Hotel Flora and Fauna

by A. Bennett Hennessey and Lawrence Rubey
The Hotel Flora and Fauna offers peaceful cabins edged by the forest, with a do-it-yourself attitude.  The forest borders on Robin Clark's long tropical forest strip, which has one main trail, but there are also roads that cover open areas and secondary forest.  This area is at the southern limit of the amazon tropical forest offering a slow, not very diverse forest with low abundances, in comparison to most amazon basin sites.  This is not the site if you want to pick up antbirds, understory foraging flocks or big canopy flocks (see Sadiri).  However, this forest also has a strong southern influence, with some hard to find birds from deciduous, temperate and hill forests, like Tataupa Tinamou, White-chinned Sapphire, White-bellied Hummingbird, Green-barred Flicker, Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet, Slaty Thrush, Gray-headed Tanager, Orange-bellied Euphonia, and Golden-crowned Warbler.  There is a Black Hawk-Eagle living in the area and Robin Clark knows a spot were one can see the Curl-crested Aracari.  One big advantage of this area is that Robin Clark has stomped his ground well and can give excellent directions, and occasionally guide to specific bird sites. Be aware that Robin is a British expat who has no problem expressing his conservative (to some offensive) opinion to fellow tourists after a few beers.

Logistics: The Hotel has been confirmed still open in May 2012. The Hotel is 105 km along the New road to Cochabamba to the town of Buena Vista.  If you are driving, follow the road to Huaytu from Buena Vista, at 3.7 km from Buena Vista the small signed entrance (left) to the Hotel.  There are daily buses and taxis leaving the Santa Cruz terminal de buses to Buena Vista.  In Buena Vista, a taxi or moto taxi can be hired for $5 to take you to the hotel (ask for la casa de Robin Clark).  Hotel Flora and Fauna, Casilla 2097, Santa Cruz, Tel: 01943706.