Santa Cruz Full Day Birding Tour

We contacted Nick's Adventures Bolivia to help us plan a birdwatching trip in Eastern Bolivia. Nick and Carolina did an excellent job putting together a 10 day trip with expert English speaking guides that achieved our goals of seeing distinctive birds of the region. They started us out at an excellent and well located hotel in Santa Cruz. We visited great birding areas near Santa Cruz, Refugio de Volcanes at Amboro National Park, Samaipata and the Red Fronted Macaw Preserve, and also birded hot spots along the way. Vehicle and accommodations were great. We met other travelers who were on their own at Refugio de Volcanes and believe we had a better experience because we had an English speaking guide. Not only did our guide Saul and driver Jose take excellent care of us, but we found them to be fascinating people with so much knowledge of Bolivia to share. This is why we prefer to work with local guides whenever possible.

The second part of our trip was to Trinidad where we visited the Blue Throated Macaw Preserve with a guide who did her thesis on this species. Marina took excellent care of us and we visited rich birding areas by car and boat. Also saw the pink river dolphins. We visited the Kenneth Lee Ethnography Museum and fish museum at the university, and Lake Suarez, and Marina helped us understand what we were seeing. In all we identified 161 species, and quite a few that we wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. The Red Fronted and Blue Throated macaws, and other species in their habitat, were a big high point in our birding travels. We were able to spend ``quality time`` with the plush crested jay - a favourite. It is great to know that Bolivia has the capacity to share their special birds with others in the world.

Though we never met Nick and Carolina, they were always there for us via email and we know how much care they put into orchestrating this trip. Thank you Nick and Carolina.

Notes. Be aware that while Bolivia has the infrastructure for tourism, it may not always operate to your expectations and patience and good will are required. Bolivians are very nice people who consistently made us welcome. It really helps if someone in the group speaks Spanish. There aren't a lot of English speakers. Bolivian driving procedures are largely intuitive and perhaps not understandable to non-Bolivians. Expect rough dirt roads in the countryside, a good reason to go in the dry season.

We scheduled 2 tours with Nick's, both 3 day, 2 night tours. We could not be happier with the organization & communication from the day of our first contact to the followup after the tours. Everything was covered and well planned. Bilingual guide, safe, courteous driver in a good vehicle, good meals and abundant drinking water. We focused a lot on birding and our guide, Saul was well acquainted with all the songs in the forest we wouldn't have been able to separate. Saul has birded Bolivia for many decades and helped us identify over 200 species of birds as well as several species of monkey, poison dart frog, Tayra weasel, black & white tegu, many butterflies, orchids and much, much more. The setting at Refugio Volcanes Lodge is a stunning and unforgettable one. Your cabin is nestled into a small clearing surrounded by forest and huge red sandstone cliffs that remind of Jurassic Park. The staff is extremely warm and helpful here and makes wonderful, fresh meals straight from the garden. Many wonderful trails past wonderful waterfalls and hidden streams and climb to great vistas. From the porch of our room we watched Blue-throated Piping-Guans, Andean Guans, White-throated & Channel-billed Toucans, Chestnut-eared Aracari, Andean Condors and much more. The endemic Bolivian Recurvebill was found not far from the cabin. On our Villa Tunari trip we found two male Andean Cock-of-the-Rock both days we drove up the road to El Palmar. Also Amazonian Umbrellabirds, toucans, antbirds, and many birds of the rainforest. A Sunbittern was catching frogs in the driveway at our hotel El Puente and a bare tree with 6 male Paradise Tanager 7 two Lettered Aracari was just up the driveway there. The oilbirds and vampire bats were very cooperative in their expected caves we visited. Again, we can't thank Nick enough for carefully taking care of us so well and setting up these 2 trips to 2 beautiful settings for very reasonable rates.Everything was very comfortable and safe in wonderful nature settings, as opposed to lavish, resort-style settings which is exactly what we were looking for. We also appreciate Nick's passion for spreading the word and preserving some of the most beautiful wild places in Bolivia as well as the magnificent creatures that live there.