Our second day of exploration in the Noel Kempff takes us to the Huanchaca Plateau. Some history folklore has many believing that Huanchaca Plateau was the inspiration to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on which he based his writing famous novel “Lost World” on. Huanchaca Plateau was the inspiration for the creation of the Noel Kempff Mercado national park. This plateau itself possesses unique surroundings due to the preservation for thousands of years from the rest of the plain.
The hike to the plateau is quite demanding and should be attempted only by the very fit. We start the day early in order to avoid ascending the plateau during the hot noon hours. After breakfast we drive back to the savannah where we turn north and after while we enter the jungle again. Eventually we arrive to the end of the track, where we leave our vehicle behind and take an easy 4km hike to the base of the plateau. We hike through the tropical rainforest sighting its interesting flora and surroundings along the way. The plateau is a striking geological feature in itself. It is roughly 5200 square kilometres in area, and stands out about 500m from the surrounding jungle. Just to have an idea of the difficulty of the hike, one has to take into account that the vertical difference from where we park the cars to the top of the plateau is close to 600m and the going is over a rough terrain.
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