Cristalino Reserve

Cristalino is a private reserve of some tens of thousands of hectares on the Cristalino River in northern Mato Grosso, in the transitional southern Amazon where rainforest meets cerrado - a zone that carries species from both and is also the part of the Amazon under the heaviest deforestation pressure, which is what the reserve was set up in the late 1970s to hold. Two fifty-metre observation towers rise above the canopy and are the point of the place: at first light you are looking across the treetops at macaws, toucans, cotingas and, with luck, at the canopy mammals. The bird list runs past six hundred species and includes a number restricted to this southern Amazon band. Access is by boat from Alta Floresta and the lodge sells multi-day packages rather than nights.

What you actually see

• Fifty-metre canopy towers - dawn views out across the treetops.
• Southern Amazon transition - species from both rainforest and cerrado.
• Over six hundred bird species - including southern Amazon specialities.
• A private reserve since the 1970s - forest held against surrounding clearance.

When to go

May to September, the dry season. Four days.

Honest expectations

This is expensive and sold as packages, not by the night. Getting there means a flight to Alta Floresta plus transfer and boat. Mammals are hard to see and the draw is birds. Tower climbs start before dawn. Humidity and insects are constant.

Nearby

Alta Floresta is the gateway town; the Teles Pires River is west.