Seeking advice for birding/wildlife in Brazil (1 Viewer)

[C Chad]

My wife and I are planning a trip to Colombia and Brazil in July/August 2014. I have a keen interest in birds but am not an avid lister as such. I am interested in viewing and photographing new and unusual species (which will cover just about everything I am likely to see) but we enjoy other wildlife and scenery etc also. Our Colombia trip of about 2 1/2 weeks will mainly focus on birding places.
For Brazil, where we will also have about 2 1/2 weeks, we are looking at spending some (largely non-birding) time in Rio, Salvador and possibly Paraty. We will also have 4 nights in the (northern) Pantanals. We would like to fit in 2 x 3 nights at another couple of birding/wildlife places. At this stage our choice is narrowing down to:
Regua Reserva Ecologicade Guapiacu,
National Park of Chapada dos Guimaraes, and
Cristalino Lodge Alta Foresta (Amazon Forest).
What a dilemma! If we can only fit in two of these which should it be??
Any advice?
Chris

 

[dacol]

... We would like to fit in 2 x 3 nights at another couple of birding/wildlife places. At this stage our choice is narrowing down to:
Regua Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu,
National Park of Chapada dos Guimaraes, and
Cristalino Lodge Alta Foresta (Amazon Forest).
What a dilemma! If we can only fit in two of these which should it be??
Any advice?
Chris

In terms of number of species the rankings are 1) Cristalino, 2) REGUA and 3) Chapada. In terms of easiness to see birds I think 1) REGUA, 2) Chapada and 3) Cristalino. In my opinion just 3 nights at Cristalino wouldn't do justice to that great place. Given the extra travel necessary to get to Cristalino perhaps Chapada (in conjunction with your Pantanal trip) and REGUA would yield the largest number of different species.

Dalcio

 

[C Chad]

Many thanks indeed Dalcio. We still have some way to go with our planning (just getting over the shock of some initial costings) but this is most helpful. I think, ideally, Cristalino is top of our list too, but given the extra travel (as you point out) and cost, for the time we have available, the other two might be more sensible. And Chapada has some pretty striking scenery (although they all look incredible in their different ways). Regards Chris