Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pioneering “carbon credit” scheme, whereby two US energy corporations and the oil giant
BP paid around $10 million to buy out loggers operating in an adjacent forest area of 6340
square kilometres, which was then added to the park.
The park's remote location means it is expensive and difficult to visit: even the organized
tours can be pretty tough going. The park's southern border is over 200km from the nearest
town,
San Ignacio de Velasco
, itself another 400km from Santa Cruz. It is also extremely
difficult - and often impossible - to visit the park during the rainy season (Nov-May), when
the mosquitoes and other insects are also particularly ferocious.
HUANCHACA PLATEAU
The park's most remarkable natural feature is the
Huanchaca plateau
(or the Caparú Plat-
eau), a vast sandstone
meseta
(plateau) rising 500m above the surrounding rainforest to an
elevated plain of grasslands and dry
cerrado
woodlands, from where spectacular waterfalls
plunge down the sheer escarpment into the park's rivers. This isolated plateau covers over
seven thousand square kilometres, just under half the park, and inspired Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's novel
The Lost World
- at least according to Colonel Percy Harrison Faucett, the
legendary British explorer who was the first European to see the plateau when he came
here in 1910 while demarcating Bolivia's borders, and who later described the landscape
to Conan Doyle in London.
Camp Los Fierros
Currently the only camp open in the reserve,
Camp Los Fierros
lies at the southern end of
the park, within easy hiking distance of the Huanchaca plateau. It is also close to numerous
trails that lead through the surrounding rainforest and savannahs and have excellent wildlife-
spotting possibilities. The most popular excursion is to
El Encanto
, a narrow but spectacular
waterfall that plunges 80m off the sheer sides of the plateau. The waterfall is a one-day walk
from the camp, and there's a basic shelter close by where you can camp out if you have your
own equipment, but otherwise you're better off hiring the park guards' pick-up truck to take
you there and back in a day. Other day hikes lead up onto the plateau and to the
Laguna
Chaplín
, which is home to abundant aquatic bird life.
Camp Flor de Oro
Based in a former ranch that once belonged to one of the suspected drug traffickers implic-
ated in the murder of Noel Kempff Mercado,
Camp Flor de Oro
has a beautiful setting on
the banks of the Río Iteñez, which marks the border with Brazil. It was closed at the time
of research but may well reopen in the future; check the latest situation with travel operators
in Santa Cruz. Flor de Oro's key attraction is the opportunity to visit the
Ahlfeld and Arco
Iris waterfalls
, which tumble down from the Huanchaca plateau. Reaching them involves
