Description: A broad interest Natural History trip in October 2023. Join us for 1 night in Iquitos, Peru, and 6 nights in the Amazon jungle at the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve on a tour designed for lovers of nature and photographers. We will focus activities to cater to the interests of participants, whether that be bird-watching, herpetology, botany, photography or something else. These trips regularly encounter well over 120 species of birds, along with dozens of species of snakes, lizards, crocodilians, turtles, geckos, frogs, toads, caecilians and salamanders. When it comes to colorful or amazing insects or arachnids, there is no way to keep count. Those with a botanical bent will have no shortage of plants to admire, from tiny saprophytic Voyria flowers to giant ceiba trees. There is a good chance of seeing a bushmaster (Lachesis muta), the holy grail of Amazon herpers at the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve, a site which has become known as “Bushmaster Central”. Possible herp rarities include the Emerald Tree Boa (Corallus batesii), and lime-green arboreal vipers (Bothrops bilineatus) and many others. A list of the reptiles and amphibians recorded from the two sites is available on the Project Amazonas website. Whatever your interests, there is much to enjoy. The birding is fantastic, the vegetation is incomparably diverse, and with both pink and gray river dolphins, marmosets, many other small mammals (bigger ones are there too, but hard to spot!), and fantastic butterflies and other insects, there is no time to be bored. Where else can you find a spiny devil conehead?
Participants have the opportunity to hike or kayak on your own, or with a guide, both day and night. We prioritize immediate access to great habitats at the field stations. Hear a weird frog or bird call at 4 AM? Get up and look for it!. Want to hit the trails at 6 AM for early morning birding? Fresh coffee will already be on.
Cost: $1445 (1st time adult rate) (repeat client rate = $1245. This includes airport reception and drop-off, 1 night hotel in Iquitos (at beginning), all meals, lodging and fees at field stations, river and ground transportation, field station fees, guides and crew services. Discounted rates are available for teens (ages 13-18) and pre-teens (age 12 and under). Should you also sign up for the subsequent Tapiche Reserve trip, we’ll give you the repeat client rate for this trip (or if you are already a repeat client, we’ll take off an additional $200.
Itinerary: We’ll be based at the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve (Mazan River-north of the Amazon and west of the the Napo River). There will be opportunity for day and night excursions on the Mazan river for bird- and mammal-watching and to search for nocturnal critters of all types.
7 Oct 2023 (Sat) - Participants should arrive in Iquitos Saturday afternoon if possible. Overnight in Iquitos in a standard hotel room (w A/C- hotel is included in trip costs). We’ll have dinner together on the waterfront, and go over plans for the following week. If it is difficult to arrange flights to arrive on the 7th, try to arrive on one of the early Lima-Iquitos flights on the 8th. The first flights arrive around 6-7 AM.
8 Oct 2023 (Sun) - Breakfast (included) on the Plaza de Armas (7 AM), followed by transfer to the port of Iquitos at 8 AM for travel via speedboat to the Santa Cruz Forest Reserve (~2 hours total travel time.
14 Oct 2023 (Sat) - After breakfast at the field station, we’ll travel from Santa Cruz to Iquitos, with a stop at Isla de los Monos, a primate rehabilitation center, along the way. After a final group meal on the waterfront, you’ll be free to head to the airport (transfers included) for departure from Iquitos, from ~ 3 PM onward. If you are planning on participating in the subsequent Tapiche Reserve trip, accommodations the night of 14 October are included.
Leader(s) & Contact:
Devon Graham (MTAE - logistics, booking, payments)