Rurrenabaque

The forests and rivers around Rurrenabaque were home to Arawak-speaking, Tacana and Araona peoples long before the Spanish arrived, and Tacana communities still live along the Beni and its tributaries. Local tradition names the missionary Father Giovanni Gianelli as the founder of a settlement called La Cruz, established on 2 February, the feast of the Virgin of Candelaria, which became the town's patron. In the absence of earlier records, the date that appears in law is 15 November 1844.

The rubber boom of the 1880s transformed the town. Rurrenabaque became an important river port, shipping rubber downstream, bringing in food and moving the labourers who were sent to the rubber camps of the north, while boats from upstream had to pass it on their way to the lowlands. When the boom ended, migrants from other countries stayed on, drawn by the trade in rubber, quinine bark and later gold.

For most of the 20th century the town remained a small, isolated river community. Change came with tourism: Madidi National Park was created in 1995, community-run lodges such as Chalalán opened in the forest, and Rurrenabaque grew into one of Bolivia's main destinations for international travellers. The airport runway was paved in 2010, and a new section of the road to La Paz opened in 2006. In 2025 the destination won a Green Destinations Story Award for its project La ruta de la Mujer Tacana (the Route of the Tacana Woman).

Rurrenabaque's culture draws heavily on the Tacana, whose dances, dress and customs shaped the town's festivals. In the past the patronal feast lasted several days, with fermented chicha and game from hunting; on 2 February, the feast of the Virgin of Candelaria, people traditionally came in pilgrimage to her altar to give thanks. The Danza del Balsero, the dance of the raftsman, is the town's most characteristic dance, and lowland dances such as the torito, the macheteros and taquiraris are performed at fiestas.

The rainforest and its peoples are the other half of the town's identity. Tacana, Mosetén, Tsimané and Quechua-Tacana communities around Madidi run their own ecolodges, which share income with the communities and present their traditions to visitors. Local legends attach to the landscape, among them the hill of Macuti, whose Tacana name means "sorcerer hill".

Daily manners are relaxed and friendly, in the lowland style. The town's mixture of lowlanders, migrants from elsewhere in Bolivia and foreign travellers gives it an easy, informal feel.

The 2024 census counted about 21,000 people in the municipality of Rurrenabaque, most of them in the town itself, which had about 13,000 residents at the previous census in 2012. The town lies in the Beni department, at the point where the Beni River leaves the last foothills of the Andes and enters the plains.

Tourism is the most visible business, with around 10 per cent of families — mostly in the town — working in it as guides, cooks, boat drivers, agency staff and hosts, and the rest of the town lives from trade, services and the surrounding countryside. The river is the main highway for the communities upstream and downstream.

The day starts early and slows down in the heat of the afternoon. Flights and buses to La Paz are the town's lifelines, and rain, low cloud and smoke from fires often delay them. Dry-season fires, the national fuel and dollar shortages, and arguments over roads and their effect on the forest are the main local concerns.

Rurrenabaque eats the food of the Bolivian lowlands — rice, cassava, plantain, beef and chicken — with the river adding its fish. River fish are grilled, or wrapped in a leaf and cooked as dunucuabi, and served with rice, cassava and plantain, and beef from the ranches of the Beni is grilled for family gatherings and fiestas.

The municipal market is the place for everyday food. Its comedores serve cheap meals, and its jugerías press fresh juices from tropical fruit. Other local dishes include majadito and locro, and in season the market has fruits such as achachairú, asaí and carambola.

Restaurants in the centre and along the river cater to travellers as well as locals, with grilled meat and fish alongside pizza and pasta, and evening views over the Beni. On tours, meals are cooked by the team's own cook. Chicha, a fermented drink, belongs to the older traditions of the town's festivals.