Bolivia travel blog by Mark Berman -
April 2019
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Riberalta in the north-east of Bolivia, where the main pastime and activity of the locals is riding their motorbikes around and around the
main plaza. They ride side by side having full-on conversations and ride to be seen by the people they should be seen by. Not much else to
do here unless you are in search of wildlife around the river. Even then, tours and excursions are not particully easy to find. On the
opposite side of the plaza from the church you can sit down and enjoy a fantastic frappe - an ice-cold fruit drink, while watching the locals
go round and round and round again! Limited Tour Opportunities
I arrived in Riberalta overland from Guayaramerin on the border of Brazil, a 1hr bus ride. I got
to Guayaramerin from
Porto Velho in Brazil, a 4hr car journey. The only tour office I could find in Riberalta was that of Riberalta Tours,
however the only tour they really had going was the Boat Hotel (Barco Hotel), a 3 or 4 night journey costing several hundred $USD. They did
say I could do a day trip for $120USD, the reason for this high price is because I would have been the only person on the tour. I passed on
these tours because I had already, a week before done a great day trip for $30USD in
Puerto Maldonado in Peru and planned to do another day
trip a few days later south of Riberalta in
Trinidad. I saw no other travelers or tourists in Riberalta, stayed one night and moved on.
Sights In Riberalta
Between the bus terminal and the center of Riberalta are quite a few monuments along the main road. The plaza has some exotic flowers and
trees, the busts of 3 important men and the church beside it, as well as the social club built in 1919. The riverfront of course offers nice
views and a tower you can walk up has even better ones and don't forget the beautiful orange sunsets in the evenings. The market area and
cheap eating is a couple of blocks from the plaza. Apart from these things I found Riberalta to be a bit of a non-event. From Riberalta I took a flight southward to
Trinidad where I did a fantastic day tour.