We were invited to Bolivia by Armonia (Harmony), the Bolivian bird society, and although the suggested guiding by them partly fell through, we decided to go anyway. For the first two weeks we targeted 7 species of Macaw, but we only found 6, as the habitat of the Red-fronted Macaw in the dry foot-hills west of Santa Cruz is quite difficult to access although we spent two days trying.
    Blue-throated Macaw was very, very nice but quite expensive to access. Like U$1000 per group for  2 days and 1 night. (Bolivia has the reputation for being cheap but we found that was true only if you made your money in US dollars. The cost of travelling in the country is about the same as Ecuador and Peru). We also saw Blue & Yellow, Red & Green, Chestnut-fronted, and Golden-collared Macaws in the first part of the tour, and the absolutely stunning Hyacinth Macaws.
    The tour was divided into five main parts; from the 1st-5th Sept, the Brazilian Pantanal; 8-12th,  the Amazon Lowland Rainforest; 13-17th, the Llanos de Moxos of North Bolivia; 18-20th, Santa Cruz and Samaipata (the dry country to the south-west of the city); 20th-23rd,  Cochabamba and the Yungas which is the forested north-east slope of the Andes. Some of us had two days in Buenos Aires before the tour started and we all had two days in La Paz at the finish, some of us being able to get as far as Lake Titicaca.

Buenos Aires, 28-29th August, 1999.
    Lynn and I came from Australia and had the good fortune to land at Buenos Aires. Were those really tinamous wandering about at the end of the runway as the plane turned to taxi back to the terminal? Red-winged? Elegant Crested? Tinamous that easy come as a surprise after flying for 11.5 hours from Auckland. We never found out what they were, probably the former. But on the 35 km journey into the city we saw Neotropic Cormorant, American Great Egret (probably a different species to Great Egret because of the huge disparity in their DNA), Roadside Hawk (what were these birds called before there were roads?), Southern Lapwing, White-rumped Swallow, and Brown & Yellow Marshbird.

    We picked the Los Tres Reyes hotel (very good) in San Telmo, the nearest suburb to the Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur, the nature reserve by the Rio de la Plata, on the Eastern side of the city. In the Parque Lezama near the hotel there were Picazuro Pigeons, small flocks of Monk Parakeets flying screeching around  the tree tops, Rufous Horneros wandering around on the ground, Great Kiskadees, Rufous-bellied Thrush, Chalk-browed Mockingbird, and the ubiquitous temperate-climate Rufous-collared Sparrow.

    The next day we approached the Reserva Ecologica Costanera as it opened at 0800 hrs and immediaterly began to compile an impressive list. White-tufted Grebe, Black-crowned Night Heron, Lake and Brazilian Ducks, Corscoroba and Black-necked Swans, and Silver Teal were some of first to be put on it. David Siems from Sydney had recommended the Reserva as excellent birding and the locals obviously thought the same as we met two ladies who not only spoke English but advised us where to look for what. They especially impressed on us that when we got to the  the ducks with masks they were not Masked but Lake Ducks. And so they were. It’s good to see that there is still some of the British legacy in Buenos Aires.

    As we continued our walk on this lovely Spring day, there were a mixture of old friends and new to look at on the large ponds, along their edges, in the bushes and long grass, and in the occasional small tree. A perched Crested Caracara came under close scrutiny, and an unexpected delight was the easily-seen Plumbeous Rail with its red legs and yellow, blue and red beak; Common Moorhen and both Slaty and Red-fronted Coot  made up the rest of the Rail family seen in the reserve; Wattled Jacana, White-backed Stilt, the coucal-like Guira Cuckoo, Amazon Kingfisher, and our first Woodpecker for the tour, the Yellow-fronted, the last of the non-passerines.

    The American Flycatcher family which presents such problems of identification further north (there are so many!) are here relatively easy. We saw the yellow-bellied form of the White-crested Tyrannulet, a gorgeous Many-colored Tyrant in the rushes, the Black-backed form of the pied Water Tyrant, and the Cattle Tyrant (what were these called before cattle were introduced to South America?), while surprisingly missing the resident Spectacled Tyrants. Other passerines were Red-crested Cardinal, Black & Rufous Finch,  Great Pampa Finch, Yellow-winged Blackbird, Shiny Cowbird, Hooded Siskin, and House Sparrow (a not-so-good British legacy). The only mammal seen was Coipu (Nutria) swimming in the small lakes - perhaps we were too busy with birds to see the Cavia, a hare-sized grazing rodent, or perhaps we didn’t pass the right habitat. This place is big!
    From the bank of the massive estuary of the Rio de la Plata, 100 km wide at the mouth and here still 50 km across to Uruguay, we identified Great Grebe, Black Skimmer; and Band-tailed (Olrog’s), Kelp, Grey-hooded and Brown-hooded Gulls.

    We hired a taxi to Buenos Aires airport and took the long way around, taking particular note of the brightly painted buildings and ‘arty’ rejuvenation of the working class suburb of La Boca. We digressed along country roads at the back of the airport to see what we could see. Nothing new but interesting never-the-less. The caracaras seem to ocupy the same niche that crows fill in other continents, even down to the way they both patrol the road verges.
    Forty-seven species in two days. Maybe we should have done better. Next time we could cut out the touristy bits and go out with the lady bird-watchers from the city instead but it’s not  easy to ignore the other fascinations of Buenos Aires.

    Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The tinamous were there again. As we landed beside the capital of the Bolivian lowlands, more tinamous could be seen from the plane as we turned at the end of the taxiway. We landed or took off from at this airport several times over the next four weeks and saw them twice more. These were Red-winged Tinamous.
    Most of the next two days was spent re-arranging part of the tour  - organising tours to the remoter parts of Bolivia is not straightforward, not as bad as in Eastern Russia, but not at all easy - and meeting the third member of our macaw sections of the tour, Zdeni, the parrot specialist from Germany.
    After adding House Wren and Sayaca Tanager to the list, we flew on schedule to the Brazilian Pantanal, or to be precise to Puerto Suarez near the Brazilian border, in the middle of the afternoon of the 1st Sept.
    We were off on our 18-day tour to try and find seven species of Macaws and many other birds and mammals.

The Four Macaw Sections of the Tour.

1st September.
    We were met at the airport by our English-speaking guide. He had a taxi waiting and we drove to the side of a nearby lake to do a little late afternoon birding before checking into the hotel in the border town of Quijarro. Our first Great Black Hawk flew by, and the only Little Woodpecker we were to see on the tour dropped into a nearby tree. A Common Thornbird was attending it’s massive 1.5 metre-long stick nest hanging from a branch beside us and a Yellow-billed Cardinal was feeding on the ground.

The Pantanal Section.
2nd Sept
    At daylight the same taxi drove us to the border which was un-manned. The expensive visas we had gone to such trouble to get were worthless, but only because we were coming out the same way in a few days when the border was still unmanned.
    Soon we were under way into the Pantanal. New birds came fast and often. Our first Snowy Egret, Cocoi Heron, Little Heron (the same as we have at home but there called Striated or Mangrove), Rufescent Tiger Heron, Bare-faced and Buff-necked Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, Maguari Stork, Jabiru (the real thing!), Black Vulture, Southern Screamer (now there’s a bird! - as big-bodied as a pelican and awfully noisy), Muscovy Duck (again, for real), Snail Kite, Sharp-shinned (Plain-breasted?) and Grey-lined Hawks, Savanna and Black-collared Hawks on every second post, Chaco Chacalaca, Limpkin (by the dozen), Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Yellow-billed and Large-billed Terns, and Picui Ground Dove.

    Wait for it now! Hyacinyth Macaws. We had stopped for lunch at one of the well-known tourist haciendas, and there they were. Three in a tree on the other side of a large pond. Of course they were photographed and videoed and finger-printed. These are OhMyGod birds of the first order. About one metre long and a rich purply-blue with a bright yellow eye-ring and moustache for contrast. Big, gentlly-behaved creatures. They perched there for nearly an hour.

    We actually had been seeing many Golden-collared Macaws flying past up to this point and even though we saw them on two or three other days, we never saw them perched. Never-the-less we were two macaws up in the first 24 hours of the official tour. Very pleasing.
    We inadvertently had to stay in this area for a few hours and saw many other species. Smooth-billed Ani; our first Hummingbird, a female Glittering-bellied Emerald, spotted by sharp-eyed Lynn; the big Ringed Kingfishers were common, and the second-biggest treat of the day, the black and white Toco Toucan with the bright orange beak.  Other non-passerines were Plush-crested Jay, Saffron Finch, Chopi Blackbird and Crested Oropendola.

    Part of our route was on a litle-used dirt road, built above flood level, and a loafing place for hundreds of Capybara, the largest rodent in the world, as big as pigs. Along the waterways beneath us were rows of White Caiman (Jacaré) and a few Alligators.
    Because of the unexpected delay we had to travel in darkness for a couple of hours and spotlighted Whitetail and Swamp Deer, Pampas Fox, Six-banded Armadillo, and two Nightjars which were probably White-winged females although the adult female seems to be undescribed, and the immature female is thought to have no white in either wings or tail; both of these birds had no white except on the tail, just as an adult male would have.

    We stayed three nights at a fairly rough camp sleeping in tents after trying hammocks for the first night, and although the wildlife was very good around it, I don't know whether I would take a tour there again. It may be better to stay at the up-market hacienda (with an up-market price) to just as easily access the Hyacinth Macaw.
    On the other hand I know I would miss the vastness of such a remote place where the nearest building, the manager’s hacienda, is about half a day’s ride away, on horseback.

3rd & 4th Sept.
    This Pantanal proper, away from civilisation and formed roads, is a vast grass plain studded with higher tree-coverd islands often several hundred yards apart and up to twenty hectares in extent. They really are islands surrounded by water in a big wet season. Some of the bigger ones such as the one we were camped at, almost surround small lakes. Our camp was just back at the edge of the trees, far enough from the lake, in which we swam every day, to escape the biting insects.

    The most special bird at our place was a tiny Dwarf Tinamou, one of the seven most endangered tinamous, which waddled busily through the camp site each morning while only the cook and I were up and about. Plumbeous Ibis, Turkey Vulture, White-faced and Black-bellied Ducks,  both of the whistling variety, Yellow-headed Caracara, the often heard and seen Blue-throated Guan, Bare-faced Curassow (lucky, lucky!), Peach-fronted and Canary-winged Parakeets, and Blue-fronted Parrot, were some of the others seen from the camp. Zdeniidentified these parrots very skilfully, even in flight; very impressive parrot i.d. skills.
    A Narrow-billed Woodcreeper fossicked through the trees daily and a Buff-fronted Foliage Gleaner once. At the back of the kitchen the only-Portuguese-speaking cook threw out scaps for the birds. Maroon-chested and Ruddy Ground Doves came, and Rufous Cacholote, Purplish Jay, and Black-throated Saltator.

    Not far from the camp, on some of our walks, were other excellent animals. A Collared Forest Falcon was claimed and Bat Falcon scoped well, pairs of Southern Screamers screaming warnings about us from a long way off from the tops of large trees, Red-legged Seriema (two new families for me), the ubiquitous Grey-necked Rail, Lesser Yellowlegs on the edge of a larger lake, and more pairs of Hyacinyth Macaws and a pair Red & Green Macaws both species quite close and observed long enough for still and video photography. Other parrots not far from the camp were Blue-crowned and Black-hooded Parakeets.

    We saw our first of several Squirrel Cuckoos, the common cuckoo of South America, watched some of the widespread Burrowing Owl brigade in daylight, and the less widespread Nacunda Nighthawks at dusk. A well camouflaged Rufous Nightjar was spotted in daylight, and Blue-crowned Trogon, White Woodpecker, Campo Flicker seen well too. Greater Thornbird, White-winged Swallow, and Marsh Tyrant were other new birds for the trip.

    A feature of the area were the Armadillos, both Six-and Nine-banded, the former being much larger. Just before dusk the very dark, almost black, Coatis came out onto the grasslands to hunt and the Black & Gold Howler Monkeys howled even more loudly.  They made such a noise they sometimes seemed only half a kilometre away but were more likely four to six times that distance. One of the few reptiles seen was a harmless? (so our guide said) multi-coloured little grass snake coloured like a coral snake.

    We had to leave for Corumba and the border pre-dawn the next day which was a blessing in disguise for we saw the only Greater Rheas of the tour just after daylight. The only other new bird on the three-hour drive overland to the nearest bus stop, was a Gray Monjita. Buses in the Pantanal are modern, clean, fast, and air-conditioned. From our seats in the front we suddenly saw an Orange-breasted Falcon banking right before us, drawing our gaze away from the other common birds of prey, plus Jabirus, numerous egrets, and Capybaras, that we were driving by. There was even a pair of Hyacinyth Macaws feeding on the ground.

    Through the Brazil/Bolivia border again (the only thing stopping us was that we had to change taxis), on to the airport and off to Santa Cruz. The taste of the landscape, animals, and experiences of the Brazilian Pantanal that we had will be with us all for the rest of our lives.  Let’s go back!

The Amazon Jungle
   The next tour highlight was a new Amazon lowlands rainforest lodge called Chalalan, almost due north of La Paz, but nearly 3000m lower of course. We were there for 4 days and although our guide Alexandros wasn't really a bird guide he was very good at explaining rainforest ecology which was just what was wanted because it was the first time the others had been in the Amazon. But he was, as most forest-born people are, a very good spotter. He saw the head of a Marbled Quail, asleep in the undergrowth, from 40 metres. An amazing piece of spotting!

    As with most adventures in Bolivia, just getting there takes time. Unfortunately, with the re-arrangements we had to make, we had to fly to La Paz and spend one day at that altitude-sickness height, not able to go up gradually. So we all suffered a little that day. Fortunately we flew out the next morning for Rurrenabaque on the Beni River, a typical Amazon frontier town, unsophisticated and bustling with people keen to replace the forest with farmland. The Beni flows into the Madeira which is a major artery of the Amazon drainage system.

    That afternoon we travelled three to four hours up the Beni on a large motorised canoe or riverboat then up the Tuichi River which was very low and our boat so big and full the crew had to get out and push it through some of the rapids. Some of the highlights of the river trip, were Orinoco Goose, a small group of Yellow-headed Vultures (C. melambrotus), Swallow-tailed Kite, Black Caracara, Grey-necked Rail, Spotted Sandpiper, Pied and Collared Plovers, Black Skimmer, Yellow-billed and Large-billed Terns; our first Blue & Yellow Macaws plus Red & Green Macaws flying over, large flocks of Cobalt-winged Parakeets? foraging on small plants among the stones of the beaches, Canary-winged Parakeet, Yellow-ridged Toucan, White-winged and Drab Water Tyrants; Vermilion Flycatchers, and White-banded and Tawny-headed Swallows.

    Late afternoon brought us to the isolated lowland lodge of ChalalanLodge, a new, and so far the only, Bolivian lowland rainforest lodge. Very nice rooms and food and people. Features of Chalalan are the nesting Chestnut-fronted Macaws in the tree above the main building, the wheezing Hoatzins by the lake, the Scaled Pigeons, and the common Amazonian forest-edge species, Tropical Kingbird, Social Flycatcher, Lesser Kiskadee, Palm and Silver-beaked Tanagers, Giant Cowbird, a Yellow-rumped Cacique colony, plus Epaulet Oriole and Amazonian Oropendola,G. bifasciatus. As we were canoed around the lake we saw a Brown Tinamou, Least Grebe, a Sungrebe,Short-tailed Tyrant, White-winged Swallows, and Red-capped Cardinals. On the second time around, a couple of days later, a small flock of Green & Gold and Masked Tanagers were encountered, feeding with Green Honeycreepers.

    Along the the very extensive forest paths, or in the sky above them,  during our stay we saw King Vulture (beautiful even though it’s a vulture),  Plumbeous Kite, Red-throated Caracaras, Marbled Quail, Pale-winged Trumpeter (a small flock which kept running off in front of us every time we got near), Ruddy Quail Dove, Blue &Yellow Macaws; White-eyed, Canary-winged, White-bellied, Blue-headed and Mealy Parrots; White-collared Swift, Reddish Hermit, Swallow-wing (now one of the puffbirds), Emerald Toucanet, Chestnut-eared Aracari, Cuvier's Toucan, Blonde-crested Woodpecker, Masked Tityra, Chestnut-tailed Antbird, Blue-crowned and Red-headed Manakins, Screaming Piha, Bare-necked Fruitcrow, Southern Nightingale Wren, and Red-crowned Tanagers. The Amazon is so full of good birds I have to kep going back.
   Our only spotting-night with Alexandros resulted in one Brazilian Rabbitseen, and Spectacled & Crested Owls both heard only.  We weren’t really expecting a tapir (we saw some tracks) or a jaguar, but who knows?

    The river had risen considerably for our return voyage. No scraping the bottom this time as we shot down the rapids, our speed increased by a more powerful motor on a larger boat, and a daring, fearless, boatman. Quite exciting. Alexandros had asked as we left if we had seen the Capped Heron, and if so, where? Apparently he had never seen one around Chalalan. About halfway down the Tuichi, someone mentioned that conversation. “Where do you find the Capped Heron?”, she said. At that very point, we looked to our right and there was one standing there!  The perfect timing of the question was almost unbelievable.
    Closer to Rurrenbaque than Chalalan is a high clay cliff about 1km from the river. It is the nesting and roosting site for several Red & Green Macaws and White-eyed Parakeets. We stood off from the cliff about 100m and scoped them as the area  is a tourist spot and the birds liable to be spooked if too many people get too close.
    On the Beni, about 100m wide even this far back, a large flock of Sand-coloured Nighthawks were beginning to rise off a sandspit as we we came past in the failing light. We docked at Rurre’ just on nightfall, and found a young chap with a large barrow to take all our things up to the motel.

The Llanos de Mojos and the Blue-throated Macaws.
    Our hired vehicle came at daybreak to take us east across Bolivia as far as the Estacion Biologica del Beni in the Reserva de la Biosfera, about halfway to Trinidad. The guy was in a hurry and didn’t want to stop to look at anything, so we arrived at the Beni Reserve at a reasonable hour. Basic accommodations and food, consequently much cheaper than Chalalan.
    The Department of Beni and the Llanos de Moxos are almost the same vast area. Very similar to the Brazilian part of the Pantanal where we had just been, flat to the horizon and dotted with islands of trees, and flood-prone in the wet. The only new birds for the tour these two days were Cinerous Harrier,Cock-tailed and Streamer-tailed Tyrants, and Wedge-tailed Grassfinch, and there were nesting Chestnut-fronted Macaws in the palms behind the bunkrooms.

    But the highlight was the enormous number of  White-eyed Parakeeets  coming in to roost in one of the tree islands.  There  may have been over 40,000. The seemingly non-stop stream of birds coming in was one of the tour highlights, many of them flying by within metres of us as we walked toward the roost. It was very impressive. And the noise they made in there!  The number of Vermilion Flycatchers (good to see anywhere), were another memorable sight here.
    The next day we caught a bus to Trinidad and I realised that we had done it the wrong way around. Our original plan, before we had to re-arrange the tour because Chalalan claimed we hadn’t been booked there at all, was to drive from Trinidad to the Beni Reserve and bus from there to Rurre’. The bus was zooming past Jabiru, Screamers and perched raptors galore. What missed opportunities! What delights we may have had! Maybe we’ll do it that way in Sept 2002.

    We stayed in the delightful Hotel la Hosteria on the northern outskirts of Trinidad, but that night it rained heavily and continued the next morning. Disaster. The dirt road north was closed to all traffic.  We mucked around Trinidad, entertained and kept cheerful by our hostess and guide Lilliam. Early on the second morning we tried the road only to find it blocked with a grader on the edge of town, and it was mid-morning before the road dried out sufficiently for  travel.
    North of Trinidad, where the Blue-throated Macaws are, would be as good as the Brazilian Panatanal for wildlife. A VENT bird tour there two years ago saw 217 species in one day! We didn't because we were rushed for time as we had just lost a day through rain, and only saw 85. We hardly stopped so we missed most of the small birds and the two women with me didn't seem that interested in those.
    From the moving vehicle there were almost the same birds and other animals that are listed on the 2nd Sept under The Pantanal Section. Many of the small birds would have been different as there is much more swampland and higher ground cover along this road than anywhere we were in the Pantanal.
    As far as is known, all Blue-throated Macaws are on private properties, east of the Mamore River and north of Trinidad. There are only two properties which have tourist accommodation up there - one on Cutal and the other on ?La Havana.Cutal where we stayed has adequate accommodation, hacienda or bunkhouse, and good meals.

    Blue & Yellow Macaws fly around the house and perch in nearby trees. There are a lot of them and this was the closest we had been. Mid-afternoon saw us on the vehicle again heading through the paddocks. We stopped by a tree island no different-looking than any other and quietly entered. And there they were. A pair of Blue-throated Macaws. They were gaped at, studied through binocular and telescope, photographed and videoed. They got the works. They were the high point of the entire tour. All thoughts of how much they had cost were forgotten. It was all worth it. OhMyGod birds on two counts, beauty and rarity.

    We saw 12 species of parrot in this region including the Blue-throated, Blue & Yellow, Chestnut-fronted, and Golden-collared Macaws;Blue-winged Parrotlet, Dusky-headed and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets, and Orange-winged and Yellow-crowned Amazonas.
    The only Hummingbird we saw in the llanos was the large Swallow-tailed, and Ringed the only Kingfisher, but three Woodpeckers, Crimson-crested, Cream-backed and Campo Flicker.
    Among the passerines seen were Rufous Cacholote, Great Antshrike, three of the Monjitas - Grey, White, and White-rumped; Black-backed, Marsh, Cattle, and Streamer-tailed Tyrants; a pair of Donacobius perched on the head of a large Capybara but not long enough for a photo, Sedge Wren, Masked Gnatcatcher, Chalk-browed Mockingbird, Sayaca Tanager, Greyish Saltator, Black-backed Grosbeak, Red-crested Cardinal, Blue-black Grassquit, Tawny-bellied Seedeater, Great Pampa Finch; and White-browed, Chopi, and the gorgeous Scarlet-headed Blackbirds.

Santa Cruz and the Red-fronted Macaw?
   We were joined at Santa Cruz by our guide Bennett Hennessy, very knowledgeable and good-humoured, and Hideo Tani, a loyal client-friend from Japan; two sharp birders who had just spent a couple of days together at a nearby lodge, building up a list for Hideo. We all set off on the Great Red-fronted Macaw Expedition after lunch, arriving in Comarapa after dark. When Bennett admitted that he had never seen these macaws in spite of two previous attempts, and when we learned that it was winter when they came onto the paddocks to feed, we realised that we would be lucky to see any this time either.

    But as we drove back the few kms to Tambo, a  Darwin’s Nothura crossed the road, and we were soon caught up in some excellent dryland birding. Sharp-eyed Lynn sotted a large group of  Dusky-legged Guan running away up a hill, and other new birds for the tour were Glittering-bellied Emerald, White-bellied Hummingbird, Blue-capped Puffleg (good to catch up with a few humming- birds at last), White-fronted and Green-barred Woodpeckers, Rusty-vented Canastero, Plain-crowned Spinetail, and Rufous-capped Antshrike.
    Bennett taped in one of his favourites, the Greater Wagtail Tyrant, and we saw Cliff Flycatcher, White-tipped Plantcutter (these were a seperate family once but now with the Cotingas); Rufous-browed Peppershrike (at last), Rust & Yellow, Blue & Yellow, and Blue-capped Tanagers; Purple-throated Euphonia, Golden-billed Saltator, Ultramarine Grosbeak; Ringed Warbling, Black-capped, and Grey-crested Finches; Bay-winged Cowbird and Yellow-bellied Siskin. Although we saw many good birds around Tambo that morning, we missed the macaw.

    It was the end of the Macaw Sections of the tour. Six out of the seven target Macawswas a good result; the big ones - Hyacinth, Red & Green, Blue & Yellow, and Blue-throated- and the smaller ones -Chestnut-fronted and Golden-collared - all marvellous, but especially the four big ones, and although our tour went through the southern edge of the range of the Scarlet Macaw we never saw one and didn’t expect to.

    We had too little time to spend at Tambo and drove back that night, getting two punctures on the gravel a few kms out of Samaipata, so we dumped the hired 4wd beside the road and hired two taxis and sped, really sped, back to Santa Cruz. Mind you, it’s a good sealed road from there. The  spare morning next day was filled by the three men of the group birding the new Santa Cruz Gardens, an excellent place on the North-eastern edge of the City, while the women “caught up” with things, like shopping.
    At the gardens we saw a few nice new birds. Black-fronted Nunbird, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, Greyish and Buff-throated Woodcreepers, Red-billed Scythebill (a beak like a Whimbrel), Eastern Slaty Antshrike, White-backed Fire-eye, Suiriri Flycatcher, Rufous Casiornis, Dusky-capped and Streaked Flycatchers, Blue & White Swallow, Thrush-like and Fawn-breasted Wrens, Tropical Parula, Troupial, and Tropical Cacique.

Cochabamba and the Yungas
    Early pm we flew to Cochabamba where the locals claim a perfect climate, year round. Eternal spring, like the Papua New Guinea Highlands. As soon as we organised our hire vehicle, (taking particular notice of the tyres), we drove around Laguna Alalay for some excellent easy birding. There were Puna Ibis, Chilean Flamingo, Fulvous Whistling and Andean Ducks, White-cheeked and Yellow-billed Pintails; Puna, Silver, and Cinnamon Teal; Red Shoveller, Andean Coot, Wilson’s Phalarope, Andean Gull, Chiguanco and Cream-bellied Thrushes, all new for the trip, and some old friends including a lovely Plumbeous Rail.

    The first new bird the next morning was a Mountain Caracara, seen as we finally crested the pass through the Andes and began the gentle drive down through the Yungas to the lowlands on a lovely, wide, sealed road - mostly. Our re-arranged travel plans plus the one day lost through rain, left us a day short for the Yungas which meant we could only whizz down and whizz back the next day, a travestial way to treat an Eastern Andean Slope which you could spend two weeks on. So we just hit the hottest spots.

    Variable Hawk was the next new bird, followed by Green-cheeked Parakeet, Speckle-faced and Scaly-naped Parrots, Blue-banded Toucanet, Hooded Mountain Toucan,Bar-bellied Woodpecker, Azara’s Spinetail, Pearled Treerunner, (Rufous-faced Antpitta heard only), White-crested and Highland Elaenias, Bran-coloured and Cinnamon Flycatchers, Red-crested Cotinga, Band-tailed Fruit-eater, and (Moustached Wren and White-eared Solitaire heard only), almost exactly in that order, nearer the top.
    Great Thrush, Capped Conebill; Common Bush, Chestnut-bellied, and Scarlet-bellied Tanagers; Masked and Gray-bellied Flowerpiercers, and Rufous-naped Brushfinch, Rufous-breasted and Streak-throated Tyrants, Red-eyed Vireo, and Spectacled Whitestart were seen too.  From the list it looks to be around the 2000-2500m level.
    Lower down we saw the ubiquitous Barred Antshrike, Black-throated Antbird, Lesser Seedfinch (S.castaneiventris),  and Russet-backed and Dusky-green Oropendolas.

    We stayed at a very nice place in Villa Tunari, large units on a large lawn, right beside the main street, and before daylight drove a little north again and well into one of three National Parks in the area. A small Cock of the Rock lek was the big attraction. There were only 2 or 3 males and 1? female there, poor views through the trees as they could see us easily, but a good start to the day nevertheless.
 Along the track a bit there was one Amazonian Umbrellabird, perched high up, but not everyone saw it. Other lowland forest birds that morning were Black-crowned Tityra, Green Jay, and Thick-billed Euphonia. The forest was so slow we decided to move out and drove several km to a spot that Bennet  knows for Pectoral Sparrow;  it wouldn’t show itself and only Zdeni saw it.  The other new lowland tour species we saw were Short-tailed Swift, White-necked Jacobin, Green Violet-ear, Bananaquit, Magpie Tanager, and Grassland Sparrow.

    We stopped for lunch at an excellent fish restaurant about 8km south of the town. Suddenly there was a raptor soaring over us, all white except for the tail. Big. The beautiful Black & White Eagle. We motored back up the Andes in the early afternoon, stopping occasionally to check for birds but there were hardly any. Good scenery though! About two-thirds of the way up, in similar habitat that we stopped at on the way down, was another trail to the west. As we stood on the edge of a magnificent view some Crested Quetzals began to socialise in the tops of large trees at eye level. What extraordinary colours!  They were there for about 20 mins and we thoroughly enjoyed the show.
    Not many birds at all today, let alone new species, but what quality! That evening at dinner Bennett asked us all what the best bird of the day was expecting Cock of the Rock to be the answer. “Crested Quetzal of course!”, chorussed the two women. Personally, I thought it was the B&W Eagle.

 The following morning the women had “things to do” so Hideo, Bennett and I drove up to the dry mountains to the NW of Cochabamba to look for some local endemics. Here among the high, irrigated fields, still with some tall bushes left around them, were our newest trip birds; Sierra  Parakeet, Andean Swift, Giant Hummingbird (what a monster!), Bar-winged Cinclodes, Brown-capped and Tawny Tit-Spinetails, Yellow-billed and Tufted Tit-tyrants, White-browed and White-winged Tyrants, Brown-backed Mockingbird, Rufous-bellied Saltator, Black-hoodedSierrafinch, Cochabamba Mountain and Rufous-sided Finches, and Bolivian Blackbird.

La  Paz and Lake Titicaca.
    The second time around, La Paz gave us no altitude problems at all because we had acclimatised at the lower level of Cochabamba for a few days.
    As more than 50% of Bolivians are of Aymara or Quechuan descent, and 70% of those live in the Altiplano, there are lots of Indians in La Paz. This is where the Quechuan-speaking Inca Empire virtually stopped - the Aymarans put up too much resistance.
    So culturally, La Paz is a very interesting city. Lots of old Spanish churches among lots of colourful Aymara women in traditional dress plus bowler hats, black, brown and white, a different colour hat for each part of the city. Like all nearly Andean Amerindians, they are temendously industrious. Markets of all sorts everywhere. There were great value artifacts to buy, especially woollen goods, and we made sure that we went to at least one peña or folk music venue with a meal.
    We managed only one day at Lake Titicaca. We hired a “collectivo solamente” (a mini-van for ourselves) and set off with a non-English speaking driver. We saw a few birds such as Andean Lapwing, Rufous-naped Tyrant, Andean Swallow, Yellow-winged Blackbird (which some of us had seen by Buenos Aires), Peruvian Sierrafinch, and Yellow-rumped Siskin. A few herds of Llamas were seen close to La Paz, looking quite small against the vastness of the altiplano.
     And the reed boats on Lake Titicaca? Replicas of an ancient culture, very interesting, but not for riding in - but we could hire an ordinary boat for U$250 if we wantd to go out to the islands! No thanks. We returned to La Paz and went to a peña instead for U$2.50.

 That was Bolivia. The soul of Latin America. So much to see, so little time. We’ll have to do it all again. Perhaps in 2002 with the Parrot Society of Australia.. Come with us!

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P.S. We saw 26 parrot species altogether.