Esperance & Cape Arid National Park

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Tara

If you are hoping to see the endangered Western Ground Parrot, Cape Arid is one of two places they have been seen historically albeit with extreme difficulty. It’s always best to check with Friends of the Western Ground Parrot before heading out there.

The park is accessed via Esperance, Western Australia which is pretty easy to get to by either a long road trip from Perth or short flight with SkyWest.

Skywest

Esperance

ESPERANCE

Although there are two hotel chains represented here (Best Western & Choice), using them is not the best use of your points. If you have points burning a hole in your pocket:

Comfort Inn Bay of Isles – CHOICE – 25,000 points.

Best Western Hospitaity Inn Esperance – BEST WESTERN – 16,000 points.

Personally, I think Esperance has better options if you go indie and earn points with Pointshound. Save your Choice points for Europe and earn some airline miles with United or another program of your choice.

More options are available on Wotif.com.

Wotif snippet

VISITING CAPE ARID

No matter how you get to Esperance, you will need a 4WD vehicle to visit Cape Arid and drive on any of its tracks.

Cape Arid

You can download the whole park brochure PDF from DEC. The only accommodation in the park is rough camping. There are some gas BBQs but you will need to be self-sufficient. If you don’t wish to camp, you can stay in Esperance and make an evening trip out to Cape Arid. The day trips cater for whale watchers so you would need to organize a special trip if you are hoping to see Western Ground Parrots which are most active at dusk. This group camped out for a few days but managed to see a few Western Ground Parrots in Cape Arid.

According to Eremaea you can see these birds in Cape Arid:

Sooty Oyster-catcher, Pacific Gull, Great Crested Tern, Rock Parrot, Blue Breasted Fairy Wren, New Holland Honeyeater, White-browed scrub-wren, Welcome Swallow, Silver-eye.

How To Visit Amazonia National Park (Parque Nacional da Amazônia)

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Tara

To recap previous posts that show you how to get here: First you need to get to Brazil. Most people will either originate or transit the USA and enter Brazil at Manaus if this park is their final destination. From Manaus, fly to Santarem, then get a boat to Itaituba. Visit IBAMA in Itaituba and get your permit.

The red dot is Urua, where you will be staying.

So now we are in Itaituba, ready to visit Amazonia National Park (Parque Nacional da Amazônia)! If you are interested in seeing Golden Conures, you will need a good guide and I can heartily recommend Gilberto Nascimiento Silva who is one of the park rangers. He and the other park rangers are based at Urua which is about a 2 hour drive from Itaituba. The best option is to hire a car which is what I had planned to do but didn’t realize I wouldn’t be able to outside of business hours. A car will give you more options to visit different trails within the park and also to drive to a village to buy more food if you wish.

Without a car, your options are bus or taxi. There is a Jacareacanga-bound bus at around 10 or 11 am but if you don’t want to wait, you can get a taxi for R$150. We had to try a couple times to persuade taxi drivers to go out there and they weren’t quite sure how to get there. Finally we found one and negotiated the price. We already had park permits via email and had to stop at IBAMA so the staff could explain to the taxi how to get there. To get back, there is supposed to be a bus around 2pm, if we had waited we would have missed the speedboat to Santarem so hitched with a local couple and paid them the bus fare of R$25 each. Gilberto spoke to the driver and arranged this for us.

Taxi

Initially reluctant, the taxi driver seemed to enjoy the park and hung around for an hour after driving us there.

Sadly, you will see deforestation in action enroute as they are trying to enlarge the road.

Accommodations at Urua are very simple. If you are a backpacker you will be fine but if you are used to luxury lodges of the Pantanal, you may be in for a surprise. As of Sept 2012, there was no cost to stay in the bunkhouse as long as you have a permit. The only cost is paying the ranger, Gilberto to guide you for R$50 per visit. This is a fixed price, no need to bargain. You will need to bring all your food and drinks with you from Itaituba. There is nothing for sale in the park or within walking distance.

There are cooking facilities but no fridge. If they have room, the rangers will put your water bottle in their fridge so you have cold water after hiking around. It gets very hot and humid there, mosquitoes are everywhere so bring coils and repellent. Malaria is present in the Amazon region though luckily we didn’t get it. The generator operates for a couple hours around lunch time and again from 5-8pm so you can charge your batteries. There are posters on the wall with some of the local wildlife and Gilberto has the excellent Avifauna Brasiliera guidebook. He doesn’t speak English but he is happy to point out the photos in the book of the species you see so you can make note of them.

There is a lookout over the Tapajos River and it’s an excellent place to sit and watch for birds. We saw large flocks of White-eyed Conures, a few Festive Amazons, Santarem Conures, Short-tailed Parrots and a Painted Parakeet. Also lots of toucans! More about the birds on the next post in this series so stay tuned!

Ina (my husband), me and Gilberto

WEBSITES ABOUT AMAZONIA NATIONAL PARK (IN PORTUGUESE)

BRAZIL.GOV

ICMBIO

Itaituba – Gateway To Amazonia National Park (Parque Nacional da Amazônia)

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Tara

The first thing I want you to know about Itaituba is don’t arrive there on a weekend! It was too late for me to reschedule as I had Cristalino booked for specific days and it was sold out so I couldn’t change it. Don’t count on being able to change money here or the ATMs accepting foreign cards, bring cash from Manaus, Santarem or elsewhere. The 3 most important things you need to do in Itaituba are:

1. Get a permit from IBAMA to visit Amazonia National Park.
2. Stock up on food to take out there.
3. Preferably hire a car as transport there is very limited.

I got lucky and a new birding friend helped me get the permit in advance from IBAMA but that person has transferred out from the Itaituba office and is no longer around to help.

Itaituba can be reached by plane from Manaus or Santarem on Azul, by bus from Mato Grosso or by boat from Santarem.

Map of Itaituba

In this map, the “A” in the bubble is the IBAMA office. You can see the jetty where the ferry from Miritituba will drop you if you arrive by bus. There are a couple supermarkets within a block of the jetty. The red dot with the arrow is Juliana Park Hotel which is your best bet if you get stuck in Itaituba overnight.

IBAMA OFFICE

Av. Mal. Rondon, s/n. Aeroporto Velho. Itaituba – PA. (IBAMA/ Parque Nacional da Amazônia). (93) 3518-4519

Any taxi can take you there. You will need your passport, maybe an extra photocopy and it wouldn’t hurt to bring some passport photos just in case. The permit was free in 2012. They are open M-F “business hours” so plan to get there before 4pm.

CAR HIRE COMPANIES

Chicão: (93) 3518-7199 or (93) 9976-5214

J. Farias – (93) 3518-1055

Jacy Car – (93) 3518-3025

The estimate is R$100 per day, you will probably need insurance on top of that. They were closed by the time we got there since our bus was late and we didn’t get to town until 4:30ish. It would seem that car hire companies are closed on Sundays too. We didn’t try to book in advance due to the language difficulties.

SHOPPING

There are small supermarkets in the area near the jetty where you can get very basic goods. Although the guards at Urua have limited refrigeration for their own use, don’t count on them being able to store your perishables. We bought tinned goods like cocktail sausages, corned beef and other items like rice, Ramen noodles, biscuits/cookies and water. You can boil water when you are there if you can’t carry too many bottles of water. There are larger supermarkets called Duvalle and Tradição but they are further away. Looking back, I wish we had made the effort to go there for a better selection of goods.

SPENDING THE NIGHT

With luck, you will be able to arrive in Itaituba, get your permit, do your shopping and get straight out to the park. If you do get stuck here overnight, the Juliana Park is a small, clean budget hotel. Here is a snippet on hotels from the Bradt Guide which is all I could find online. It’s a bit out of date but I agreed with their assessment of Juliana Park and can add that the WIFI is free and really helped trying to communicate with the manager using Google Translate back and forth.

OTHER WAYS TO GET TO AMAZONIA NATIONAL PARK

From Itaituba to Amazonia National Park, we could have taken a bus at around 10 or 11 am but wanted to get there early for birding so took a taxi for R$150. Even though we already had the park permits we still had to stop at IBAMA so the staff could explain to the taxi how to get there.

To get back, there is supposed to be a bus around 2pm, if we had waited we would have missed the speedboat to Santarem so hitched with a local couple and paid them the bus fare of R$25 each. Our guide at Urua, Gilberto helped us get the lift.

Taking A Boat On The Tapajos River Between Itaituba & Santarem

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Tara

Once you have touched down in Brazil, preferably at Manaus and flown onwards to Santarem; you aren’t done yet! You still need to get to Itaituba and get a permit for the Parque Nacional da Amazônia and drive out there. The most pleasant way to travel is by speedboat down the Tapajos. We did this journey in the direction of Itaituba to Santarem since we had arrived in Itaituba by bus from Mato Grosso.

I don’t speak Portuguese but from what I can tell, this is the official blog of the company that runs the launches. I did my best with Google Translate!

Ships to Itaituba.
All days out boats from Santarem to Itaituba carrying cargo, packages and passengers. They leave at 16:00 (only on Sunday leaves at 14:00 hours). The vessels are castor and are usually boat medium and large making this trip that lasts about 17:00 usually.

Has the boats that depart at 13:00 hours and arrive in Santarem Itaituba about 21:30 the same day.

This is the ticket office in Itaituba. In Sept 2012, we paid R$65 each (around $35). I think it has gone up to R$70 now.

Lancha motor Princesa do Tapajós sai todas as 2ª-feira, 4ª-feira e 6ª-feira. (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

Lancha motor Veloz sai todas as 3ª-feira, 5ª-feira e domingo. (não prestamos serviços para essa embarcação). (Wednesday, Friday, Sunday).

I could not find any reference to who sails on a Monday.

UPDATED TRANSLATION

Harvson3 has kindly provided a proper translation of the Portuguese I was trying to use Google Translate on. This is the correct version. As you can see, Google Translate sometimes leaves a lot to be desired but it’s usually all we have to go on. Thank you Harvson3!

One small correction of the above:
2a feira (also written segunda-feira) is Monday, 4a feira is Wednesday, sexta-feira (6a feira) is Friday.

terca (3) and quinta (5) are Tuesday and Thursday.

My translation of the above paragraphs:

Every day, boats leave Santarem for Itaituba carrying cargo, packages, and passengers. The boats leave at 4 PM in the afternoon (only on Monday they leave at 2 PM). The ships rotate and are generally boats of medium to large size that do trips that last usually around 17 hours generally [sic].

There are boats that leave Santarem at 1 PM and arrive in Itaituba around 9:30 PM on the same day.

Lancha motor just means “motorboat,” akin to the smaller boat you took.

You can buy snacks and drinks on the boat but we bought some sandwiches, snacks and drinks at a small cafe across the street before leaving.

The larger boats also go to Santarem but are much slower. This type of boat also travels the Amazon between Tabatinga-Manaus-Santarem-Belem. Our launch was much smaller, see the difference in the photos. You will have seats assigned but if the boat isn’t full just change seats to wherever you want. The whole trip takes about 8 hours.

The journey down the Tapajos is very scenic and pleasant. You will pass by Fordlândia which is a now-abandoned, prefabricated industrial town established in the Amazon Rainforest in 1928 by American industrialist Henry Ford to secure a source of cultivated rubber for the automobile manufacturing operations of the Ford Motor Company in the United States. In the map below, Fordlândia is where the A in the bubble is. The red dot on PA-435 is the town of Aveiro. This is where you would get off if you wanted to try to find Golden Conures along the Cupari River but you would need a guide and chartered boat to do that.

Tapajos River

Here are some photos showing the whole journey from Itaituba to Santarem.

The sunset was amazing!

This is where we disembarked in Santarem. It’s a ways out of town, I think the taxi was around R$10-15 to get to downtown where we finally found a room at the Sandis Hotel.

Santarem – Where The Amazon Meets The Tapajos

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Tara

Santarem is a major port on the Amazon River and most people who are doing the 5 day trip between Manaus and Belem will spend at least a few hours here but it’s worth stopping off for a few days. It’s easier to get here than you may think despite the few choices you have.

You can easily get to Manaus with miles. From there, depending on when you travel, you may be able to get all the way to Santarem with miles. TAM is the variable. Until mid 2014, it will be a member of Star Alliance, then it will be joining OneWorld along with it’s new partner as LATAM.

WHERE TO STAY

We arrived in Santarem by boat from Itaituba which is the opposite direction you will be traveling in if you fly in from the USA. The boat arrived around 9pm-ish and I had a list of hotels that had been recommended by Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. We grabbed a taxi at the dock and asked to go to one of them. The driver obliged but it looked deserted. The next one I asked for was also deserted. Not looking good! We drove around the corner and stopped at the Sandis Hotel which had not been in any of my guidebooks. I asked the driver to wait while I ran in and checked the price. It was cheap enough and looked brand new so Sandis it was! Room was clean, the breakfast was included and pretty good and I loved the bird artwork on the walls in the lobby! The location is great, walking distance to al the most interesting places in town, several restaurants are nearby.

Trip Advisor has a few other hotels listed, make sure the reviews are recent or you may find the hotel has closed down! Those staying longer may prefer to take a bus to Alter do Chao. Everyone seems to love this Amazon-style beach resort town and if our itinerary hadn’t been so jam-packed with birding excursions, we probably would have spent a couple days here for R&R. Gil Serique lives in Alter do Chao so it’s a good idea to contact him if you plan to visit.

WHERE TO EAT

Brazil has these really cool restaurants where you load up your plate and pay by the kilogram. Piracaia came highly recommended and we weren’t disappointed with our lunch here.

WHAT TO DO AND SEE

The sights of Santarem can be easily seen in one day which is great if you are just making a connection to or from Amazonia National Park or other ports along the Amazon. It’s a pleasant town to walk around and most of what you want to see is either along the corniche or within a couple of blocks.

No prizes for guessing why I love the phone booths here!

There are a few souvenir shops along the corniche, a pedestrian shopping street and a local market where you can buy hammocks. I really wanted one of those large vases with a macaw n it but didn’t think I could get it home in one piece!

The Museu Dica Frazao has some stunning costumes inside. Entry is by donation and some items are for sale but that pretty fan I wanted was unfortunately not one of them. There are some very sad forlorn looking pet parrots in the garden, how I wish I could have set them free in the national park!

MOVING ON

The airport is about an hour by local bus. We had a flight in the wee hours to Belem and ended up hanging around the airport all night because we caught the last bus out there and had nothing better to do anyways. If you’re stuck, there is a space under the staircase that goes up to the cafe. We camped out for a few hours using our backpacks as pillows and sarongs for sheets.

Manaus – Gateway To The Amazon

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Tara

Look at Manaus on Google’s satellite map and it looks like it’s smack dab in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Geographically it is, but in reality it’s a large city many miles away from where eco-tourists would want to be.

Manaus

The best thing about Manaus is that you can easily get there using miles and from there it’s an easy domestic flight to more interesting places or an adventurous boat down the river. Bear in mind that the Amazon river is huge and you won’t see much from a river boat, you need to get off into a tributary. I’ve already discussed getting to Brazil using miles and you can see all the mileage costs for my top 8 recommended programs. Let’s look at getting to Manaus in particular.

ONE WORLD

American has a daily non-stop flight from Miami. This flight is a bargain 12,500 Avios one way or 25,000 round trip and can be booked online at British Airways. Using AA miles starts at 20,000 one way but you can travel from anywhere in the USA whereas using Avios is only a bargain if you start from Miami.

In mid 2014, TAM will be leaving Star Alliance and joining OneWorld so that opens up a few more options too.

STAR ALLIANCE

Copa flies to Manaus from Panama City daily with good connections from the rest of the USA. A sample itinerary might look something like this.

WHERE TO STAY

As you can see, most flights arrive at night so you will probably need at least an overnight hotel. There are a couple of options if you have points with Priority Club or Choice Rewards, otherwise I recommend using Pointshound * to book an independent hotel and earn miles in your preferred frequent flier program.

* I don’t have any special affiliate relationship with Pointshound. This link is the same one all members have access to. If you use my link, both you and I get 250 miles when you book your first room. Once you are a member, you will get a link of your own to use for referrals.

Holiday Inn Manaus – 15,000 points.

Choice has 3 properties but they aren’t real bargains as they start at 16,000 points but could be useful if you have lots of Choice Rewards points you can burn.

Pointshound actually has more hotels than this but I am just going to show you a snippet so you can see how many miles you earn if you book through Pointshound.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO IN MANAUS

If you want to spend a couple of days here or have to organize a stay at a jungle lodge, you will find plenty to keep you occupied. Out of these sights recommended on Trip Advisor, I have been to the Teatro Amazonas, Meeting of the Waters and the market. My trip was back in 1989 so I don’t have digital photos I can upload. I wasn’t as keen on eco-tourism back then and was doing the usual backpacker trip down the river. I bought a hammock in the market, booked space on a boat, tied up my hammock and had a 5 day adventure down the Amazon River! I was disappointed the river is so wide, you really can’t see any animals from the boat though there may be birds flying overhead if you are lucky. Since my trip was so long ago, I am really just offering advice on using Manaus as a gateway to the eco-lodges I will be writing about later.

MOVING ON

Our ultimate goal for this trip I am currently blogging about is Itaituba. You will need to connect in Santarem, then either fly, take a speedboat or bus to Itaituba. So here’s the flight schedule to Santarem and come back tomorrow for the information on this small city on the junction of the Amazon and Tapajos Rivers.

Bali As An Eco-Tourism Gateway

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Tara

Bali is a major world tourist destination and there are many forums and blogs dedicated to making the most of your trip to Bali. I am just going to briefly describe some activities which may interest eco-tourists and bird lovers in general. I have already done reviews on the two hotels we stayed in: Cendana Resort and Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Beach and I can recommend them for a stay in Ubud and Kuta respectively. Trip Advisor has hundreds of reviews so I would advise taking a look there to find something that suits you.

SIGHTSEEING

I had originally planned to do Bali Bird Walks but we got rained out. Not to worry as I know we will be back in Bali someday.

I would also like to visit Bali Barat National Park sometime when we aren’t totally exhausted.

The Monkey Forest in Ubud is extremely popular and very touristy but it’s still a lot of fun! There is a nominal charge of around $4 to enter and you can buy bananas outside to tempt the monkeys. They don’t require much tempting, they are more like New York muggers and will aggressively jump on you and rummage through your pockets if they see anything banana-shaped (men take care)! Don’t wear glasses or jewelry as they have been known to snatch them off tourists. Here’s some pics.

Balinese Temples are everywhere and some will allow tourists inside if they are properly dressed in a sarong (no shorts or beachy outfits). Otherwise you can still admire them from the outside.

SHOPPING

Ubud Area Arts, Crafts and Furniture Markets are on the road between Ubud and Bali Bird Park and a major stop for tourist groups as well. If you go with a guide or driver, they will get a commission on whatever you buy so try to go alone or get dropped off if you are after the best prices. You can even buy thatching to bring home and make a cabana in your backyard! I loved those fancy doors but didn’t want to try shipping one.

Back in Ubud town, there are shops along the main tourist drag-Monkey Forest Road and a small art market at the top of the road near the palace. I loved the paintings of birds and really wanted that one with the cockatoos but it cost over $100 and was huge! I asked for smaller ones but they didn’t have small cockatoo paintings.

There are tailors everywhere and we both had some outfits made. My husband got a suit and I got an evening dress and a few tops for a cruise we have planned next year. This is Sanggar Tailoring in Kuta near the Kuta Art Market. This suit (first fitting shown here) cost $135 including fabric.

RESTAURANTS

Needless to say, there are hundreds of restaurants with all kinds of cuisines. We had pretty much OD’d on nasi goreng and satay in West Papua so by the time we got to Bali we wanted a change. We did get a bit lazy and took several meals in our hotels for most breakfasts and dinners but went out for lunch. Ubud has a great Mexican place-Taco Casa.

And being an expat American, I was craving typical diner type food such as Flapjaks in Kuta and Johnny Rockets in the Beachwalk Mall.

RELAXATION

Massage parlours and day spas are everywhere and very cheap! This spa pictured is in Cendana Resort and it was really good. We were getting massages every day and I got a facial, body scrub, hair treaments and French braiding. Great way to spoil our aching muscles after the birding expedition!

There are modern shopping malls such as Discovery Centre and Beachwalk which are air conditioned fi you want to escape the afternoon heat. We saw “Oz the Great and Powerful” for only $5 each at the Beachwalk cinema and it was cool and comfy inside!

Review: Holiday Inn Resort, Baruna Bali

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Tara

We recently spent 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Resort, Baruna Bali following our birding expedition to West Papua. I chose this hotel since both my husband and I have lots of Priority Club points from various promos over the last few years and it didn’t hurt that I have permanent platinum status from my Priority Club Visa from Chase. I knew that we had a good chance of an upgrade………and it came through! Award nights go for 20,000 points. I could have booked the Intercontinental for 30,000 points a night but I thought this location was better for shopping and sightseeing.

As you first arrive, there is a security guard on the gate.

The lobby is large and comfortable. Our room wasn’t ready but since we had been upgraded to an ocean view, we didn’t mind waiting.

The decor is pretty generic but it was clean and there was a nice lounge on the balcony. The room had one of those annoying glass-walled bathrooms but fortunately there are blinds to cover it up. I would have like to see some Balinese art on the walls. We had a great view of the pool and the sea just beyond. The hotel is right on the beach.

There are actually 2 pools but we hung out at the main one. There are nice cabanas surrounding the pool and since we were traveling in low season we never had trouble getting one. Nice swim-up bar and happy hour at 5.

This stone sink in the bathroom near the pool is typical of Balinese sinks.

Massage ladies still ply the beach but they are not allowed into hotel grounds. The hotel has a spa but it’s expensive. We chose to go to day spas nearby which were really cheap-$10 for a standard one hour massage.

The first night we had the All you can eat pasta bar but it was a bit strange. It’s not like the ones where the dishes are pre-made and you help yourself. They bring you a card and you mark off which sauces, meats and vegetables you want and which noodles to serve it over. The pastas did taste good but the service was a bit slow. We are more the buffet type than the fine dining type so others may prefer the individually ordered pasta method. A dessert is included and we both opted for some ice cream from the gelati bar.

Even if you have to pay for this hotel, it’s generally around the $100 mark so a good value. It’s well located in the heart of Kuta and walking distance to several shops, we even walked to and from the Discovery Centre. Taxis are best obtained on the street after you exit the grounds so you can bargain with them. We tried to get Bluebird taxis with meters as they were the best value. In the map below, A marks the hotel and the X marks the Discovery Centre and you can see how close the hotel is to the airport. We were not disturbed by aircraft overhead. If you want to get to the Bali Bird Park from here, you are probably better off hiring a taxi for the day. Traffic is terrible in Kuta so start early!

Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali Location

Layover In Makassar (UPG)

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Tara

When you are traveling to and from West Papua, many flights will require a layover in Makassar (UPG). So what can you do to pass the time?

UPG the main airport in Sulawesi

Sultan Hasanudin Airport

GO INTO TOWN

The airport is about an hour’s drive from town so make sure you have enough time to get back and catch your onward flight. If you have less than 6 hours, don’t bother, traffic is pretty congested and you don’t want to risk being late. If you have a full day as we did, there are a few things you can do in town. It’s pretty hot and humid so be prepared for the weather. Taxis will cost around $10-12 and a bus will cost around $2. The bus drops you at a bus stop in the centre of town and this is where you catch it to get back to the airport so make sure you remember where it is, even take a photo of it on your phone so you can communicate with taxi drivers.

Airport Bus Station

Once you are in town, the main “sight” is Fort Rotterdam which is a short walk from the bus stop. There is a nominal entry fee around $2 and you have to pay extra to enter the exhibits. They wouldn’t allow photos inside.

Outside Fort Rotterdam

Entry and ticket office

Fort Rotterdam buildings

Statue outside the fort

By the time we finished seeing the fort, it was pretty hot and near lunch time so we went to an underground shopping mall called MTC. There is a large supermarket here, a food court and lots of small shops that are interesting to look at for local fashions.

MTC Mall Makassar

Even though our flight wasn’t until 2am-ish, we were sleep deprived after a busy day in Kuta the previous day changing money and ordering tailored clothes so we headed back to the airport to relax. Other places to visit in Makassar include Losari Beach and a butterfly sanctuary called Bantimarung which we probably would have visited if we hadn’t been so tired. Other suggestions can be found on Trip Advisor.

WHAT TO DO IN THE AIRPORT

Makassar’s Ujung Padang Airport is a large, modern airport with plenty of shopping.

Shop in UPG airport

They also have a short stay place that also offers massage called Home In & Spa opposite Gate 6. If you need some shut-eye, 6 hours day use will cost 350,000 rupiah ($35) single and 425,000 rupiah ($43) double. The Indonesian Massage (with great smelling oil) cost 225,000 for 1 hour ($23) and you can get longer massages if you want. Reflexology is $125,000 ($13) not sure how long you get. The showers are nice and hot with excellent water pressure! This was money well spent as it allowed us to freshen up and be well rested for being picked up in Biak at 6am the next day for birding.

There are several restaurants in the airport with both Indonesian and Western cuisine at very reasonable prices. I couldn’t resist getting a root beer float at A&W (we can’t get them in Australia)! If you are in business class, see my post on the Executive Lounge, good food and free internet!

Birding The Sorong Lowlands

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Tara

This was where I made a mistake – I didn’t book a guide in advance, thinking it would be easy to just call one when we got there as it was low season. Wrong! I already had some sources such as Benny from Biak who has guide contacts in Sorong and a website that was advertising day birding trips. The itinerary from Papua Expeditions looked great- several Birds of Paradise (BOPs) and Black Lories amongst other birds. First thing I did upon checking into the Royal Mamberamo was to load the website to get the phone number and call or text them. But wait – no phone number on the whole site! I sent an email but didn’t get a reply. Benny from Discover Papua texted me back that his guide wasn’t replying. My husband and I were on our own. I went back online to try to find phone numbers for other guides or at least trip reports showing where the best places were. I found a couple trip reports that said Black Lories were in the Hutan Lindung area at km 14, about 8km past the airport.

Hutan Lindung

And this report had a similar bird list.

We had the hotel book us a car and driver, explain to the driver where we wanted to go and tell us the price – 70,000 rupiah an hour. First we went out on the Makbon Road in search of lowland forest that looked “birdy”. We passed a few villages and finally found a likely spot. The villagers were curious about us but understood that we wanted “burung” which means birds. One of them even knew where to find a Twelve-wired BOP further away but we would have been too late. We walked down the road but didn’t hear or see anything interesting, just a few barn swallows.

Village on Makbon Road

Curious villagers

Barn Swallow

Mosque on Makbon Road

Interesting monument on Makbon Road

We went back to Hutan Lindung to try our luck. It was around 11am by now so too late for real birding but we tried! We did hear the screech of cockatoos flying in the distance but couldn’t see them. We gave up and had the driver bring us back to the hotel.

The next morning, we got up early and once again hired a car and driver, bringing our bags with us so we could be dropped at the airport afterwards. Last chance birding for West Papua! We would only have time for a couple hours in Hutan Lindung. This time we did much better. Cockatoos were heard but not seen again. We saw a pair of Black Lories doing a fly-by off in the distance. And I could swear I heard Yellow-capped Pygmy Parrots in a tree near the road but within the foliage. They sounded like the ones we saw in Nimbokrang and I could see movement but not a clear shot of a bird. As usual, I got great photos of leaves! Then again, I managed to get some butterfly shots so it wasn’t a total photographic loss!

Taxi we hired by the hour for trip to Hutan Lindung

Entrance to Hutan Lindung Taman Wisata

Lowland forest of Hutan Lindung

Trees where we heard the Yellow-capped Pygmy Parrots

Tiny bird on branch near the bottom

Silhouetted bird in tree, anyone know what it is?

Butterfly

Just missed the Black Lories who did a quick fly by

Miles To The Wild

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Category Archives: Destinations

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ESPERANCE

VISITING CAPE ARID

WEBSITES ABOUT AMAZONIA NATIONAL PARK (IN PORTUGUESE)

CAR HIRE COMPANIES

SHOPPING

SPENDING THE NIGHT

OTHER WAYS TO GET TO AMAZONIA NATIONAL PARK

***UPDATED TRANSLATION***

WHERE TO STAY

WHERE TO EAT

WHAT TO DO AND SEE

MOVING ON

ONE WORLD

STAR ALLIANCE

WHERE TO STAY

MOVING ON

SIGHTSEEING

SHOPPING

RESTAURANTS

RELAXATION

WHAT TO DO IN THE AIRPORT

UPDATED TRANSLATION