World Trip
Hello all,
I am a veterinarian and wildlifephotographer from the Netherlands.
Have been living and travelling all over the world. Next year our greatest adventure, a worldtrip after living in Suriname for 14 months, will take place.
Looking here for the best tips and tricks!
We will be travelling Costa Rica, Peru, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, The Balkans, The UAE, India, Sri Lanka or South East Asia and ending in Zambia where we will live for 3 months on the border of the South Luangwa National park. We want to spot and photograph as many unique species as possible. I know this is a long shot, but whenever you have had an amazing time or trip in one of these countries and give us some tips, we would be very very grateful. We will be looking for mammals mostly, but also birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Kind Regards,
Björn
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6 Comments
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Evan
Sounds like a very cool trip!
The pinnacle of organized wildlife tourism in Costa Rica is a 1-3 night trip to stay in the middle of Corcovado National Park, which usually involves good views of Baird’s Tapir, for a few hundred USD per person. I didn’t get to do it but I heard mostly good things. And if you’re not satisfied with sloths after Suriname, on the opposite coast both two-toed and three-toed are common in Cahuita and along the backpacker beach strip from Puerto Viejo de Talamanca to Punta Uva – though not necessarily so abundant that you’re guaranteed sightings on a one or two day visit. Beyond the border, Panama is debatably as good as Costa Rica or better if you have your own car and want to look for wildlife yourself (it’s definitely a break from the US-priced tourist Disneyland approach to ecotourism). As of last year, Lost and Found Hostel (in the Panamanian forest towards the Costa Rica end) was still getting multiple nightly visits to their hummingbird feeders by Cacomistles (despite their location at a lively dining area for backpackers), and one night I also saw a kinkajou there, though the staff said that was uncommon. The place is also good for hummingbirds, of course.
Peru is very cool and has some great rainforest in the east, just know that the other parts of the country tend to be a bit short on wildlife as the highlands are densely populated and the west coast is extreme desert, though the coast has sea lions, penguins and other seabirds and parts of the highlands have abundant waterbirds. If you make it to Bolivia, the extended (2-night?) version of the popular Uyuni salt flats tours goes into the country’s southern wilderness and usually involves many vicuña sightings, one close encounter with wild mountain viscachas, and often a sighting or two of guanacos and culpeo foxes.
One of my best wildlife experiences (I tend to be on a very low budget) was going on safari in India’s Kaziranga National Park, where Indian Rhino and several deer species are guaranteed – often close-up, and extremely so if you do the (relatively humane) elephant-back safari – among other mammals seen here and there, lots of birds, and tigers are seen on maybe 1 in 10 jeep safaris. Wildlife is a little sparser at the nearby(-ish) Manas National Park, but it’s more scenic and better for wild elephants and gaur. And in the other direction from Kaziranga there’s the Hollongapar Gibbon Reserve, where you can usually see gibbons and a couple monkeys on a morning walking tour. All of this is in the relatively relaxed, lightly-touristed far northeast of India (Assam), but I can’t compare it to areas closer to the center of the country, because I haven’t been to the latter.
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Jon Hall
Sounds like a great year ahead of you Bjorn. As I hope you already realise there are reports with detailed information covering all of those destinations on this site already. You might find it more productive to ask for information about a specific destination or species that isn’t mentioned / or not mentioned in enough detail. My only other advice right now if you should buy a thermal camera/scope if you don’t already have one!