Hyacinth Valley Camps Brazil

Activities

The BioBrazil Foundation, a non-profit environmental organization, protects the Hyacinth Macaw through innovative ecotourism and the incorporation of former trappers into the overall conservation strategy. The project is supported by the Kaytee Avian Foundation, Natural Encounters, and the Macaw Landing Foundation.

Hyacinth Camps are at about 2,000 feet of elevation and the nighttime temperature is often about 60 degrees F. All in all, the climate is superb. The daytime high temperature at this sunny time of year is about 84-90 degrees, but the air is so dry that it never feels oppressively hot. For light at night in the bungalows we use our own personal flashlights and one or two small kerosene lamps, which we blow out before turning in.

Meals and leisure activities takes place under a 20 by 50 foot thatched roof at one end of the camp.

We are up by 4:30 am to be ready to have coffee and breads or crackers before walking or trucking and walking (depending on the location) about 15 minutes from the camp to the large, custom-built photoblind in front of a feeding spot for a large flock of Hyacinth Macaws. Daybreak and we all aim to be in the blind by this hour, well before the first macaws arrive to eat palm nuts in an attractive natural clearing in the dry forest. The blind is large enough for 18 people, with 10 front row seats.

Excursions include a road-trip with one of the project vehicles or on foot to watch local birds and to try for looks at the South American Rhea (a large, ostrich-like bird). Blue-and-gold, Red-and-green (Green-wing), and Red-bellied macaws have been seen in the area, and we will try for some views of these and other parrot species typical of this part of the country- which really is at the cusp between the extreme eastern portion of the great Amazon drainage and the extensive dry tropical forests and open woodland and woodland/savannahs of central and northeastern Brazil.

Other interesting and attractive species of wildlife in this Brazilian wilderness include the Maned Wolf (which the Wildlife Conservation Society's dog and wolf biologist once called "the most beautiful canid in the world"), the Seriema (which reminds us of small "Velociraptor" dinosaur with feathers), Toco Toucan, and King Vulture.


Demonstrations are carried out on how the former macaw trappers who now protect the macaws in this region used to climb the cliffs hand over hand using just thin natural fiber ropes. The cliff-climbing demonstration is amazing and well worth seeing, for it is hard to believe how hard these macaw trappers worked, risking life and limb, to try to find birds to sell to the international dealers.