Clients
Rain Forest Preservation
Douglas B. Trent is an ecologist, and a founder of the rainforest conservation movement. He started Focus Tours in 1981 with the goal of using tourism for environmental education and to raise funds for conservation work. He is an ecologist who lived in Brazil for over 10 years, guiding around 200 days a year in various parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay. He continued to guide nearly the same amount during the 14 years after "leaving" Brazil. Adding that to the time our other guides have spent guiding tours, and we easily have operated more nature and birding tours in these areas than any of our competitors.
For the majority of our nearly 25 years of operating nature and birding tours, we have acted as the ground (inbound) operator for American and European nature and birding tour companies. We have operated and either guided or co-guided tours for Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris, Eco Expeditions/ ZEGRAHM, Field Guides Inc., Wings, Motmot, International Expeditions, Questers, Swan Hellenic, Ornitholidays, Amazon Adventurers, Turtle Tours, Brazilian Views, Preferred Adventures, Exodus Expeditions, several state Audubon societies and many others.
We've also done work for the BBC Wildlife Unit, Jack Hanna Animal Adventures, National Geographic Today Show, The Jeff Corwin Experience, several professional photographers and Taurus Productions for a Discovery Channel Special on Giant River Otters. With our in-country expertise, we are widely recognized as the company to work with in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay. Over the last few years, we have enjoyed some excellent coverage in the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, Business Week, Condé Nast Traveler and several newspapers around the world. We have also been recommended in many Brazil travel guide books, including the Lonely Planet, South American Handbook, Frommers and others, as well as the 'Birding Brazil Site Guide.'
We are now able to offer our services directly to the public. With all of our staff except for Douglas and Alessandra still living in South America, we are also able to offer you tours on your schedule, and design them to meet your specific needs. Most outbound operators schedule tours a year or more in advance, designing them to fit what they think most people will want to do and then try to fill them by advertising and publishing a catalog.
Since
our beginning in 1981, all tours we have operated have been operated on
request. Say, for example, you have time in June and want to visit Bolivia
or one of the other countries we offer. You could call me, and I would
tell you what we have available. If that did not fit your needs, I would
work with you to help design a tour that does. Once you have approved
a tour proposal, you will have the option of keeping it private for just
your family and friends, or to open it to the public to form a small group.
If you open it to the public, we will put it on our "Schedule
of Tours Open to the Public" and send that out to those on our mailing
list. We can also help you plan independent travel, complete with hotel,
air and car reservations along with invaluable advice.
Our goal is not necessarily to show you the most birds, mammals or anything else. Our goal is to make you very happy, and we will ask a lot of questions to make sure we get it right. English-speaking naturalists guide all of our tours. They carry the equipment that will make a difference in how much you see: a spotting telescope, tape recorder and microphone to bring rare animals into view, and a powerful spotlight for night viewing. They will also have the bird and mammal guide books appropriate to the regions where your tour goes.
Our guides all use binoculars, and we can't stress enough the importance of each tour member having his/her own binoculars. In addition, we provide checklists of the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians of each area we tour, with common English and Latin names. These help tour participants not just keep track, but also learn the animals they see. If you ever need to evaluate the various nature tour operators out there, I have a tip for you. Ask the operator what equipment the guides use, and if they can send you a copy of a bird and mammal list for the tour areas. With "ecotourism" being the industry buzz word of the '90's, many companies around the world are touting themselves to be professional with "naturalist" guides. Without the equipment mentioned above, you will see a small portion of the animals people see on our tours, and may not see much of what you do see very well. If a company cannot easily produce a list, with English names at least, they probably do not have adequate knowledge of the natural history of any given area.
While some of our clients don't have a die-hard interest in natural history, everyone enjoys seeing a monkey's face close up through a quality telescope. Everyone appreciates it when a hidden toucan hops up into view after his or her guide plays a tape of its raspy voice. And sitting down at the end of day to note what you've seen on a list always amazes people. Rarely does anyone remember all the animals they've seen in any given day on one of our tours. When we bring the list up to date, you have a chance to look at the pictures in the guidebooks and at the end of a tour can have an impressive ability to identify many of the birds and animals you have seen. The process also helps you remember just how much you have seen and learned on your tour. With the growth in ecotourism, more and more people are expecting qualified naturalists with not just more knowledge, but the proper equipment as well. With the great number of guide and reference books that have come out in the last few years (The Birds of South America Vols. I & II, Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, etc.), we are finding our clients to be more educated.
Our ability to identify a great percentage of the animals in the regions we tour by sound alone is essential in a quality nature tour that is trying to see as much as possible. Is the sound in the distance or hidden in the foliage a bird we've not seen, or perhaps a marmoset that would be new to the tour? If it were something already seen well, we wouldn't want to waste any time on it. If it were something new, however, it would be worth the time to pull up the tape or record it on the spot, and pull it into view with playback. In fact, we have "spots", or know home ranges, for many of the animals our clients want to see. If they are not calling, we can play the tapes we've previously recorded in the same place and often pull them into view. Most ground operators don't have the knowledge or the equipment to pull this off, and it makes all the difference in the world. This is all too clear when a company using less qualified guides has a group in the same hotel we are using. We think you'll be glad you are with us.
We invite you to take some time to browse through this site, and keep in mind that the schedule of tours does not cover all of what we will be offering; be sure to check back with us once you know when you would like to travel. and feel free to contact us to let us know what we can do for you in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile or Paraguay.