Machu Pichu, Peru

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Medical Post Article:

Bird sighting through Peru's mountains and jungles
September 11, 2007 | Harvey Thommasen

View a slide show of this trip.

Not many folks would spend a full month backpacking through the jungles of Peru searching out unusual ornithological
species, but Dr. Harvey Thommasen did just that.

In 1970 I delivered newspapers in the small community of Youbou on the northern shores of Lake Cowichan on Vancouver
Island. One of my customers was George Bradd, and little did I know that 37 years later he would lead me in a great
birding adventure in Peru.

About 10 years older than I, Bradd worked in the local sawmill but he was different from most of the local resident loggers and millworkers I knew. He was a tree-hugger and a bird watcher who had moved to Youbou from California. Prior to George, I had never met anyone who admired living old-growth trees. He was also the first person I had ever met who knew the names of birds residing in the Cowichan Valley. We shared a passion for trout fishing, and over the years I learned to admire his love of forests and wildlife. When I headed off to McGill University in Montreal in 1975, we lost contact, and I didn't expect to ever see George again.

Two years ago, while doing a locum in Tofino, B.C., I stumbled across a bird watching business, and was somehow not surprised to discover it was George who was offering bird tours in the Tofino area in the summer months (www.justbiring.com) and winter trips to South America. George proposed my wife and I join him for a month-long birding tour in Peru and we agreed. After 30 years of bird watching in Mexico, Central America and South America,
George was now fluent in Spanish and had considerable experience in planning relatively safe, out-of-the-way trips. We left the details of the trip to him. Our job was to pay the bills.

We were instructed to bring no more than one backpack, and one day pack. I was told to look scruffy (so I stopped shaving and postponed a haircut) and not show off expensive items such as digital cameras. Carol was told to look
"Catholic" (so she wore her cross necklace, modest clothing and put her hair in a ponytail).

Our trip was four weeks long. We arrived on February 28 in Lima, where we stayed at the Posada del Parque Hotel for two nights. It was a veritable garden recluse in the heart of a busy city district. On our first morning, we were woken by the parakeets calling in the large tree in front.

Next we drove south from Lima to Paracas where we stayed in Hotel Mirador for three nights. Paracas is said to be the driest desert in the world and, paradoxically, it is located right beside the ocean. Highlights included seeing the Paracas candelabra bird in the sandy hillside, Humboldt penguins and a ringed storm petrel. The next day we explored the desert and found the Peruvian thick-knee (a kind of plover); and just as the sun was setting, we saw the extremely rare slender-billed finch.

When we returned to Lima we made the obligatory visit to the magnificent Machu Picchu ruins. On the way we visited the beautiful Lago Huacarpay-a lake surrounded by pre-Inca ruins. High-elevation birding highlights included the Inca
wren, torrent duck and a dozen brightly coloured hummingbirds, including the long-tailed sylph, giant hummingbird and the great sapphire-wing hummingbird.

We rented a Toyota Land Cruiser and made our way to the Wayqechas Cloud Forest Research and Conservation Area at around 3,000 metres elevation. From Wayqechas we descended down the treacherous and narrow Manu Road to Atalaya, a small village at the end of the road. On two occasions we
were stopped by mudslides, and once we watched more than a dozen people push a bus over one of these mudslides. I had visions of the bus falling thousands of metres down the mountainside.

At Atalaya we found the recommended river boat captain and paid for our ferrying across the Madre de Dios. Our destination was Amazonia Lodge, still another hour's hike away. There we saw hummingbirds, macaws, tinamou and a
wonderful assortment of tanagers.

Above the clouds: Peru's mix of exhuberant vegetation and majestic mountains creates astonishing views. We were served fresh grapefruits, oranges and bananas right off the trees. We learned the tanagers would approach a
feeder quite close to the veranda to enjoy bananas and rice. Apples did not work because they quickly became covered with wasps and bees. The wide veranda gave us welcome hours of armchair bird watching. It was the most relaxing part of our trip.

On day 22, we made our way back to Cusco. From there, we flew to Puerto Maldonado, where we hired a private bird guide with a river boat from Rainforest Expeditions (www.perunature.com) and headed up river to Posada Amazonas. There were many new birds to stop and see along the way.
Highlights included seeing hundreds of macaws, parrots and parakeets congregate at the world's largest macaw clay lick. We also saw the harpy eagle, great potoo, chachalaca, guan, trumpeter and tinamou-all rare birds that have been hunted off most of their traditional ranges. There were monkeys, poison dart frogs and an assortment of large and colourful insects.

One afternoon, we encountered a herd of wild pigs on the trail. We had heard stories about these pigs eating people, so we were not sure if we should scream, climb trees or make spears when we heard the racket.

On day 28 we got back into the river boat and retraced our steps back to Lima. All told, Carol and I saw more than 340 bird species we had never seen before. It was truly a bird watchers' extravaganza!

Throughout our Peru adventure, George entertained us with story after story of his adventures in South America. These included bird watching through the bars of a Mexican prison where he was "kidnapped" until family found money to pay the officials to bail him out; dodging lightning bolts as he ran across a high-elevation Argentine grass plain after seeing Andean condors and flamingos; discovering rare birds and human skeletal remains below a cliff where allegedly corrupt officials threw people to their deaths; uncovering a parrot smuggling operation with the help of a local, and then barely escaping with his life after reporting the details of the operation to the wrong person. And unfortunately, the local help was found dead a few weeks later after having his arm cut off with a machete. We have encouraged George to write a book of his adventures. The tentative title will be "Bird Watching on the Edge."

At Lima, we waved goodbye to George. He was staying another month in Peru to continue honing his birding skills deep in the Amazon jungle. He said he couldn't wait to get away from civilization and get back to worshipping the birds he continues to adore after all these years.

Harvey Thommasen is a rural physician who works in Masset, B.C.

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