Special offer

by Gunnar Engblom August 27, 2010 1

Time-limited special offers

Extended Special Offer

Since we could not participate in British Birdwatching Fair this year, I figured we needed to present some material anyway for this time, so I ran a campaign for three days with special offers for a limited time period. One offer per day were presented between Aug 20-22, valid between Aug 20-29 Sep 5. These offers originally appeared in my post about creating a Virtual Birdfair. We now offer an extra week to take advantage of these great offers – until Sep 5. Both time and space are limited.

SALE ONE / Tambopata

We have four departures with special price to the tour to SE Peru Tambopata rainforest and the lodge project of the Durand brothers. I say under construction so I do mean it is very basic, but then again – it is well possible to bird at the site and then go back to sleep in Maldonado at night – to come out again the following morning – for a small surcharge. The 8 day trip in October, December 2010 and January 2011 is only US$1180 (£760) including the flight from Lima to Cusco and return. The trip hosted by high demand Moth expert Seabrooke in November is US$1330. This price is held regardless of the number of participants on the tour. The normal price starts at US$1552 (£999). Young birders up to 25 pay only US$695 (£450) (excluding internal flight). The offer is only valid until Sep 5!

SALE TWO Satipo road and Carpish

Following the successful fundraising in July by Rainforest Partnership from September there will be no camping on this trip as there will be proper beds in the School at Apaya on the Satipo road. The Satipo road and Carpish 8 day trip featuring Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager and Diademed Sandpiper-Plover in September, October, November, December and January 2011, for only US$999 (£640). Normal price starts at US$1212 (£780). Young birders up to 25 pay only US$695 (£450). The Sale is valid until Sep 5 only!

SPECIAL OFFER THREE .

The last offer may actually be the best of all.
All Peru birding trips for 2011 on the Kolibri Expeditions web-page sell for list-price (which usually involves 7 people for that price) no matter how many people book. If no other people book, you will still enjoy list price (although you would have to pay for a single room). So why is this such a good deal? Isn’t going to be list price anyway, by the time the trip runs?
Possibly, but you get to set the dates and have a price guarantee. Most of our departures are run below max number of passengers which could mean a surcharge for you. You are also protected against sudden price increases. The Kolibri Expeditions list prices are among the lowest in the market, but our guides are among the best in Peru. I have said it before and say it again: Why pay More? Why see Less?

Check out all the Peru trips on this link

Kolibri Expeditions birding tours in Peru

At the top of this page the tours are organized in geographical regions to help you find a tour. Then follows an intent to group the trips into different type of birders and styles of birding. Finally all the possible trips are listed. We are sure you will be overwhelmed, so send us a mail (kolibriexp@gmail.com) with your time limit, a description of yourself and what type of birding you enjoy and which areas or species you are most interested in seeing.

You only have until Sep 5 to decide which trips you want to do in 2011 and until Sep 7 to pay 20% (minimum 700 dollars) of the total fee to activate your booking and secure the list price.

The moment you decide for a tour and a date, that same tour will appear on our tour calendar, which will make it easier for others to find the same tour. It is also possible to specify in the tour calendar what type of birding you enjoy – so that others signing up for the same trip will have similar qualifications (for example specify id you want a hardcore birding with as many species as possible, or if you enjoy photographing birds, or a program with birding and visiting several archeological site.)

by Gunnar Engblom August 23, 2010 5

Virtual British Birdwatching Fair 2010.

Virtual BirdFair - Why not do the birdfair on line?

Yesterday was the last day of the British Birdfair. Over 20000 visitors is the usual norm. Most people I know in the birding world have been talking about the event the last week. This year I could not go. PromPeru did not have a stand as they had all the 7 previous years. And we could not get a stand of our own. So even if I will be doing some ranting in this post, it is obvious that I am also somewhat envious to those that did go. If not for anything else, it would have been great to see some friends.

I have trying to convince myself that for my business, that my presence at the birdfair has very little importance. After all, I have sold extremely few trips directly at the birdfair in the past – and I wonder if most of those I sell to, would not have found us on the internet anyway. The most undeniable advantage of being present at the birdfair is to give facetime to the people you know and those that would like to know you better.

Yet, when there, there is so much “sales-talk”, and little time to just socialize-which is probably what one should do.

Most visitors will have collected several kilos of birding brochures with flashy catalogues. Some have travelled over oceans in jets. In these brochures you find exactly the same stuff as you would findon the internet. Seems like wasted resources to me! How many thousands of dollars have every exhibitor put into their stands and their own airfares? Meanwhile, we are all outraged about global warming, deforestation and increasing numbers of threatened birds.

If I go next year, I think the social part will be most important for me. I will not worry about spewing out sales pitch messages on how great our trips are. Instead I will say. Hey, if you are interested in a trip to Peru, have a look at our web-page or our Facebook Page where you find the VIRTUAL PERUVIAN BIRDFAIR – now let’s get a beer and have some fun!

It is all on the web anyway, why do we need the Birdfair to sell or buy this stuff? OK, sure there is money that need to be raised for conservation. But could we not raise this money anyway? What if you could participate in a birdfair without spending all that money on hotels and travel? What if there is no need for those that sell products and services to produce all those colorful pamphlets? How much money could be freed to conservation? I propose to build a VIRTUAL WORLD BIRDWATCHING FAIR on line. A meeting space on the cyberspace, where all the products and services can be found. Here are some ideas summerized. What do you think?

CONSERVATION: money collected to bird conservation projects or organizations.
INCLUSIVE: inexpensive to exhibit for basic listing. More expensive for fuller coverage and editing. Maybe some sort of quality vetting is necessary.
DONATIONS: donation campaigns for certain projects
TIMELESS: yearly editions, to culminate over the British Birdfair with lots of special offers, but does not need to be inactive before and after
NO-PRINTING all birdfair catalogues and printed material downloadable in pdf format (Everyone, get an iPad, Tablet or a Kindle and save some trees!!).
NON-PROFIT: Totally non-profit web-page – just covering basic costs.
TEAMWORK. If you think this is a good idea and want to help and be part of a new movement, I am all ears. Send me a line!

Originally, there were some special offers to birding tours in Peru here in this post, but they have been moved to a seperate post. Check it out here.

by Gunnar Engblom July 29, 2010 1

Satipo road – last chance – last post

Future birders on Satipo road

The kids at the school at Apaya-Calabaza had a painting contest. Here are the winning items. You can easily tell that these kids are fascinated with nature. In the village sling-shots are now prohibited and not sold in the store. This is the place for the future lodge that RainForest Partnership is raising money to. We hope that this contest will both bring necessary funds and awareness so more people visit this wonderful area.

Pampa Hermosa is the district that comprise Mariposa, Calabaza/Apaya and Carrizales on the birding route known as Satipo road which house endemic birds such as Eye-ringed Thistletail, Marcapata Spinetail (weskei race), Fire-throated Metaltail, obscura ssp of Rufous Antpitta, Unstreaked Tit-Tyrant, the undescribed Millpo Tapaculo and access to Black-spectacled Brush-Finch and the undescribed Wren and Thornbird in the Andamarca valley (Mantaro drainage). Birding is simply fantastic with spectacular birds such as Cock of the Rock, Umbrellabird, Golden-headed and Crested Quetzal, Black-chested and Solitary Eagles, Torrent Duck, Fasciated Tiger-Heron, Sunbittern, Lyre-tailed and Swallow-tailed Nightjar, 45 species of Hummingbirds and 53 species of Tanagers. The species composition reminds me very much of Manu road. There is contineous forest habitat from around 1000m to 3600m.
A more complete species list and birding information can be found on Birding Peru https://www.birdingperu.com/peru/details.asp?idperu=26

The community is commited to conservation and RainForest Partnership is doing great awareness work here. Right now the project is in fifth place in the Global Giving Open Green Challange competition. If RP could sail up as a winner, 10000 dollars extra would be granted.

The money will be used to build a basic community lodge with clean beds and linen and working toilets and showers – as a minimum infrastructure to promote tourism (not only birding) and leave some funding with the community itself. There will also be workshops for the locals to learn to provide food for visiting tourists (hygiene and presentation) and mapping of eco-tourism in general such as waterfalls and cock-of-the-Rock leks. Other projects in a near future include sustainable Butterfly and Orchid farming.

You simply have to visit Satipo road. We shall not only do birding trips there, but also workshops of all type of biodiversity, specific butterfly watching, orchid watching and nature photography trips. The beds will be implemented immediately in the village school. There are already clean toilets implemented this year.

Spot less bathroms, assigned and cleaned by students. Photo: Patricio Prieto

Satipo road goes to Mindo

Below follows the three videos from 2008 when Kolibri Expeditions took three farmers from Pampa Hermosa together with three farmers from Carpish to Mindo in Ecuador. Pampa Hermosa is like Mindo was 10-15 years ago. With this in mind, the farmers now have a vision how the want their valley to develop within the coming years. RainForest Partnerships project and Kolibri Expeditions committment will make this possible – but not without your help.
The videos now have English subtitles thanks to Patricia Gonzales, who kindly helped me. Enjoy!

Satipo road goes to Mindo part one. Arrival and Butterfly garden

Satipo road goes to Mindo part 2. Rafting and Orchid garden

Satipo road goes to Mindo, part 3. Maria the Antpitta and Angel Paz

Upcoming departures.

It is mainly our new community trip to Satipo road and Carpish that has scheduled departures between September to December. Let us know if you want to visit at other times.

Kolibri Expeditions time-limited special offers for 2010 and 2011.