Fishing-Travel News: Wild Waters, Clean Power, and Island Harvest

This news roundup originally appeared in the 2025 edition of Fly Fisherman Destinations.

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Exploratory Season on Bolivia’s Rio Tariquia

Marcelo Perez, founder of Untamed Angling and likely the best-known dorado angler in the world—thanks to magazine articles, films, and his @jungleangler Instagram account—is opening a new freshwater dorado program in Bolivia for the 2026 season.

Untamed Angling already operates the world’s premier small-water, walk-and-wade dorado lodges—all of them so far in Tsimane National Park, on the Secure River and two of its tributaries. Secure, Pluma, and Agua Negra lodges are already well established as the finest locations for sight fishing for big dorados, pacus, and occasionally catfish. I was at Pluma Lodge in July 2025 and what I saw there can only be described as one of the greatest natural spectacles I have ever witnessed, with a massive migration of sabalos—the primary prey species of dorado—that turned the entire river bottom into a shimmering curtain of black and silver. We experienced stalking and hunting that can only be compared to New Zealand trout fishing—except there are many more fish, and they are much larger.

Now, Perez is opening a new lodge on a completely different river called the Tariquia, a remote, wild, and almost mythical river deep in Bolivia’s Yungas region. The river is crystal clear with fast rapids and riffles, and it’s home to famously large dorados.

The season is limited to just eight weeks, running from late August through the end of October, and accommodates only six anglers per week. Very few people will have the opportunity to sample this new fishery. Perez fished here for two weeks himself in 2024, and is offering a short exploratory season in 2025. “Exploratory” means it’s the first time they are trying it, and it might not have the same luxury polish and clockwork sophistication that the other lodges are known for.

Guests will fly into Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where they’ll spend a night at the five-star Los Tajibos Hotel (included in the trip fee). The next day is a charter flight to Yacuiba, then a 25-minute helicopter transfer gets you to the lodge. Your gear follows by ground.

Over the next six days, guests will fly by helicopter each day into a new stretch of river. Two anglers per raft and an English-speaking guide will float 4 or 5 miles (6 to 8 kilometers) each day in top-end NRS rafts, exploring the Tariquia in the most comfortable and efficient way possible. At the end of the day, a helicopter will pick them up and take them back to the lodge for a hot shower, wine, and fine dining. It’s a wilderness expedition without the camping. There are 100 kilometers of prime dorado water on the Tariquia, and no one floats the same beat twice.

Seven nights at the lodge and six days of guided fishing costs $12,700 U.S., with about $1,300 in other fees and permits per angler.

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Kendjam Lodge Goes 100% Solar

Kendjam Lodge opened in 2015 and was one of the first fly-fishing destinations ever created inside an indigenous territory in Brazil. (The Rio Marié was the other one, the same year.)

Kendjam sits along the Rio Iriri in a location that is extremely difficult to access. Guests land at a jungle airstrip at Kendjam village, but supplies and equipment must come upriver—a journey that often takes months.

According to Untamed Angling co-owner Rodrigo Salles—who runs all the Brazil operations—the company has always strived to provide the highest level of comfort in the most sustainable ways. However, in the first nine years of operation, Kendjam has relied on diesel generators to supply electricity for the lodge during peak hours. The downsides are obvious—noise and emissions in a pristine jungle environment, and the logistical difficulties involved in hauling fuel upriver.

In 2025 Untamed Angling converted the lodge to 100% solar power, which means the only noises guests (and natives) hear are the sounds of the river and the many parrot species around the lodge.

“This project represents a major milestone not only for us at Untamed Angling, but also for the future of sustainable tourism in remote environments,” said Salles.

The new solar system, which was in use the first week of the 2025 season, uses 50 state-of-the-art 600W solar panels, coupled with a modern hybrid setup using BYD lithium battery banks and intelligent inverters.

Transporting this infrastructure into such a remote location was no small feat. All the small components were flown in by small aircraft to the Kendjam village airstrip, but the larger ones and all the solar panels were moved more than 3,000 miles by road and boat (30 days) then moved individually in canoes by Untamed Angling’s indigenous partners.

The installation was not a top-down decision. The Kayapó people were fully involved from the beginning. They understood the long-term benefits of reducing fossil fuel reliance—not just for the environment, but for their health and cultural autonomy. This was a shared commitment, and the solar panels are part of their infrastructure on their land. Now they plan to change the Kendjam village energy source from a diesel generator to a photovoltaic system.

The solar system at Kendjam Lodge powers freezers, water purification systems, fans, air conditioning, and guest comfort infrastructure—all running silently and sustainably in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

Untamed Angling’s lodges in Bolivia in Tsimane National Park are also in the process of switching to 100% solar, and they expect that process to be complete by the end of 2025.

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Farm to Fork at Alphonse Island

How do you feed up to 52 guests and 108 employees on a small tropical island in the Indian Ocean . . . and do it in a healthy, delicious, and sustainable way? Alphonse Island Lodge has worked for more than a decade toward this goal and in 2025 was awarded the ATTA Zero Waste Trailblazer Award in recognition of their innovative farm production, waste management, and success with circular economy principles.

At the heart of this accomplishment lies a 4.8-hectare (12 acres) regenerative farm cultivated without use of any chemicals. The farm, tended by 10 full-time employees, produces more than 50 different crops that supply close to 100% of staff meals and 90% of guest meals. The farm produces on average 2.8 tonnes of fresh produce. There are also 14 beehives to pollinate the crops and provide honey for the kitchen.

Alphonse Island Lodge composts 1.6 tonnes of organic waste weekly that includes food waste, garden waste, cardboard, and coconut fiber, and produces 500 to 600 kilograms of compost each week, which is added back into the farm topsoil.

In addition to fresh produce from the on-site farm, guests dine on many species of delicious fresh fish caught daily from the surrounding Indian Ocean. This ensures sustainable, healthy fish stocks, and reduces air and shipping miles. All the fish served on the island are line-caught by staff members. They focus on fast-growing pelagic species like tuna and wahoo, and also harvest fish from water deeper than 200 feet (60 meters) so they can target various groupers and snappers, and constantly rotate fishing grounds. They do not harvest from coral reef environments and do not serve any crustaceans, shellfish, octopus, or squid for sustainability reasons.

The fresh water on Alphonse is 100% captured rainwater, and wastewater is treated on-site in a designated sewage treatment plant, and mixed with rainwater to irrigate the farm.

No waste is ever buried at Alphonse. It is shipped off island for recycling, burned, or composted.

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