DISCOVER OUR NATURAL WORLD Land Tours & Expedition Cruises 2017/2018 Steely-vented Hummingbird in Costa Rica Hello, fellow world travellers! We are thrilled to present to you our new tour catalogue! The year 2017 will mark Canada’s Within these pages you’ll find a gamut of exciting tours sesquicentennial. In celebration to satisfy your interests in wildlife and discovery. Among we are happy to feature a number adventures we’re looking forward to are new tours in of exciting Canadian destinations Costa Rica, The Gambia, and Papua New Guinea. We’re and we encourage all our travellers also pleased welcome new tour leaders Josh Barichello to consider discovering (or re-discovering) one of Canada’s hosting our travellers at Dechenla Lodge and Jessica Linton special regions. In fact, we are offering our very special spearheading our brand new Monarchs of Mexico tour. Canadian Arctic Expedition Cruise (p. 58) especially for this occasion. This past year has been marked with many new experiences. While out on tour, Quest Expeditioners I’m writing this from Sepilok in Sabah where I’m setting have watched a group of Cuba’s exceptionally tiny Bee up our revamped 2018 Borneo tour. From the vantage Hummingbirds at close range, stepped upon the fabled of a canopy walk today, I had the incomparable sight Sable Island, and felt the gaze of a Leopard in Sri Lanka. of a wild female Bornean Orang-utan with her youngster Closer to home, we’ve been delighted to meet many of feeding some 20 metres above the forest floor. Like you, you at regional events such as the Festival of Birds at I’m always thrilled to be in the field, discovering something Point Pelee National Park. new or gaining a fresh appreciation for wildlife and our natural environment. Our Quest Nature Tours team looks The year 2016 also marked Quest’s venture into the forward to sharing great nature experiences with you over technological realm of webinars. These live and interactive the coming year. on-line information sessions engaged our travellers in learning about featured destinations from session leaders. Happy Trails, We’ll be presenting more webinars over the coming year and we invite you to take part; please make sure you visit our website and sign up to our e-newsletter for webinar dates and topics and all the news about upcoming tours Justin Peter Lewie Gonsalves and leaders. Director, Quest Nature Tours President, Worldwide Quest Cover photo: The Strawberry Poison-dart Frog, found in Costa Rica. This photo was voted on by our e-newsletter subscribers! 2 Papuan Lorikeet in Papua New Guinea Where will you travel to? AFRICA The Gambia Feb. 2017 40 NORTH AMERICA South Africa Aug. 2017 42 Monarchs of Mexico Feb. 2017 6 Madagascar Sept. 2017 44 Newfoundland & Labrador June 2017 7 Ethiopia Oct. 2017 46 Dechenla Lodge June 2017 8 Namibia, Botswana Oct. 2018 47 Bay of Fundy & Grand Manan Aug. 2017 9 Tanzania Feb. 2018 48 East Coast Wildlife Safari July 2017 10 Wild Labrador & the Torngats July 2017 12 ASIA & OCEANIA In Search of Whoopers Oct. 2017 14 New Zealand Oct. 2016 50 Polar Bears of Churchill Oct. 2018 15 India Nov. 2016 51 Yukon & Alaska June. 2018 16 Taiwan Apr. 2017 52 Borneo Sept. 2018 53 CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN Papua New Guinea Oct. 2017 54 Panama with Ontario Nature Oct. 2016 17 Sri Lanka Feb. 2018 56 Best of Cuba Nov. 2016 18 Cuba’s East Feb. 2017 19 POLAR Costa Rica & the Panama Canal Feb. 2017 20 Arctic Aug. 2017 58 Belize & Tikal Mar. 2017 22 Antarctica Nov. 2017 60 Trinidad & Tobago Mar. 2017 24 Costa Rica Mar. 2017 26 Quest Nature Tours is a division of SOUTH AMERICA Amazon Rainforest Feb. 2018 28 Galapagos Islands Nov. 2016 30 Southern Peru Oct. 2017 32 Brazil Oct. 2018 34 Please call or email with your questions or to receive EUROPE the detailed itineraries for our tours. Drop in anytime! Iceland June 2017 36 Spain in Spring Apr. 2018 37 1-800-387-1483 | 416-633-5666 On the Edge of the Carpathians May 2018 38 [email protected] 491 King Street East, Toronto 3 The Quest Nature Tours Experience We’re small and we plan to keep it that way. We focus on four Quest essentials: Small groups More time exploring Our groups generally range from 8 – 14 participants. Our tours are conceived and executed to maximize This small size allows us to be attentive and quiet, giving your time in the field. Our daily itineraries are full, but us greater opportunity to observe wildlife. Our logistics not exhausting. There is nothing routine about our days. are flexible. We use small vehicles and vessels, limiting While we travel with a goal and destination in mind, we our environmental impact. All our activities, such as always give priority to field observations by choosing routes presentations, meals, and gatherings are enjoyable that allow us to maximize wildlife viewing along the way and focused. and modifying our itinerary as necessary and possible. Expert leaders Well taken care of Every Quest tour is led by one of our team of expert From the moment you call our office, we’ll take care of naturalists. They are knowledgeable, congenial. and all the details from pre-departure information to post-tour extraordinarily capable. Their objective is to ensure species compilations. Virtually everything is included in the that our Quest Expeditioners enjoy their nature holiday tour cost: accommodations, meals, transportation, activities experience to the utmost. In addition, they are all avid and gratuities. We travel off the beaten path without life-long learners, personally invested in conservation and sacrificing comfort. education initiatives in their own communities. Thus they will be a source of enrichment to your travel experience. We invite you to join our growing number of Quest Expeditioners! Most of our tours are also accompanied by a local naturalist. Each is a highly trained expert with exceptional knowledge of the natural history of his or her home region. Local guides help us to find and identify wildlife and share their knowledge of the habits of the creatures we encounter as well as the ecological relationships between local flora and fauna. 4 Trinidad and Tobago, 2016 © Tony Beck A note about our Expedition Cruises We can help with your flights For more than 25 years Quest Expeditioners have Our in-house flight coordinator will provide personalized travelled to some of the most remote and thrilling places flight arrangements for you. When you purchase your in the world on board our comfortable expedition vessels. airline tickets through us you have the peace of mind In the Galapagos Islands, and in the Amazon region, we that we are part of your Quest expedition from start to generally charter a vessel exclusively for our Quest group finish and through any unexpected schedule changes of under 30 participants and as few as 14. In the Polar along the way. Regions and in Central America, necessity requires a somewhat larger vessel in order to get us to where we’d like to go, but the ‘feel’ is decidedly expedition and not at all ‘cruise ship’. All our vessels are ideally suited for nature travel, allowing us favourable access to our landings Worldwide Quest Explorer’s Club and to wildlife; they are casual but comfortable and we When you join two of our tours you will automatically keep the itinerary flexible to the utmost extent so that become a member of the Worldwide Quest Explorer’s we can stop where we’d like, drop anchor, and observe Club and we reward you with a 5% credit on your third the wildlife of interest. leader-led catalogue group trip. As a Worldwide Quest Explorer’s Club member you will always be the first to hear Your payments are protected about our new tours and enjoy “pre-booking” privileges. As a TICO (Travel Industry Council of Ontario) registered tour operator we adhere to strict financial regulations. You can book with us in confidence, knowing your payments are fully protected. 5 Monarchs of Mexico LIMITED AVAILABILITY! ONE OF NATURE’S GREATEST SPECTACLES Every winter, DATES: February 20 – 26, 2017 millions and perhaps COST: US$3445 + taxes and gratuities US$175 over a billion Monarch GROUP SIZE: Limited to 14 participants butterflies arrive in the NEXT DATES: February, 2018 forests of Michoacán in central Mexico. These TOUR LEADER spectacular gatherings have Jessica Linton is a generated tremendous consulting biologist who interest from naturalists specializes in butterflies. worldwide. While some She has over 10 years of scientists believe Monarchs experience in butterfly use an internal compass to surveys, behavioural find their way here, mystery monitoring, and migration studies. Jessica has still surrounds their choice participated in, or has coordinated, a number of of these specific favoured patches of rural Mexico. initiatives and studies focused on Monarchs and has appeared before the Ontario Environmental On this tour, we’ll have a chance to discover this region and visit Review Tribunal as an expert witness on Monarch the Monarchs’ wintering grounds that have been designated as a ecology. She has travelled to several of the Monarch UNESCO World Heritage Site. During our time, we’ll enjoy a small overwintering colonies in central Mexico to observe number of excellent lodgings and their surroundings in the rural and photograph the species and regularly delivers Mexican countryside. Our experience will be further enhanced by educational presentations on this fascinating species. the unique complement of wild species here including a unique ITINERARY AT A GLANCE assortment of flora and bird life too. Day 1: Arrive Mexico