Rurrenabaque sprawls lazily along the Beni River

Photo: Julia Bollag

Hell, it's hot down here - hot in an ice-cream-one-second-gone-the-next kind of way.

And so it is that the remote Amazonian town of Rurrenabaque has become a Mecca for heat-struck backpackers.

Easily the hottest spot in the Bolivian lowlands, Rurrenabaque has earned itself the reputation as a cheap place to sweat away the days in between drifting off into the surrounding rainforest or pampas to bond with wild nature and anacondas.  

The town itself - a network of gridded streets sprawled lazily along the Beni River and backed by lush green hills - sits on the edge of the awesome Madidi National Park.

Madidi is 1.8-million hectares of Amazonian wonders: rainforest, medicinal plants, jaguars, birds and traditional indigenous villages. Ecolodges staffed by local indigenous communities are springing up around here all the time and are one of the most luxurious and eco-friendly ways to immerse yourself in the jungle. 

Northeast of Rurrenabaque lies the equally impressive pampas - wetland savannas that are swarming with  caimans, pink river dolphins, anacondas and hungry mosquitoes.

Numerous tour companies operate out of Rurrenabaque; competition is fierce and you can score a three-day tour for as little as US$50. Note that many operators endorse practises that are extremely un-eco-friendly - namely capturing anacondas and baby crocodiles for the benefit of tourists' cameras. This traumatises the animals and spreads disease. For nature's sake, try and resist the urge to take that photo of an anaconda obscuring your private parts. 

Meanwhile, back in town, the Rurrenabaque restaurants cook up quite a storm. If you have the energy for an uphill climb, lookout points afford sweeping river views, while a handful of swimming pools provide respite from the inferno. Upstream from town, you can also find natural waterfall pools to cool off in. You could try catching your dinner in the river, although mercury levels in the fish are reported to be high due to gold mining practises downstream.   

At night, motorcycles zip through Rurrenabaque's darkened streets like illuminated bumble bees. The bars throb with Latin music and karaoke enthusiasts. Frogs make surreal laser sounds and tourists slurp away on their happy-hour cocktails. 

Getting here is an adventure in itself. A couple of Bolivian airlines - TAM and Amaszonas - fly here from La Paz in tiny planes multiple times daily. Flights are frequently cancelled due to bad weather - or between July and October - smoke from Bolivia's archaic land-clearing practises.

A bus also links Rurrenabaque with La Paz, and this takes a back-creaking 18 hours.

If there are enough people, the tour company Deep Rainforest operate a weekly boat service that leaves from Guanay (but provides bus transfers from La Paz and Coroico). The trip - including stops in local communities, rainforest hikes and riverside camping - takes three days.

From Rurrenabaque, it is also possible to head north to the Brazilian border or east towards Trinidad.