Vantage World Travel

Guyana: The Rupununi Savannah and its Ranches – 16D/15N

Birdwatching In Guyana: This small country on the northeast shoulder of South America is seldom visited by birdwatchers yet it offers all the avian richness of the lowland forests of adjacent Venezuela and a tourist infrastructure that makes it accessible in far greater comfort. Indeed, tourism in the country is experiencing rapid development and some new lodges near the coast provide luxury accommodation in pristine forest settings. In the south, several ranches offer comfortable quarters close to varied and interesting savannah habitats, and also serve as points of departure for camping expeditions to truly remote areas of the interior.
This tour focuses particularly on the Iwokrama Forest and the Rupununi Savannah. It includes visits to four remote ranches, and while accommodations aren’t luxurious the trip doesn’t involve any special hardships, and the birdwatching is extremely rich.

Included: Airport transfers - Double or twin accommodation - Camping equipment - Meals as listed - All road and river transport - Internal flights - Local guides - VAT -Activities as described - Local bar at Rock View, Karanambu & Dadanawa.

Not Included: International airfare - Departure tax - Personal expenses – Insurance.

Departure Days: Saturdays.

Day by day itinerary:

• Saturday - Arrive in Guyana and transfer to Georgetown. Overnight at Cara Lodge.
• Sunday - From the airport at nearby Ogle we’ll fly by chartered aircraft over the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers and hundreds of miles of unbroken tropical rainforest to land at Kaieteur, the world’s highest free-falling waterfall. Taking off again, we’ll continue to the Brazilian border and Orinduik Falls, where the Ireng River thunders over steps and terraces of solid jasper, a semi precious stone. With a backdrop of the rolling grass covered hills of the Pakaraima Mountains, this is truly one of the most beautiful locations in Guyana’s hinterland. Overnight at Cara Lodge. (B,L)
• Monday - 07:30hrs after breakfast transfer by 4×4 through the rainforest and heart of Guyana to the Essequibo River and the Iwokrama Field Station. In late afternoon we’ll take a walk on the Screaming Piha Trail near the Field Station. Some of the birds we will hope to find at Iwokrama are Blue-cheeked Parrot, Crimson Topaz and Guianan Toucanet. Overnight at Iwokrama Field Station. (B,L,D)
• Tuesday - Making another early start, we’ll embark on the Essequibo River and circumnavigate nearby Indian House Island, return to the Field Station for breakfast, then travel once more by boat for half an hour or less to the foot of Turtle Mountain. Here we’ll explore the trail, visiting Turtle Ponds and climbing to an elevation of about 900 feet for a spectacular view of the forest canopy below. After lunch we’ll visit Fair View, a nearby Amerindian village and finally, after dark, we’ll set out on the river once more, in hopes of finding one or another of its four species of caiman, and listening for the voices of nocturnal birds. Overnight at Iwokrama Field Station. (B,L,D)
• Wednesday - Before and after breakfast this morning we’ll walk on Wood creeper and Greenheart Trails, near the Field Station. Eventually we reach the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway. Here we can bird watch from the vantage of 35 Meters up in the canopy. After dinner we return to the walkway to experience the canopy at night. Overnight in Iwokrama Atta Rainforest Lodge. (B,L,D)
• Thursday - This morning welcome the dawn chorus from the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway. Then we’ll travel to the Mori Scrub, spending the morning exploring a very particular and unusual habitat: a low, sandy forest with little or no grass cover. After lunch we’ll set out for the drive to the Rupununi and Rock View Lodge in Annai, its northernmost community. The Rupununi Savannah is to Guyana what the Gran Sabana is to Venezuela, an extensive area of grassland with termite mounds and scattered or riparian woodland. Overnight at Rock View Lodge. (B,L,D)
• Friday - With its tropical gardens and flowering trees, our lodge resembles an oasis in the savannah, and attracts many species of birds, particularly nectar feeders and frugivores. We’ll explore the area on foot, and as the afternoon cools we’ll travel a short distance for birdwatching in the Pakaraima foothills. Overnight at Rock View Lodge. (B,L,D)
• Saturday - We’ll hope to see the morning’s first flurry of avian activity, then after breakfast we’ll travel by 4×4 to Ginep Landing and the Rupununi River, where we’ll embark for the boat trip upstream to Karanambu Ranch. Overnight at Karanambu Ranch. (B,L,D)
• Sunday - Birdwatching from daybreak to nightfall or later, we’ll devote this entire day to exploring Karanambu and its varied habitats, traveling by boat to certain localities up and downstream, and by Land Rover to one or another forest patch. Overnight at Karanambu Ranch. (B,L,D)
• Monday - Leaving after breakfast we’ll journey overland southward to Manari Ranch, stopping at certain wet areas along the road, visiting Pirara Creek and having a picnic lunch at Pirara Ranch. Overnight at Manari Ranch. (B,L,D)
• Tuesday - After breakfast we’ll resume our southward travel as we set out for Lethem, the Rupununi’s principal town, situated just across the Takutu River from Brazil. Overnight at Mountain Point. (B,L,D)
• Wednesday - We’ll spend this morning birdwatching around the pond and visiting the nearby Sawariwau River. After lunch we’ll make the short trip to Dadanawa Ranch, a cluster of raised wooden buildings surmounted by a towering Brazil nut tree and more or less surrounded by low gallery forest along the Rupununi River. Overnight at Dadanawa Ranch. (B,L,D)
• Thursday - Leaving by Land Rover in early morning, we’ll make an all-day trip to some of the ranch’s outstations and several extraordinarily beautiful sites, with lightly forested mountainsides and high, black domes. Overnight at Dadanawa Ranch. (B,L,D)
• Friday - We’ll have time this morning to explore riparian woodland and thickets near the ranch, as well as the muddy margins of a shallow pond and some paddocks that may contain standing water. After lunch we’ll retrace our steps to Lethem, birdwatching en route at several localities near the Takutu River. Overnight at Manari Ranch. (B,L,D)
• Saturday - Morning birding on the savannah and along the river before flying to Georgetown. This afternoon we’ll take a tour of the city to see its extraordinary wooden architecture and to shop in its exciting markets and craft shops. We’ll conclude at the extensive and beautiful Botanic Garden, where, if we are lucky, the trip’s ornithological finale will be Blood-colored Woodpecker, an astonishingly colorful Veniliornis found only in the Guianas and even there almost wholly limited to the narrow coastal plain. Overnight at Cara Lodge. (B, L)
• Sunday - Transfer to the airport for your departing flight. (B)

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