By Soledad Alvarez

SAN MIGUEL DEL BALA, Bolivia – Ecotourism is becoming an economic alternative for the indigenous peoples of Bolivia’s Amazon region, where the Tacanas are already managing a hostel near Madidi Park.

Lovers of alternative and sustainable tourist adventures now have the opportunity to enjoy one of the most important biological reserves on earth at the hostel in San Miguel del Bala, a Tacana community located about 460 kilometers (285 miles) northeast of La Paz along the Beni River.

The river is the only way to get to the village and its hostel from the neighboring communities of Rurrenabaque or San Buenaventura. It takes a little more than an hour to get there in one of the many wooden boats fitted with outboard motors that operate as “river buses” linking the local villages.

The 45 Tacana families who live in San Miguel de Bala combine their traditional way of life as fishermen and farmers with managing their hostel, which is a collection of cabins located in a luxuriant tropical forest and built of local materials like cane, dry palm leaves for the roof and native woods.

There, the Tacana offer visitors accommodations, tours of the interior of Madidi and even typical meals like their delicious grilled fish wrapped in the leaves of the “dunucuabi” plant.

In addition, tourists can engage in cultural exchange activities with the Indian community, the members of which continue living in their huts with walls of wood or cane and leaf roofs. The only electricity they have is produced by their small generators and there are no local medical facilities.

The community’s leader, Biter Supa, told Efe that the lack of electricity and health care are the Tacana’s main problems. He said, however, that they do have potable water and a local school for the roughly 60 children living in the village.

In any case, the idea of the national park’s administrators is to give greater participation and responsibility to indigenous communities living in the zone to combine preservation and development with sustainable projects.

The Indians “are conserving (the area) but they also have to receive something. Economic alternatives must be given to the indigenous peoples who live in the zone,” Jose Luis Howard Ramirez, the head of Proteccion del Parque del Madidi, told Efe.

Besides the San Miguel hostel, several tourist agencies managed by Indians operate in the area.

The majority of those agencies are based in Rurrenabaque, the main town in the zone, which receives approximately 6,000 tourists per year since it has an airport – with a dirt runway – and several regular daily flights taking less than an hour that connect it with La Paz.

However, there is no paved road linking the so-called “Pearl of the Beni” with the national capital, meaning that it can take between 12 and 18 hours to cover the 410 kilometers (254 miles) separating Rurrenabaque from La Paz.

“Tourism is an engine that is helping us greatly to improve our quality of life. Especially for the Tacana,” said Nicolas Janco, with the Mashaquipe tourist agency, who is asking the Bolivian government to make greater efforts to promote the area as a tourist destination.

In addition to the tourist business, other economic initiatives managed by Indians exist in the area, some that are up and running like growing coffee and others that are pending, like a project to market cocoa being undertaken by the Madidi Chocolates Amazon Association.

Madidi National Park, created in 1995, covers 1.8 million hectares (4.5 million acres) and is located between the northeastern part of La Paz province and the border with Peru.

The main indigenous tribes living in the region are the Tacana, the Araona and the Lecos.

Madidi’s rich biodiversity – consisting of more than 1,000 animal species and between 5,000 and 6,000 types of plants – owes to the fact that the park extends from near-glacial habitats near the Andes Mountains to zones just 300 meters (975 feet) above sea level. EFE