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!

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!