Guaporé River

Vila Bela da Santissima Trindade is an historic town situated in western Mato Grosso near the Bolivian border. Founded in 1752 as the capital for the new province of Mato Grosso, Vila Bela played an important role on the frontier between the Portuguese and Spanish territories of the South American interior for several decades before being abandoned when the capital was moved to Cuiabá in 1835.

Thereafter, the village was settled by quilombos, slaves of African origin who managed to escape from nearby mines. Today the descendants of the quilombos make up a large proportion of the local population, and the locals stand by their beliefs and traditions to this very day. The Guaporé river divides the municipality: to the west lies the Serra de Ricardo Franco State Park; to the south, the upper Guaporé valley holds habitat and birds characteristic of the Pantanal; and to the east one finds the Campos do Encanto, campo cerrado with scattered fragments of semi-deciduous and gallery forests.

Birds expected to be seen are hoatzin (the best place ever in Brazil to see and photograph this species), the newly splits double-collared crescent-chest and Bolivian cardinal, the rare great-billed seed-finch, the localized green-cheeked parakeet, flammulated pygmy-tyrant, Bolivian slaty antshrike and fawn-breasted wren, horned and southern screamers sharing the same marshes, and a mix of several Amazonian and Cerrado birds such as speckled chachalaca, red-throated piping-guan, razor-billed &, bare-faced curassows, white-rumped tanager, turquoise tanager and more.

Our
Services

Guide and ranger team

During our tours at the Amazon Rainforest, some State Parks and Reserves require the escort of a local ranger. This local fellow can point out some nesting activity and help the group participants to spot the birds. With our tour leader, each one working at their best and doing what they are supposed to do better.

Quality of our guides

Our tour leaders are experienced and fully trained professionals who host our guest in a variety of diverse areas. These dedicated people transform an already great safari into one that is out of this world! A guide that hosts you for the duration of your safari provides a consistent, detailed interpretation that is tailored to your specific interests. Our safaris are led by our local naturalist tour leaders, they are equipped with 20-60X spotting telescope for seeing distant animals, recording equipment, shotgun microphone and voice library for luring in rare and hard to see animals that respond to their own call bringing them into view, a spotlight for nocturnal viewing, and the appropriate bird, mammal identification books and updated checklist for your enjoyment.

Good accommodations

Our tour uses hotels which serve early breakfast and then we can go birding. All lodges offer rooms with private facilities and air-conditioning. We try to use lodges operated by locals because we firmly believe your money must to go to local hands because are those hands who hold the future of the region.