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Rurrenabaque has a small municipal hospital and a handful of clinics able to handle basic problems, infections, wound care and rehydration. Anything serious means an air evacuation to La Paz, which requires money or insurance up front and depends on the weather allowing a flight, so travel insurance with explicit medical evacuation and repatriation cover is genuinely essential for this trip and not a formality. Carry any prescription medication you need with you, because the pharmacy stock here is limited.
Official health authority: the Ministerio de Salud y Deportes at minsalud.gob.bo. Yellow fever vaccination is required or strongly recommended for the Bolivian lowlands including Beni, must be given at least ten days before arrival, and the certificate is asked for at the airport and by some onward countries, so carry it. Malaria, predominantly Plasmodium vivax, is present at low levels in Beni, so ask a travel clinic whether prophylaxis is appropriate for your itinerary and season. Dengue, chikungunya and Zika all circulate, and there is no vaccine or prophylaxis for any of them, which is why insect protection is the real defence. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is transmitted by sand flies in this region, another reason to cover ankles. Rabies is present. Do not drink the tap water: bottled, boiled or filtered only, and avoid ice and raw salad outside a good lodge.
US State Department travel advisory for Bolivia: current advisory level and detail. Bolivia carries a nationwide caution level, with specific notes on civil unrest, road blockades and limited medical facilities outside the main cities. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Bolivia: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the sections on jungle tours, river safety and the standard of medical care, which are directly relevant here.
Official tourism and park authorities: Bolivia has no functioning national tourism portal, so the official sources are the ones that matter individually. sernap.gob.bo is the national protected areas service and the authority for Madidi, its entry fees and its community concessions. migracion.gob.bo is the immigration authority for visa and entry rules, which differ for United States citizens. lapaz.bo is useful for the La Paz end of the trip. Treat any commercial site presenting itself as Bolivia's national tourism board with caution.
Solo women safety assessment: Rurrenabaque is a friendly, small, low crime town and many women do this trip alone, joining a group tour on arrival, which is both the normal and the sensible way to do it. Crime is not the main risk here and that is worth saying plainly: the town is relaxed, petty theft exists at a low level in the bars and around the boat landing, and the usual care with a bag and a drink covers it. Street harassment is mild. Walking in town in the evening is fine, though the streets are unlit at the edges so a torch helps. The real risks in Rurrenabaque are environmental, medical and operational, and they are more serious than the crime risk in most cities on this site. The first is your operator. You will spend several days in a remote place with no signal, dependent on a guide's competence, in a boat on a fast river. Overloaded and unlicensed boats have killed travellers on this route. Book through a licensed agency, ask directly about life jackets and a radio, ask what happens if someone is injured upriver, and walk away from anyone who is vague. The community run operations at San Miguel del Bala and the established Madidi lodges are the known quantities. The second is health. Insect borne disease is a genuine probability rather than a remote risk, medical care is basic, and evacuation depends on weather, so the vaccination, the repellent, the treated clothing and the insurance are the substance of staying safe here rather than paperwork. Heat and dehydration cause more visitor trouble than any animal. The third is the animals, in a mundane way: snakes near lodges after dark, ants, and the caiman and dolphins you are in the water with on the pampas swim, which is safe when a guide chooses the spot and unsafe if you swim on your own initiative. Do not swim in the Beni at Rurrenabaque. The fourth is logistics. Flights cancel for weather with no notice, which is an inconvenience unless you have an international connection behind it, and the bus alternative is a long night on the Yungas road. Build in a spare day. Finally, a note on ethics that is also a safety note: operators that let tourists handle anacondas or feed wildlife are both damaging the animals and running the kind of operation that cuts corners elsewhere too.
Reading On
Rurrenabaque is 45 minutes by air from La Paz and a world away from it, and it is the easiest Amazon access in Bolivia. The Bolivia travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Bolivia packing list for women covers a trip across it. Up on the altiplano, the La Paz packing list for women covers the city you fly from, the Uyuni packing list for women the salt flat, and the Sucre packing list for women the constitutional capital. Across the border, the Puno packing list for women covers Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side. For the same Amazon environment in Peru, the Iquitos packing list for women covers the jungle city upriver. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why a wool layer belongs in a jungle bag at all, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, the merino wool in warm weather guide covers the humid end of the range, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
