birding...

Carajás

Satellite View
I have not been here but have had very good reports from Fernando Pacheco and Ricardo Parrini. This mining town is administered by the Companhia do Vale do Rio Doce (091-327-5322 – Claudete or Thaís, 327-4126 - Venâncio). There is a good hotel and birding is along 40km of road through excellent, varied habitat, from humid forest to cerrado. Permission to bird outside the town limits is required and is obtainable from Ibama, in the town (091-346-1218 – Orlando Maia).

Caxiuanã

Satellite View
A reserve owned by the Goeldi Museum in Belém. I have not been here. You fly to Breves from Belém or take a boat (13 hours) and then go by launch (voadeira) to Caxiuanã. Accomodation is said to be comfortable but is expensive (c. US$100 per person per day). Golden parakeet Guarouba guaruba is said to be a cert. Reservations through Maria do Socorro at the Goeldi Museum in Belém (217-6058, caxiuana@museu-goeldi.br or caxiuana@amazon.com.br)

Parque Nacional da Amazônia

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The last part of the road from Santarém to Itaituba is terrible. Do not drive, but fly. It is possible to drive from Cuiabá to Itaituba but until the final 800km of dirt road are paved this section will take 1-2 days in dry weather and a week in wet, in a four wheel drive vehicle. Arrangements to stay in the park (R$20/US$15 per person per night in 2000) should be made with the park director, Sr. Salles, who lives in Itaituba (tel. 091-518-3242). He will arrange for a married couple to guide, clean, cook and wash clothes (R$60 per day) and for a hired pick-up (R$130 per day incl. driver – the driver stays at the park and you feed him). The accomodation at Uruá, on a bluff above the River Tapajós, is simple but adequate. There is a generator. Shopping is done before you leave Itaituba, 1 ½ hours drive from the park. Take plenty of bottled water as the Tapajós is polluted by mercury.

The trails are as per Forrester, with the addition of a new excellent 5km loop, starting and finishing at Uruá. Get to know the morototó, a tree looking not unlike a cecropia. When fruiting it is a magnet for tanagers, aracaris, cotingas, white-crested guan Penelope pileata and brown-chested barbet Capito brunneipectus. We found harlequin antbird Rhegmatorhina berlepschi on two occasions on the Uruá trail but dipped both visits on pale-faced antbird Scutchia borbae, which has however been seen along the Capelinha trail. There is an annotated bird list for the park by David Oren in Ornithological Monographs No. 48.

Pousada Salto do Thaimaçu

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Satellite View
This fishing lodge on the Rio São Benedito is four hours drive on dirt roads from Alta Floresta. I know of one ornithologist who has been there, but no birders. It sounds magnificent.

Santarém

Satellite View
The Floresta Nacional (FLONA) de Tapajós is administered by Ibama for the controlled exploitation of timber. There are two roads into the forest, one at km67 and the other at +/- km80, off the asphalt road south from Santarém. Permission to enter the FLONA is required from IBAMA in Santarém and the LBA, the research organisation studying the area. We did not obtain this but managed to talk our way in at the north gate. This probably does not always work. The next day, Sunday, we simply drove in at the south entrance, not through the gate but through the IBAMA compound, 200m further down the road. The forest is excellent for birding, provide you stay away from where they are actively logging.

We hired one of the many boats along the river-front at Santarém for R$90 (US$45) for the day. On the Ilha do Igarapé-açu, in front of Santarém, between the Tapajós and the Amazon, we saw Zimmer's woodcreeper (Xiphorhyncus necopinus) and lesser hornero (Furnarius minor). We might have seen more if our boat had had a canoe or rubber dinghy to enable us to land more easily and the owner had not turned out to be an alcoholic nymphomaniac.

Books, CDs, DVDs etc.

Books, CDs, DVDs etc. See the main Brazil page for guides etc. covering the whole country...

Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi

http://www.museu-goeldi.br/

O Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi foi criado em Belém, a 6 de outubro de 1866, por Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna e consolidado por Emílio Goeldi no período de 1894 a 1907. O Museu nasceu de idealistas que acreditavam no futuro da Amazônia e da necessidade de se pesquisar os seus recursos naturais, a flora, a fauna, as rochas e minerais, os grupos indígenas, a geografia e a história da região e de se organizar coleções científicas e exposições públicas para divulgar os conhecimentos gerados...

Caxiuanã National Forest

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The Ferreira Penna Scientific Station (ECFPn) is located in the 300,000 hectare Caxiuanã National Forest, some 400 Km to the west of Pará’s capital city of Belém. [Description and history of ECFPn by the Multi-Taxon Survey of Eastern Amazonia.] As the only scientific research station in the eastern Amazon, its purpose is to conduct scientific research on the natural resources and their proper use, as well as studying the regional cultures and improving the quality of life among the local people.

Fazenda Apoema - Óbidos

Accommodation

Após cruzar a porteira típica das fazendas do interior, tem-se acesso a estradinha particular de 2 km que leva à casa-sede. Os sulcos dos automóveis junto ao capim começam a indicar que estamos mais distantes da vida urbana e cada vez mais próximos do paraíso.Uma das opções é, em vez de ir de carro ou moto, caminharmos da porteira até a casa principal. Durante o trajeto já começamos a esquecer de nossos problemas e passamos a apreciar a paisagem. É um momento de relax, de concentração no seu mais profundo eu, para conhecer-se a si mesmo. Isto é quase como o Caminho de Santiago de Compostela, mas numa escala bem menor.

Hotel Ilha do Marajó - Soure

Accommodation

The Island rises between river sea. Large, strinking, cut out by channels and creeks that form a superb natural mosaic. On one side its is cloaked with forest; on the other, prairies stretch out as far as the eye can see. A profusion of water, a vast expanse of land, duality and contrast in amazingly beautiful settings. Marajó, the largest maritime fluvial island in the world, is a perfect blend of art and nature. Rich in history, the island atracted a host of different people as of the Pre-Columbian age. Today it has its own identity. Its architecture typifies the wisdom of people adjusting to a unique enviroment. Its culture exemplifies a complexity resulting from countless legacies, vigorously expressed in the world-famous Marajoara pottery, and in the landscape that teems with na impresive variety of plant and animal life. The magic of Marajó Island springs exactly from this mixture of prodigality and diversity. The island`s wealth is made up of simple things, but things brimming with life.

Marajó Park Resort - Mexiana

Accommodation

Away from Belém, in straight line. The Reicon Group, that holds Fontur Tourism Agency and has offices in Belém and Manaus, acquired a privileged 38.000 hectares area intending to create a Reservation for Environmental Protection and Ecological Tourism enhancement. That is why the Marajó Park Resort - Special Farm Hotel - was created, with total autonomous infrastructure of services: electric power, watering, swimming pool, restaurant, 400 double apartments, of which 80 (a complete module) are already in operation.

Pousada Beira Rio - Rio Araguaia

Accommodation

Em um local paradisíaco, à beira do Rio Araguaia e com vista para as praias do Muricí e Escapole, a Pousada Beira Rio oferece aos seus visitantes, um variado serviço de hospedagem, alimentação, travessia para a praia, pescarias e passeios de barco. Proporcionando a você, uma viagem ao Rio Araguaia, agradável e inesquecível...

Pousada Canoeiros - Araguaia

Accommodation

Located at 150 feet from the shores of the Araguaia River, Pousada Canoeiros offers you all the necessary support and structure so you can enjoy ecological and fishing expeditions...

Pousada dos Guarás - Salvaterra, Ilha de Marajó

Accommodation

Um paraíso para você e sua família ter momentos inesquecíveis de lazer, aventura e descanso, em meio a um belo recanto Amazônico natural...