It always pays to keep an eye on sales, I get them emailed to me but you can always check the websites as well. Copa is running a nice sale to various places in Central & South America.
Here’s a sample quote from Orlando to Guayaquil (since we are going there soon). Ecuador has great birding and I will be blogging the whole trip after we get home!
Alta Floresta is a pretty small town but if you are on a Cristalino package, on the day you leave the lodge, they will bring you to a traditional Brazilian Kilogram restaurant where you serve up your own food, then they charge you according to the weight of the food. It doesn’t matter if you have a plate full of steak or rice, it’s all the same price per kg! The cost of the meal is included on your check out day, but since we were there early, we tagged along with the departing group at our own expense. It was pretty cheap, certainly less than $15 for us both including a soft drink.
Driving along the main drag, we spotted some pretty cool phone booths! 
There is a small grocery store and you can ask them to stop there if you want to buy some drinks and snacks. Otherwise, not really much to do in town so better to spend your time birding the grounds of the Floresta Amazonica!
The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a neotropical species of eagle. It is sometimes known as the American harpy eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan eagle, which is sometimes known as the New Guinea harpy eagle or Papuan harpy eagle. It is the largest and most powerful raptor found in the Americas, and among the largest extant species of eagles in the world.
We were extremely fortunate to visit Alta Floresta at a time when there was a Harpy Eagle pair with a chick in the nest. This youngster is probably more of a “teenager” now. Only one parent was guarding the chick from a short distance away while we were below watching them.
Harpy Eagles have a large range throughout South America but they are still considered threatened due to habitat loss. If there is one or more in the area you are visiting, all the local guides will know about it as they are one of the most sought-after birds by birders. The pair at the Floresta Amazonica Hotel is not there every year so contact them before booking if this bird is a deal-breaker.
You can really appreciate the strength and power of the Harpy Eagle in this close-up.
You may not want to mess with Mama but this baby Harpy Eagle is adorable!
The crimson-bellied parakeet (Pyrrhura perlata), more commonly known as the crimson-bellied conure in aviculture has a confusing taxonomic history. It was formerly known as Pyrrhura rhodogaster, but following a review it was discovered that the type specimen for P. perlata, long believed to belong to the closely related pearly parakeet, actually was a juvenile crimson-bellied parakeet. Consequently, P. perlata was transferred to this species, while P. rhodogaster became a junior synonym.
I got a few shots at Alta Floresta but for the close-up I have to use the Wikipedia shot. They were being annoyingly camera shy!
They are found exclusively in Brazil and northern Bolivia. The easiest place to see them in the wild is the grounds of the Floresta Amazonica Hotel in Alta Floresta.
This little guy almost looks like he is wearing a crimson coloured singlet!
If you are under 18, don’t click on this one! Suffice to say, these birds weren’t shy!
If you are planning a visit to Bonaire, here’s a great opportunity to see how Echo Bonaire is helping to conserve their endangered wild parrots.
They have very reasonably priced private tours at only $25 per person (minimum 2 people) and I recommend going as early as possible for best views.
You can use United Airlines miles to get to Bonaire from the USA for 35,000 miles plus about $60 in taxes. Getting one of the Chase sign up bonuses for the United Mileage Plus Explorer, Sapphire Preferred or Ink cards plus completing the spending requirement would get you those miles for simply paying your household bills with the card for 3 months! See the Chase forum in Flyertalk for current best sign up deals.
Everyone who is headed to Cristalino passes through Alta Floresta so isn’t it lucky that the sister hotel, Floresta Amazonica is surrounded by prime birding habitat as well? Have a look at some of the beauties we saw back in Sept 2012!
We were very lucky to see a Harpy Eagle chick and one parent hanging around their nest! They aren’t there every year so we were fortunate indeed!
Crimson-bellied Conures are the flagship species of Floresta Amazonica and they are usually seen in the morning and late afternoon around the grounds. They are a bit shy so it was hard to get a good shot but we did see quite a few of them. They are called “Tiriba” in Portuguese and the restaurant is named for them.
There were several species of hummingbird, unfortunately I didn’t take notes as to which ones.
This is a trail leading from the hotel on the far right hand side as you stand at reception and face the swimming pool, then walk to the right. Just keep walking down this trail and you will see lots of birds! This was late in the afternoon and I lost the light so sorry about the silhouettes!
I came across this incredible deal in my feed and I thought I would share it since many people may be waiting for the perfect opportunity to visit Australia and see the wonderful birds we have here!
Examples:
Los Angeles – Brisbane: $426
Las Vegas – Brisbane: $468
Los Angeles – Melbourne: $505
Full details of this deal can be found on Secret Flying.
** This is an error fare and sometimes these deals are honored, sometimes the airline cancels them so don’t book any non-refundable accommodation, tours or anything until you are sure the deal will be honored!
The Floresta Amazonica Hotel makes a great welcome to the Cristalino experience and I highly recommend at least a night here before or after visiting Cristalino. We arrived by bus from Cuiaba and the hotel staff picked us up at the bus station and brought us back in time for a wonderful breakfast buffet (only included if you are staying the previous night, otherwise payable separately). We had gotten a bit of sleep on the bus and were re-energized after breakfast to walk around the hotel grounds. There was a rare Harpy Eagle nesting in the grounds and they said to be back by 10am to join the guide to go see them so we didn’t stray too far.
Our actual stay was after the Cristalino Lodge for only 1 night (wish it could have been more).
Hotel entrance
Gotta love a restaurant named after the beautiful Crimson-bellied Conure called Tiriba in Portuguese.
Magazines in lobby
Artwork in lobby
Time to go birding!
Grounds in front of the hotel
Rooms facing nice bird habitat
Our room was decent sized but to be honest we only slept there – too many birds to find!
In Sept it got hot in the afternoon so we swam in the lovely pool until it cooled off a bit.
Some fruit trees that attract birds
Stand by for more details of the birds we found!
Once you’ve seen the avian wonders of the Pantanal and Chapada dos Guimaraes, what better way to put the icing on the cake than a stay at the wonderful Cristalino Lodge which has to be one of the top ten birding lodges in the world!
You need to get from Cuiaba to the town of Alta Floresta where the Cristalino packages commence. They have a sister lodge called Floresta Amazonica in town where you can spend a day or two before and after your stay at Cristalino Lodge. We stayed at both places back in Sept 2012 so I will be doing more detailed photo reviews but for now, let’s just get to Alta Floresta.
Only one airline is currently serving the Cuiaba – Alta Floresta route – Azul Airlines. You can use you United miles to redeem flights or book them with Visa or Mastercard on the Azul website. Depending on the price (which varies widely on Azul website) you may be better off redeeming the miles or paying with money so do the math!
If you are really on a budget, you can travel by overnight bus from Cuiaba to Alta Floresta. It’s not one of the luxe business class buses you see on the Sao Paulo routes but it’s a reasonably comfortable bus and when we did it, it wasn’t full so we could spread out and claim a 2 seat bank each. The good news is that foreigners can now book and pay online. This wasn’t available back in 2012 so we had to waste time going to the bus station and pre-booking the seats.
I recommend the bus that arrives around 6:15am as it gives you time to grab breakfast and walk around the Floresta Amazonica property which is very birdy!
2. Once at the Verde Transportes website, put in the route as below and your date, click on the orange Pequisar button.
3. In my opinion, the 16:00 departure is best as it gives you more birding time but the 19:00 or 22:00 would get you there in time for the transfer to the Cristalino boat. Click continuar, and put in your name and passport details then choose a seat.
4. After choosing a seat, check that your details are correct and click on Prosseguir button.
5. Click on the USA flag to get a screen in English. They have a chat line if you need help but you probably won’t. There is an option for foreigners, then just fill out the rest of the form, accept the conditions and Captcha, then Complete Your Order and you’re done!
Bus fare is roughly one third the cost of an airline ticket and it does maximize birding time. We spent the morning at Chapada, drove back to Cuiaba, had lunch, returned the car and got a taxi to the bus station in time for the 16:00 bus, then had the morning to walk around Floresta Amazonica before lunch and the transfer to Cristalino which leaves after the Azul flight arrives and all guests are present and ready to go.
I’ve been blogging a lot about rainforests and how to get to them using airline miles and find birds, especially parrots in them. What exactly is a “rainforest”?
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750-2000 mm (68-78 inches).
Rainforests are home to two-thirds of all the living animal and plant species on Earth. It has been estimated that many hundreds of millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the “jewels of the Earth,” and the “world’s largest pharmacy,” because of the large number of natural medicines discovered there.
The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the lack of sunlight at ground level. This makes it possible to walk through the forest. It also makes photography very difficult due to low light! If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees called a jungle.
Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Nimbokrang
Yeah, you better be watching me!
So what kinds of parrots live in rainforests? Most of the African species prefer the rainforests of Central Africa. These include Senegal parrots and Timneh and Congo African Greys.
In the Pacific region we have Indonesian and New Guinea species like Solomon Island eclectus and Moluccan cockatoos and some Australian species like lorikeets, king parrots, rosellas and most black cockatoos.
South America’s Amazon rainforest has numerous parrot species such as many macaw species, amazon parrots, most of the conures and pionus. They have a huge range from Colombia and Venezuela in the north to the Peruvian Amazon and Tambopata areas. Rainforest parrots eat fruit, nuts, berries, vegetables and insects. Since some of their diet is toxic, they visit the clay licks to eat the clay which neutralizes the toxic items.
Rainforest parrots are in danger of becoming extinct because of deforestation and human encroachment. The trees they nest in are disappearing and they often are captured by poachers.