For those of you who know a bit about me or have seen the Zoochat gallery, you can see that I have already travelled in several places in Brazil. I have actually been there 7 times, and will go 2 more times this year in April and August. The nationality of my girlfriend is a large part of the explanation of those frequent trips, even if the country itself is rich and vast enough to fill a whole life of exploration. I have been dreaming to visit the last main biome of the country that I have not visited yet : Amazonia. For a few months now, I am in contact with a local guide based in Manaus with whom I have agreed to do a 10 days trip, specifically going to maximize the number of animal observations and diversity. This trip should takes place at the beginning of August, when rains are less frequent. I had initially planned to do this trip with a couple of French naturalists but they had to give up unfortunately. One of the seat is already taken over by another French naturalist (and zoo-enthusiast as he is a reader of Zoochat). In order to split the cost of the guide and logisitics of travelling in Amazonia, we would be happy to onboard one or more person with us. Both of us speak English, the guide as well even if he told he was not fluent, he has already guided foreign birders groups. So non-french-speaking are welcomed as well! The program start and finish in Manaus. By dividing large tracts of forest, the neighbouring Rio Negro and Amazon are acting as strong species division factors, especially with primates (19 possible according to UICN redlist, including the hyper-localized pied tamarin). We will spend three days to the north of Manaus to discover Guianan shields specialities (Guianan cock of the rock being the star of this leg of the trip but that could be disputed by some capuchinbird or Guianan bearded saki) afterwhat we will cross the Amazon. On this side of the river new animal communities can be seen, linked to Central Brazilian Amazon, with many endemics. To finish we will go northeast, in direction of the Anavilhanas archipelego, the largest freshwater archipelego of the world to find flooded forest specialists. Two boat rides should allow close views of boto and maybe tucuxi (manatees being more unlikely but not impossible). There is many more opportunities but listing would be too long and we will also rely on knowledge of the local guide who is a biologist. Amazonia is normally expensive to visit. By choosing not to stay in four-stars lodges, speaking Portuguese fluently enough and picking directly a Brazilian guide, the cost of the trip on the basis of 3 persons should be only around 1100€ (price may change slightly given exchange rates but not so much). It includes food (and Brazilian do not joke about quantities !), basic hotels with enough comfort (A/C), full-days birding/mammal-watching and some nights as well, and transportation. If you choose to accompany us, we could also organize other areas of Brazil such as the famous Pantanal or the lush and fantastic Mata Atlantica close to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. If you are interested or even have a simple question, please do not hesitate to contact me by private message.
Update on this topic : Due to the incredible rise of airfare tickets and rise of the real, we had to postpone our project to July/August 2023. One of the previous member of the trip will not be able to be part this year due to other commitments so I renew my offer. To clarify, the trip will be made of 2 or even 3 legs to make the most of our time down there. On the side of the Central Amazonia part, we could organize diverse areas such as Mata Atlantica with its amazing diversity of birdlife and endemic primates (muriquis, lion-tamarin & co), experiencing the amazing cerrado, very diverse as well with a lot of Brazilian endemics, mountain araucaria forests or even the Caatinga (Lear macaw, Araripe manakin...). This is also the best time of the year to do the incredible Pantanal but one need to find a good way to do it without spending too much. Do not hesitate to contact me by private message if you have any question (price, timing, kind of travel, zoo or non-wildlife interests...).
