Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cial buildings are clustered around the pleasant
Plaza 2 de Febrero
at the south end of town,
but most commercial activity is concentrated along the first few blocks of
calles Avaroa
and
Comercio
, which run north from the plaza parallel to the river, lined with ramshackle stores
selling hammocks, rubber boots, machetes, chainsaws, tinned food and other supplies for
people living in the surrounding area.
The riverside market
Sun early morning to early afternoon
The riverside is an interesting place to while away the time watching canoes arriving along
the Beni and unloading cargoes of bananas or freshly caught fish. It's particularly lively dur-
ing the small Sunday-morning
market
, when indigenous people from the hinterlands of the
surrounding rainforest come to town to pick up supplies and sell fish, agricultural produce
and (for tourists) handicrafts like woven baskets and wooden bows.
San Buenaventura
If you've got some time on your hands you can take the ferry (every 15min) across the river
to the small village of
SAN BUENAVENTURA
on the opposite bank. Controversial plans
for a proposed bridge are still rumbling on amid argument and counter argument over its po-
tential impact on both the tourist trade and Parque Nacional Madidi, and complicated by the
fact that San Buenaventura is actually within the political remit of La Paz Department. For
that same reason, several public buildings are located here rather than in Rurrenabaque, in-
cluding the park's
SERNAP
administration office.
