Subject: [Tweeters] Final summary Birding Peru on One's Own
Date: Sep 2 14:32:37 2009
From: Levine, Barron S - LevineB at bsd405.org


Chatters and Tweeters,

Some of you had written asking me to post the results of my trip to
Peru. Rather than send each an individual report I thought it best to
post it to both groups in case other members might be interested.

The original purpose of my trip was to bird the Manu road with just a
car and driver. My hope was that the driver would know the places to
stop along the road. I also wanted to spend at least 8 days along the
Madre de Dios River. After many hours of making contacts and e-mailing
individuals I decided I needed to change the focus and add a guide to
the trip. Too many birds that I was unfamiliar with, and too much
habitat to try to cover. Alan Grenon of Seattle also expressed an
interest in the trip, so we joined forces. At that time of the year
(August) all drivers who would know the birding spots seemed to be
employed. The other individuals who seemed available were having trouble
making the arrangements that we would need for places to stay. We did
meet up with 2 birders along the route from Dublin (Robert and Shane)
who were riding buses and staying at whatever accommodations they could
find along the way. They had been in Peru for a month and seemed to be
doing fine. Their style probably wouldn't have worked for me, but it did
lend credence to the possibilities if one was so inclined. Also, I
believe results could be different if one was going during a different
time frame.

It didn't take long for us to realize that all the guides were pretty
much employed as well. There were a few individuals who had interest,
but as we quickly learned, they were to have trouble making the
necessary arrangements at the lodges along the Manu Road and even more
so along the river. It appears that only the companies that often deal
with the lodges can easily make the necessary connections. And for the
uninitiated, it doesn't seem very easy to just show up and have doors
opened for you. Especially so during this time of the year (end of
July-August).

As the days whittled and it became apparent that car/driver and guide
wasn't going to work. The individuals who showed interest were:

Steve Sanchez Illapaperu at hotmail.com. I couldn't get much information
on his company and with only one trip report on the web we were
extremely reluctant to wire a large amount of money to cover the trip.
Steve was awaiting the birth of a child in Spain so he would not be able
to guide us anyway . So rather than risk being with a less than able
guide we rejected this as an option. Steve seemed to be very congenial
and I have only good things to say about his interactions with us.

Darwin Miranda Romero dar2mira at hotmail.com, an ornithologist, who lives
in Cusco. was another person we worked with. He was very enthusiastic
about trying to get this trip together for us. I think that because he
is not an established guide that he ran into problems getting prices and
in a timely manner. As the date to decide came up, we had to choose to
go in another direction. Nothing against Darwin, he worked very hard to
get this done and had there been more time, we could have chosen him to
be the guide and driver. If someone was just going along the Manu Road
and not out on the river, this is certainly a less expensive option than
a tour.

Edison Buenano of www.Swordbilledexpediations.com and Steve Hobby
steve_hobby at hotmail.com also tried to work out trips for us, but again
it seemed to take a lot longer to finalize and due to time constraints
we had to pass. Both were people we liked a lot, and given different
circumstances could have been possibilities.

We finally decided to go with Gunnar Engblom of Kolibri. Gunnar had
e-mailed me early in the process and asked if a small 2-4 person group
could be formed if I would be interested. Eventually he found a French
couple who were interested in a similar trip and so we joined forces.
Gunnar is an extremely likeable person, who did some great things for us
to set up the trip. Gunnar really tries to fit your itinerary rather
than other tours which are pretty much set-up. He also has a great guide
Alex, who was as good a birder as one can find especially considering he
has only 5 years experience. His knowledge of bird songs was superb. His
tenacity in finding the birds for all on the tour was laudatory. Our
driver for the trip, Julio, was also a wonderful presence. Gunnar is
probably your least expensive option if you go the tour route. For the
other 3 on the tour this was a strong consideration, so we probably
ended up making some concessions to this goal. To cut costs we did spend
3 of the 8 nights in the Amazon in degraded habitat. We found out that
our original schedule had been changed while we were traveling probably
to accomplish the idea of some cost cutting. There were still birds to
see there, but given the choice, I'd chose to avoid the night we spent
in Boca Manu and at least one of the 2 nights in Shintuya. Again birds
to see, but probably better options for most of these birds. It also
meant that we had to do the Clay Lick and Blanco Tower the same morning.
Which basically meant we missed almost everything at the tower by
arriving after 10 am. For people who would not be happy with a change
during your tour, you might want to specify that to Gunnar and have
everything etched in stone before you travel. Also since some of this
trip was changed on the fly, we didn't know the final price until the
next to last day. Again, someone who might be uncomfortable with that
should make sure all is set with Gunnar. The price did come very close
to Gunnar's original estimation and I had no problem with the final
cost. Given the hurriedness in putting this together, plus my interest
in staying in some different hotel rooms than the group in Lima and
Cusco and the fact that I was the minority vote when it came to a higher
versus a lower cost, I have chosen to give Gunnar a pass on these
possible discrepancies. One other thing that I would check carefully
with Gunnar is if you are taking a pelagic. We were originally told that
it would be a 90 foot catamaran, but when I got to the boat it had been
swapped out for a 40-45 foot boat with little room on the deck. I have
since talked to Gunnar about this, he has apologized and said they
didn't get enough of a turnout for the bigger boat. This was also a
problem that a previous group wrote about in a trip report, so I would
check that carefully. I have asked for and Gunnar granted me a rebate
for the day (I didn't go on the pelagic). It left me with a dead day in
Lima. I haven't received that promised check yet, but hopefully that
will be forthcoming.

Other tour companies that we researched were Will Ten Have's Tanager
Tours. We had heard great things about this company and met up with head
guide David Geale at Cock of the Rock Lodge. David will eventually be
taking this company over and seemed like a great choice to us. He was
very friendly, forthright with valuable information about birds that his
group had seen, and obviously knew a tremendous amount about his craft.
Both Alan and I were very impressed.

I e-mailed Barry Walker but did not receive a response. My sense was
that the trip I was looking for was probably different than the tours
his company had already had set up. So no problem there.

We also tried Ecotours out of S. Africa. Chris Lotz, the owner tried to
get a trip set-up for us, but his resident guide in Peru was working
with a group and we couldn't get a schedule done in enough time. Chris
has gotten great reviews from some friends for his tours. I would
definitely get in touch with him for possible future trips to other
areas that they cover.

Finally, the great good John Arvin from Texas gave us a lead, but the
guides were busy pretty much up until the time to finalize the trip was
reached. Just another example of timing being everything.



As for the trip itself, it was great. For 23 days we saw 685 species
along the route that took us around Lima, Pucusana, Lomas de Lachay, the
Santa Eulalia valley, Cusco, Huacarpay Lakes, Manu Road,
Wayqueche.Bilogical Station, Cock of the Rock Lodge, Amazonia Lodge,
Shintuya, Oropendula (Amazon Manu) Lodge, Boca Manu, the Macaw Clay Lick
and Blanco Tower, and finally returning back toward Cusco, then on to
Abra Malaga Pass, . We also saw 12 species of monkeys, 4 tayra, lots of
orchids, spectacular scenery and the great assortment of insects that
the Amazon has to offer. I was fortunate enough to see a Harpy Eagle
along a trail at Oropendula (Amazon Manu) Lodge. Also lucky enough to
get to travel with Alan, who was stellar at identifying birds and
helping us all to get onto them. Our French friends, Jean Phillipe and
Valerie were great company.



My intent was to try to get information to those of you who wanted to
know more about the particulars of setting up your own trip. I'm sure I
didn't come close to exhausting the possibilities. If you are interested
in more specifics about the trip itself again feel free to send
questions my way.









Barry Levine

levineb at bsd405.org

Seattle, Washington USA