Accommodation Itatiaia etc Rio Brazil (1 Viewer)

[cassowary]

Greetings.
In the near future, I am looking to Bird Itatiaia, Serra dos Orgaos, Reserva Ecologica de Guapiassu and possibly Tijuca. Anyway, I am looking for info on accommodation for all of these places. Hotel Simon in Itatiaia (which someone recommended to me) I understand has gone bankrupt so I am not sure where to stay. Also I have very little information on accommodation for the other sites.

I am wondering if birding Tijuca alone is wise as it is located next to a favela.

Anyway I bought the recently published 'A Birdwatching Guide to South-East Brazil' (which I found very good) but left it in the UK?! - I can't remember if it sited accommodation.

Also if anyone knows of any links to 'birding site maps' to any of these areas I would appreciate feedback

Additionally I was considering hiring a 'driver/bird guide' for part of the time (if there are any in this area) - I didn't see any trip reports mentioning any though (all the reports I have read were either independent or group tours).

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

John van der Woude's website has some good info on sites, including maps:
http://home.tiscali.nl/jvanderw/brazil01/summary.html

In Itatiaia you should still be able to stay in the Hotel d'Ype or the Hotel Donati. I stayed in the latter five years ago and found it very good. I think it's a bit cheaper than the Hotel d'Ype. It's lower down but has very good birding in the grounds e.g. Robust Woodpecker and Red-ruffed Fruitcrow.

Here's the REGUA website. I would completely recommend staying there:
http://www.regua.co.uk/
You could potentially use REGUA as a base for the Serra dos Orgaos. The Birdwatching Guide to Southeast Brazil mentions a pousada inside the park. It mentions that you would need to have a reservation for the pousada although doesn't seem to say how you would do this. Otherwise, you could easily stay in Teresopolis. I don't know if access in the area is still affected by the recent mudslides.

If you stay at REGUA they have very good guides. You could also try Serra dos Tucanos:
http://www.serradostucanos.com.br/index.htm

 

[GMK]

I am wondering if birding Tijuca alone is wise as it is located next to a favela.

There are numerous small favelas (or comunidades as we are now 'supposed' to call them) in the neighbourhood of Tijuca NP. Most are perfectly safe. If you wish to bird the NP, although I am not convinced that you really need to bother given your other intended destinations, then the road below the Corcovado statue, the Estrada do Redentor, is safe though quite busy with people (joggers, etc.). It is patrolled regularly by security. Of course, if you are planning to see the sights in Rio anyway, then it's worthwhile to bird Tijuca for a few hours, as you can find a few nice endemics like Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant, Long-billed Wren, etc.

 

[cassowary]

Andrew & Guy thanks for the detailed replies and links. John van der Woude's trip report is excellent and makes me think that I am possibly limiting myself to too small an area. Thanks also for the accommodation links.

I spent some time going through perlos range maps and xeno canto to try and get a good idea of species distribution and density. I'm not sure how accurate these maps are as there are a fair number of differences between the two. Anyway I put Tijuca in as I was missing out coastal areas (and maybe 20 potential additional species) in my itinerary.

I think I am going to reluctantly miss out intervales and Parque do Zizo on this trip. Perhaps I will also leave out Tijuca. I intend to visit the Pantanal (Cuiaba/transpantineria rd) this autumn, so if I go via Sao Paulo it is probably easier to visit the sites south of Sao Paulo then.

I remember reading something about accommodation in itatiaia park itself although no birding reports seem to mention it. Perhaps it is very basic? However if the park is only open from 8 to 5 (i think) then possibly staying outside the park would limit the birding?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Mike - in your last paragraph were you refering to Serra dos Orgaos rather than Itatiaia? Hotels Donati and d'Ype are both within Itatiaia NP and are both quite fancy. As I say above, there's supposed to be a pousada inside Serra dos Orgaos (at least there is according to the BGtoSEB book). I know there was one in the past that was closed down but maybe the one mentioned in the book is a different one.

If you want to visit coastal areas then you'd perhaps be better to go east of Rio to Praia Seca to see Restinga Antwren. You should get various sea and wetland birds in the same area too. Or maybe go to Ubatuba?

 

[GMK]

Although I'd usually trust a book over the internet, in this case I suspect that you'll find the maps on www.xeno-canto.org rather more reliable than in van Perlo, although that's a generalisation and there may well be exceptions.

Last time I was in Serra dos Órgãos NP, the pousada (there's only one) was closed. Many hotels, catering to most budgets, are available in Teresópolis. The recent landslides did not directly effect this area. As always, it was mainly poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the town that took the brunt, and towns like Nova Friburgo suffered more.

There are many good-quality hotels in Itatiaia NP. If you want something a bit cheaper stay just outside the park, which strategy has advantages insomuch as it's a shorter drive to the high-elevation areas. However, as you note, that would mean you couldn't enter the park so early.

Visting PE Intervales (an A1 site) and / or Ubatuba would vastly improve your overall species list, as there's a lot of avifaunal overlap between Itatiaia and Serra dos Órgãos NPs.

 

[cassowary]

Andrew & Guy thanks again for the feedback.
I somehow mistakenly thought that the hotels do Ype and the Hotel Donati were located outside the entrance gate. I found some recent bad reviews on Donati though so I don't know if there has been a change in management ?

Good to know about the current impact of the mudslides.

Getting my head around the density of species seems to be difficult. eg: a bird may be seemingly rare in itatiaia but perhaps more common in REGUA etc. therefore even though there is an overlap in species between the sites my chances of seeing/hearing the bird may vary between sites. Maybe I have over-estimated some of the differences.

Praia Seca seems like a nice place I have to do some homework on this area.

Maybe I will visit Parque do Zizo on the same trip - not surprisingly it has a huge overlap with intervales - the only thing I cant find are any reviews of the lodge there or the rates.

I will have to take another look at Ubatuba

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

You should get fairly different sets of birds at Itatiaia and REGUA because they're mostly at different altitudes (though with some overlap). REGUA also has wetland and open country birds.

 

[Xenospiza]

After visiting among others Ubatuba (may not be necessary, but is a good introduction before getting to the "heavy" sites), Intervales, Campos de Jordão (would have liked more time there — this would make for a good full day!) and Pico Caledônia, as well as a number of (difficult-to-arrange) sites in Espírito Santo, I found Itatiaia a bit of a let-down (my report is here: http://www.birdtours.co.uk/tripreports/brazil/brazil-37/Brazil-jan-2010.htm, I may have added a few details on BF somewhere). The high altitude birding required our attention twice (but you don't need to stay in the expensive accomodation in the park for that). The only "important" bird in the park that we did not notice anywhere else at all was Rufous-tailed (aka Brazilian) Antthrush along the only open trail at the required altitude (and no early start is needed — bad weather meant that was out of the question anyway). It is by far the best place for Dusky-legged Guan though.
We had no time for REGUA, but missing the Grey-winged Cotinga means I'll have to go back there one day anyway! You don't need more than a morning for Praia Seca, and that means throwing in some list-padding!
Intervales was superb... but quite a drive from São Paulo through a boring landscape (the best open country birds only appeared close to Intervales).

 

[cassowary]

Xenospiza - nice detailed trip report and list - you obviously did your homework!

 

[George Edwards]

I stayed at Ype a couple of years ago and it was very nice - great view of the forest below. I got off the bus from Sao Paulo on the main road - fortunately there was a taxi waiting and he took me up the hill to Ype, 20 mins not very expensive. Ype is highest hotel in the park, and I think most people agree the nicest. Food good, cabins nice, swimming pool even. BBQ on Saturdays.

It has hummer and fruit feeders, so you see quite a lot from just outside the restaurant. Aracari, toucan, tanagers, coquette, guans etc. But on my last day I was the only person there and they didn't bother with the feeders.

There are plenty of trails from Ype, all fairly dark forest, except for the main road which you came up on with the taxi, which is good to bird. The in-house guide doesn't have much knowledge of birds. I regret not walking all the way down to the entrance of the park (or getting a cab down there) as there were definitely different birds at different altitudes, and hawks etc would have been easier to see in the open at the bottom. So maybe spend a day or two at the top and a day or two at the bottom.

If price is more important than comfort get a place at the bottom of the park and get a cab to the top to go birding. The path between Ype and Simon can also be quite good for forest birds, other than the big colourful ones, as is the bit above Ype. Simon looked very closed when we walked there, dark sludge in the swimming pool, can't imagine they could have fixed it up by now, but worth visting on foot and birding the grounds. You can also get a bus there from the park entrance.

There's another part of Itatiaia, to access you need to go by car back down to the main road and then back up into the park - you can reach higher elevations that way. Didn't do it myself.