Brazil: The Pantanal and Amazon
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Overview
Highlights
- Explore Amazonian rainforest.
- Enjoy Pantanal Highway
- Enjoy the Drive to Pixaim River
- Watch the Incredible Birds around the Cuiabá City in Brazil
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Details
Travel Themes
Destinations
Attractions
Activities
Trip includes
- Tips to drivers
- Local guides
- Boatmen, and lodge staff
- Roundtrip airfare between Cuiabá and Alta Floresta
- Accommodation from the night of day 1 to the night day 14
- Meals from dinner on day 1 (unless you arrive too late for dinner service) to breakfast on day 15 (if you have a very early departing flight, you may miss the included breakfast on the last day)
- Safe drinking water as well as tea and coffee during meals
- Safe drinking water between meals; Tropical Birding tour leader with scope and audio gear from the morning of day 2 to the evening of day 14
- Hotel shuttle bus between the airport and hotel on day 1, and between the hotel and the airport on day 15
- Ground transport for the group to all sites in the itinerary from day 2 to day 3 and from day 8 to day 14 in a suitable vehicle with a local driver
- Transfers between Alta Floresta and Cristalino Jungle Lodge (may be shared with other lodge guests)
- Private boat transport for the group while at Cristalino Jungle Lodge; private afternoon boat rides on days 10-11 (2 hours each)
- Private speedboat for the group for jaguar searching on the afternoon of day 12, all day on day 13, and the morning of day 14
- Entrance fees to the sites mentioned in the itinerary
- A printed and bound checklist to keep track of your sightings (given to you at the start of the tour – only electronic copies can be provided in advance).
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Itinerary
We’ll meet you at the airport and take you to a nearby hotel for the night.
We’ll start early and drive about 1h20m northeast of the city to a scenic escarpment. The scrubby cerrado (savanna) may not look like much, but it can be surprisingly good for birds such as White-banded and White-rumped Tanagers, White-eared Puffbird, Coal-crested Fin...
After a few more hours birding in the Chapada, we return to Cuiabá and catch a midday 1h3om hour flight to the town of Alta Floresta. From here, we travel in bus (or 4WD vehicles depending on road conditions) for another hour, and time permitting we will stop at a pal...
With four full days to explore the area, we’ll have the chance to visit most of the best birding sites. Dawn on one of the sturdy 160 ft. (50 m) high canopy towers is an unforgettable experience. The great views over the treetops gives us a good chance of seeing canop...
After some final birding, we drive back to Alta Floresta for lunch, then fly back to Cuiabá in the afternoon. After collecting our luggage, we’ll drive about two hours to the start of the famous Transpantaneira, or Pantanal Highway. We’ll spend the first two nights at Pousada Piuval, a comfortable lodge on a working cattle ranch near the start of the highway.
Piuval has some of the most impressive birding anywhere on the planet, with huge numbers of birds seen and daily lists reaching astronomical numbers, some of the highest of any of our tours. The reason why it’s so great is the easy access to a wide variety of habitats...
After another morning at Piuval we drive a few hours south, deeper into the Pantanal. We’ll stay two nights at a lodge on the edge of the sluggish Pixaim River, and one of the highlights here are the afternoon boat trips on the river, a relaxing way to see Agami and B...
A nearby trail passes through gallery forest along the edge of the river, which can be loaded with birds in the morning. The open nature of the forest makes it relatively easy to see them, and Band-tailed Antbird, Large-billed Antwren, and Helmeted Manakin can usually...
After breakfast, we’ll board our bus and drive south towards the end of the Pantanal Highway. We’ll make several stops along the way to search for the gorgeous Scarlet-headed Blackbird, shy Cinereous-breasted Spinetail, vociferous Fawn-breasted Wren, elegant Maguari S...
Jaguar is the main target here, and we’ll spend the day cruising various rivers in a fast motorboat looking for this magnificent animal. Our boatmen are in radio contact, so if there is a jaguar seen we can head for the location – often at high speed! Jaguars here are...
The plan for the morning will depend largely on how well we did with Jaguars the day before. If we’re still trying for Jaguar, we’ll spend the full morning cruising the rivers and leave the hotel after an early lunch. If we had great Jaguar sightings, we may instead p...
The tour ends this morning in Cuiabá. The hotel provides free airport transfers upon request at any hour.
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Dates & Availability
Check Current Availability, prices, specials with Tropical Birding.
The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.
Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.
Tropical Birding Reviews & Ratings
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Great Birding - and Great Support when problems arise
My fourth trip to Ecuador with Tropical Birding was going fabulously! Guide José was finding birds that I had missed on my prior visit to the eastern Andes and even...
High Andes to vast Amazon commencing 23/2/20
Exceeded all my expectations. Simply an amazing experience. Our guide Jose is undoubtedly the best bird guide I have ever been with. Everything worked perfectly and ...
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Tour Operator
We’re Not Your Average Tour Company
A level of expertise is not needed to join our trips, but enthusiasm is
Our goal is to have as many people getting as much joy out of birding as possible. Although our guides can hold their own anywhere in the world, you will never feel intimidated by our guides or other clients. They all understand that the trip is about seeing birds and having a great time, not by showing how great we are to others.
Most of our trips are in the tropics
The world is filled with incredible birding destinations, so we have decided to concentrate on those areas that can be tricky for most people to visit alone. The tropics support 80% of the world’s bird species, and the diversity and numbers of birds can at times be overwhelming. Birding can be tough with many similar species in the same flock, and with others so secretive that they can only be located by voice. We have built up a storehouse of knowledge on where to find some of the world’s rarest birds, and our tours offer the finest birding on the planet. You will finish your trip not only with plenty of birds, but also with a real understanding for the areas you have visited. We also do many trips to other areas outside the tropics, but all these sites are ones where we think that we can really add value to your birding experience.
We are the company that actively supports bird conservation
We do not just give lip-service to protecting the threatened birds our livelihoods depend on; we are active in all aspects of bird conservation. This not only involves generation of funds for purchase of endangered habitats, but also includes consulting for conservation organizations, training guides, and establishing the avitourism industry in developing nations. One project that some of our staff members are near fanatical about is getting more people into casual birding. There are no short term payoffs to our guides for this, but we believe to our very core that getting more people into birding is the ultimate way to get more people to preserve these creatures.
We offer the best value birding tours on the market
We have managed to strike a balance by providing world-class tours without charging outrageous prices. While this is not the means by which we differentiate ourselves from the other operators, it is a pleasant side-effect of being the most efficient operator in our target destinations. A quick comparison with other companies will show that while we still stay at the best lodges and have top guides, we retain our more competitive prices.
Birding Tours
Tropical Birding has been operating birding tours since our inception in 2001, and we offer a wide range of trips to destinations all over the globe. Our trips are led by expert guides who are themselves passionate birders and naturalists. Some of our tours are fast-paced trips that target every possible endemic, whereas others are more relaxed-pace trips with a stronger focus on other types of wildlife or cultural activities.
Custom Tours
Please contact us, and we will be happy to design an itinerary to suit your needs. If you can get a few friends or family members to come with you, you might be surprised at how inexpensive these tours are, and they offer you the flexibility of choosing when, where and with whom you travel.
Photography Tours
Tropical Birding offers a series of Photo Journeys to the best destinations on the planet for bird and wildlife photography. On these trips we get you to where the animals are, and we do whatever we can to get the animals to you. The objective of these trips is not to instruct on how to use a camera, and much of the photography is opportunistic. We’ll always be out at the best times of day for photography, but will not necessarily stop shooting just because conditions are not optimal.
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Logistics
What's excluded
- Optional tips to the tour leader
- Tips for luggage porters in Cuiabá (if you require their services)
- International flights; excess luggage charges; snacks
- Additional drinks apart from those included
- Alcoholic beverages; travel insurance
- Excursions not included in the tour itinerary
- Extras in hotels such as laundry service, minibar, room service, telephone calls, and personal items; medical fees
- Other items or services not specifically mentioned as being included.
Accommodation
We require written notice of cancellation, which is effective upon receipt by us. If you need to cancel your booking, you must inform us immediately via email or fax and we will confirm your cancellation. Based on the date that we acknowledge your cancellation notice, cancellation fees will apply per person. This policy and fee schedule also applies to pre-trip and post-trip extensions as well as any transfers from one tour extension to another.
- For cancellations received 150 days or more prior to the first day of the tour, the cancellation fee will be your non-refundable deposit.
- For cancellations received 149 days or less prior to the first day of the tour, the cancellation fee will be the full cost of the tour.
Please note that bank charges may be deducted from the refund you receive. Under no circumstances can Tropical Birding waive or reduce cancellation fees, so it is highly recommended that you purchase trip cancellation/interruption insurance.
Extensions
There are no scheduled extensions, but some departures can be combined with the Atlantic Forest Introtour. We may also be able to arrange a custom extension for you upon request.
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