BRAZIL: HEART OF THE AMAZON Manaus, Rio Negro & Tupana Lodge 7 – 22 July 2016 Spotted Puffbird (Bucco tamatia) trip report by Bradley Davis (
[email protected]) Tour Summary: For a diverse Amazonian experience sampling a wide range of fascinating habitats, our Heart of the Amazon itinerary cannot be beat. This customized tour was based heavily on our normal itinerary, with the sequencing re-arranged slightly (we moved Presidente Figueiredo to the end of the tour, rather than beginning there as we usually do) to accommodate for our group’s post-tour plans. We did quite well on the target species for the trip, although one of the biggest targets for the group, the Purple-breasted Cotinga, did not deign to make an appearance for us. Our success was in part due to good fortune with the weather, as we had nearly no rain at all for the nearly the first two weeks of the trip. In fact, we did not lose any time at all to rain until we reached Presidente Figueiredo, and even there the rains mostly came at convenient times: overnight, after lunch, or during drives! Our tour began well before dawn at our hotel in Manaus, where we loaded sleepily into our vehicle for the 50-minute drive to the massive CIGS reserve to the east of the city. The reserve, administered by the Brazilian Army, protects more than 100 000 hectares of undisturbed primary terra firme rain forest. Remarkably, the army maintains a 42-km long dirt track through the heart of this reserve, which they use for jungle survival training.