South America Natural Adventures

COLOMBIA

WILDLIFE OF THE LLANOS

Day 1 – Home City/Gateway City/Bogota
Fly from your home city today to Bogota. On arrrival you are met and transferred to your hotel. Most US airline’s flights arrive mid to late evening (or very early in the morning); Avianca arrivies early evening. But in all cases you will arrive at the hotel late evening to after midnight, so you may want to have some extra food along with you on the plane.

Day 2 – Bogota/Las Unamas Reserve
Transfer this morning from Bogota to San Martin, the gateway to Las Unamas Natural Reserve. While the actual drive will take four to five hours, it’s on a nice road that crosses from the eastern Andes to Eastern Plains. During our drive stops will be made as wildlife and birding opportunities arise.

Days 3 - 5– Las Unamas Reserve
Early in the morning we will enter to the dense forest of Las Unamas Reserve , which covers about 25,000 acres. It is plocated on the Guinan Shield, and with both rainforest and savanna it basically combines the Amazon and Llanos in one place. It also means we have the opportunity to look for animals associated with the Guianan Shield as well as more widee-spread specis, so we focus on diurnal animals as Brazilian Porcupine, Giant Armadillo, Nine-banded Armadillo, Long-nosed Armadillo, Spotted Paca, Central American Agouti, and monkeys such as Coppery Titi Monkey, Black-capped Capuchin, Venezualan Red Howler and Colombian Squirrel Monkey. Naturally we won’t be ignoring the birds, or any other wildlife from Insects to reptiles that we see. After our daytime search, and after a good dinner, we will return to the jungle aiming to find the big mammals including Jaguar, Puma, Tapir, Ocelot and Jaguarundi. Naturally such elusive animals cannot be guaranteed, but we will be concnettrating our time in areas known to be frequented by them, and during the day we’ll be installing food station for us to check later.

Day 6 - Las Unamas Reserve
Today we concentrate on the Llanos, walking (or on horseback) all day. We will visit the savanna ecosystem and the mammals and birds that is possible to see here, including Giant Anteater, Tamandua, Jabiru and several raptor species. At the end of the day we will come back to the main house to finish this part of the tour with a Llanos celebration where enjoy a typical Llanos BBQ and discuss our experiences of the previous three days.

Day 7 - Los Unamas Reserve/ Yopal
We spend the morning searching for more wildlife in the vicinity of main house and after to the lunch we will transfer to Yopal, once again stopping along the way as opportunities arise and time permits.

Day 8 - Yopal/Hato La Aurora Natural Reserve
From Yopal we will travel per 3-4 hours to Paz de Ariporo Village, where we will take a road which offers good chances ofa variety os species, including Burrowing Owl, Jabirus, Horned Screamer, Nine banded Armadillo, Capybara and others. In the afternoon we will arrive at the Juan Solito Hotel in Hato La Aurora Natural Reserve where we spend the next four nights. We should arrive in time (depending on what we see along the road) for some exploring around the hotel. After dinner search for owls around the hotel – they are not uncommon here. We’ll also learn about the Reserve itself.

Day 9 - Hato La Aurora Natural Reserve
. Our next few days are spent exploring the Llanos Ecosystem, searching for the wildlife that calls this extensive area home. We’ll especially be looking for Caiman, Deer, Capybara, two different species of Anteaters, Otters, and many different species of birds found both in the wetlands, savannas and forests of the Reserve. As always we have plenty of time for wildlife viewing and photography, and taking in the superb landscape. At times the wetlands supports thousands of birds, and if we have a bit of luck we’ll find an Anaconda eating a goose or maybe a capybara. In the night we can enjoy some popular histories of spirits of the Llano and really good food!

Day 10 - Hato La Aurora Natural Reserve
We will going to search the wildlife inside the dense jungle, where we check the trap cam and if we have good luck maybe we can see a Jaguar or an Mountain Lion. In addition to the wildlife in the afternoon we will visit La Aurora, the main house of the Hato in where the workers are doing the “Llanos work”working with the livestock that shares som of the Reserve and surrounding area. This dual use has allowed for protction of the 40,000 acre reserve, and the surrounding buffering zones. This evening we search for night fauna in the plains such as Crab-eating Fox, Spotted Cat (Oncilla) and Ocelot, turtles and others.

Day 11 - Hato La Aurora Natural Reserve
We go in small boats to different creeks in where we can see a vriety of birds and mammas, such as the prehistporic looking Hoatzin, Agami Herons, Howler Monkey, bats, otters and more. We’ll also try our hand at a bit of fishing; piranha is possible and other interesting fish. The fishing will mostly be catch and release, but some especially tasty fish, such as piranha, may be kept for the pot. This evening we finish this amazing trip with an wonderful demonstration of the folklore of Llanos with the Arpa, Tiple and the typical songs.

Day 12 - Hato La Aurora Natural Reserve/Yopal/Bogota
We have breakfast early in the morning to give some time for a final search for any new birds around the hotel, and for our last opportunity to both see and photograph some previously seen. A little before lunchtime we return to Yopal from where we fly to Bogota and overnight.

Day 13 - Bogota/Gateway City/Home City
Return to our home city today.

The tour includes all meals in all locations with open menus in resttaurants, two snacks daily that include water fruit etc, one beer, soda, bottle of water or juice with meals, all accommodations, transfers, transport, entrance fees, local guiding and an English-speaking, expert bird and wildlife Colombian guide throughout the tour. The tour is also accompanied by tour director Andrew Haffenden; this will be his fifth visit to Colombia and has mammaled and birded through many Southern and Central America countries.

Departure Date: May 23, 2014

Cost: $3950 based on 8 passengers. (We will operate the tour with as few as 6 passengers, with a surcharge of $325)

Single Supplement (available for Bogota Hotel): $190