In the News!
Dec 2, 2018
Naturetours Uses Small Private Yacht to Explore Amazon
Travel journalists Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman show you how to enrich your travel experience. Their radio shows air daily to 2.5 million listeners in 180 countries on the American Forces Radio Network.
Naturetours Mark Baker joins American Forces Network Radio Show for a Q&A on cruising in the Amazon Basin and the Rio Negro.
Written by Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman
Mark Baker joins Paul to talk about his Naturetours by small ship cruising in the Amazon Basin and the Rio Negro. Baker hosts small groups that are able to visit areas that others can’t due to size. Mark is an avid birder without a list.
Travel journalists Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman show you how to enrich your travel experience. Listen to their radio shows, which air daily to 2.5 million listeners in 180 countries on the American Forces Radio Network.
And now another edition of Trave On with Paul Leslie and Elizabeth Harriman. Every edition of Travel On with Paul Leslie and Elizabeth Harriman airs weekdays on the American Forces Network in countries around the world. Each show is also available as a podcast app on travel dot com in L.A. iTunes. Just use the keyword on travel.
Paul: Mark joins us. He's the CEO of NatureTours.com and that's a remarkable company that goes to a part of the world that Elizabeth I have never visited. And that's the Amazon, among other things. We're going to be talking about that today. And Mark, welcome to Travel-On. Mark: Thank you very much. Good morning.
Paul: Now, I guess that the question that's in my mind is why did you focus on doing tours on the Amazon?
Mark: Well, it's not something that I planned. I have to say. But in the early 1980s, that sort of confluence of circumstance, accidents and interests came together. And I found myself deep in the Amazon rainforest. I had been a boat builder in my early years and a carpenter kind of guy. And in between boat contracts, I took a vacation to the Amazon and I suddenly realized, oh, my goodness, there are so many boats here. I'm really fond of nature and I thought that maybe I can find a way to spend more time here.
And little did I know that 30, almost 40 years later, I would find myself as a boat operator or a boat owner, multilingual, with staff and boat floating around in the middle of the Amazon and my entire life devoted to the natural history that splendid place. But all that happened and we're still doing it, doing it today.
Paul: The Amazon, if I'm not mistaken, is the world's largest river, the world's largest watershed and everything. Is that correct?
Mark: That is true. And not just the river itself, but the forest is the largest forest in the world, the largest that there has ever been in the world. And where we go in our cruises is the least inhabited major river in the Amazon. Way, way into the wild forest.
Paul: Wow. Now that that immediately conjures up ideas of untouched local indigenous peoples and stuff like that. Is that all an accurate image of this? Because, I mean, I think the thing that I grew up with was a kid, if you fell in the Amazon, the piranhas would eat you alive. Which I understand is not true.
Mark: Well, we're all so lucky now. We really are in that all those wonderful things about the Amazon are still true. Where we go is largely un-impacted by humans. The largest populations are native peoples living in tribal life. And all the great beasts of the Amazon still roam there. They're still jaguars and snakes. It's all there. And I don't know just how long it will continue to be there, but at least we now have the opportunity to visit that place and experience it in the way it's been for millions of years.
Paul: Well, Mark, you mentioned that and where I guess where I've heard the Amazon described as the lungs of the world. I mean, obviously, its contribution to our climate and atmosphere and everything is vast. But is it really being threatened the way you see in some news reports?
Mark: Well, the answer. I'm afraid as with so many questions in this world, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the edges of the Amazon are being deforested, especially being converted to agriculture, which soybeans are the major product of that region, they grow like mad there. And that's the yes part. But the no part, and that where the hope still lies, is that this is a big place. It's as big as the continental United States. And so, yes, it's being chopped away at the edges, but it's still so large, so big, that most, again, of the wildlife and the sort of ecological conditions that have existed for millions of years are still there.
And one other great sort of aspect of hope that I have that we have from people involved in this place is that there are very large parks. Where we go we take our ship is the world's largest rainforest park. It's 2.5 million hectares and non extractive, which means no one is taking out timber or mining or anything of the kind. And that big, big park now has the ability to preserve the great diversity of wildlife that makes this place so interesting.
Paul: That's just remarkable. And I it speaks to the pressures that the world has brought on Brazil and probably Brazil's concern, too, because I'm sure there are people in the country who are interested in preserving. Not just growing soybeans, without question.
Mark: Brazil is, let's not forget, the world's fourth largest country and it's off the radar for a lot of people. But it's a huge industrial, educated, powerhouse of a nation. And just like the United States and many European countries and elsewhere in the world, they have a large environmental movement as well. And so all is not lost by no means. There are lots of people working to preserve this area n a way that's not our job. What we do, and what we are devoted to doing, is allowing visitors to enjoy what's there - the field experience. And we ask them to make their conclusions of how they might want to preserve it and what they might want to do in the future. But what we regard as our job is to allow people to go out far into the forest with deeply skilled guides and see what marvels there are to be found.
Paul: Well, that leads me to the natural progression of naturetours.com. And you can find out all of this on the Web site in www.naturetours.com . Mark, tell us give us a sense of if there is such a thing, a typical tour, where do you fly into and how do you get the boat?
Mark: Well, it's actually much easier than you might think. The embarkation point is the city of Manaus, Brazil, which is actually a big city at the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon Rivers. The world's two biggest rivers in volume of water are joined at that point. And there are daily flights from the United States, from Miami right into Manaus on two different carriers. And there are many daily flights from the great cities of Brazil, from São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro as well. So it's easier to get to.
When travelers arrive. we pick them up at the airport. And more often than not, we hope that travelers will spend the night in Manaus so that they can be fresh in the following morning. And the right there in the port of Manaus, we hop on the boat and start to voyage upstream, mainly on the Rio Negro into the Amazon rain forest. We voyage on the Rio Negro primarily because the real wildlife, the density of wildlife, and undisturbed forest is to be found in the tributaries of the Amazon, not on the main river. And again, the Rio Negro goes way up and to the least inhabited part of the Amazon. We go into a UNESCO World Heritagesite, the biggest in all of the Amazon, the biggest in the world. I do believe called the Central Amazon Biological Corridor. And that's where we go.
Travelers over several days will be able to go way off the flight path of planes where I'm afraid there is no cell phone coverage.
Paul: So you're not going to see local natives with cell phones around their necks.
Mark: They're only a few places where a fleeting signal can be had. But no, it's an opportunity for travelers and all of us to really focus on nature. There are a couple of communities, little ones. They in general don't even use money. They trade with goods. We trade with them sort of manufactured things and they give us fish in return. But it's an opportunity for travelers to really see a very different kind of world than they're accustomed to.
Paul: That's wonderful. And I think that's what so many people in today's world are really looking for. You know, the fact is there's always a certain bragging rights now. I find in talking with people and I ask where do you go?
And, you know, some people will say, well, Miami right away. But some people say they go to the upper reaches of the Amazon? Right. And that has bragging rights to me. You know, one thing I'd like to ask you about in terms of that, just that the culture and whatever the people are, they you know, we get these sort of distorted use of undeveloped countries. I don't want to say primitive because they're certainly not. I mean, I couldn't do what these people to do. But the fact is, do you do you feel a sense of, you know, are they curious about you and are they welcoming or is a bit of a bland official kind of relationship?
Mark: No, it's not that way at all. Brazil is a warm and welcoming country, and interestingly, I think that many Americans will find it somewhat familiar because like the United States, it's a nation of immigrants and they're very, very welcoming. And it's actually a lot of fun as well. We do take the study of nature and a very serious, authentic sort of way, but at the same time, it's just a lot of fun. We have parties. The Brazilian staff and everybody in the company but me is Brazilian.
The travelers love the staff. The people that we meet are very, very welcoming and curious about us. And of course, wherever you are in the world, and I'm sure that your listeners around the world will know this one great fact of life, that what powers relations between people is respect. And so we are very respectful and thoughtful of the people that we meet and they reciprocate that the same way to us. So travelers will be very much at ease with us. They always are.
Paul: That's wonderful. And I would imagine you attract the type of traveler who is inquisitive about the world around them and not traveling with the baggage of prejudices and preconceived notions and things like that.
Mark: You know, the world is such a big place and people bring themselves wherever they travel and lots of different perspectives. But what we really try to do is have everyone be open to the experience. And we take great pains to try to open everyone to this experience. And I and many of them are changed by it. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the airport with people we've spent the week with and they cry at the airport. You know, they've made friends and they've had these experiences that for many of them are life changing, though, not everyone. I'm not going to say that, it is the fountain of youth.
Paul: So while we're talking with Mark , the CEO of Nature Tours and his company that specializes in exploring the less inhabited parts of the Amazon basin. And Mark, I'd like to ask you a little bit about the boat. I understand it just went through a refit and stuff like that. So it's sort of brand spanking new and probably even has the smell of new boat on it.
Mark: Well, it does. And Don, we rebuilt the ship ourselves. We've had a different vessels over the years. But this one's a good one. We really like it. And so far in the month of August and September, we put it up in a dry dock and we went through the ship, totally refinished all the cabins, bright, bright varnish and so on. And we decided to go a little bit, a little bit high tech. It was an engineering puzzle, but we replaced the walls of our salon / dining room with glass.
But I didn't want it to be like an aquarium and we e want people to engage with the experience. And so the engineering puzzle was opening the glass. And so lots of folks said that it couldn't be done, but we got together with a manufacturer and we created glass panels that open and slide into little pockets. And so it's just totally open on the sides of the vessel, when it's cool. And so we have the best of all worlds. There is lots of opportunity to see the forest and at the same time, when it gets hot, we simply close the glass walls and turn on the AC.
Paul: Wow. That sounds absolutely wonderful. And I'm guessing the temperature is depending on the season is very is variable, although it probably is always temperate.
Mark: It is actually a lot cooler in the Amazon than you would think. The reason being that the cooling rains, but it never gets as hot there as it does, let's say in the southeastern part of the United States. The weather forecast has been sort of the same for the last five million years, which is in middle of the day, it's going to be between 85 and 87 degrees, with the chance of rain.
Paul: Wow. That's about perfect weather, if you think about it. Yeah. You know, the other thing I want to ask you about the boat is it's very small. Do I remember this correctly? It's like 18 passengers.
Mark: We do only take 18. It's not a tiny vessel - it is 120 ton ship with a staff of eight. We've had larger vessels. But way back we decided that what we really wanted to do was to create the greatest opportunity for travelers to enjoy the rainforest. And the only way to do that is with small groups. So with 18 travelers, we divide into still smaller groups. When we go into the forest we go with eight or fewer travelers generally. That way we don't scare away the wildlife - everyone stays focused. And the real key. there are few others, but one of the most important things of all is small groups. And so that's why we've kept the ship size at 18.
Paul: That's wonderful. The other thing I assume is that. Let me ask you about insects. I always tell people, go to Alaska early in the year before the state bird emerges. The state bird being the mosquito. Are there a lot of problems with insects in the Amazon?
Mark: Well, I'm not sure how many of your group your listeners are going to believe me, but I will say that there are very few. And that is because the Rio Negro, where we mostly voyage, has a very high PH acidity. So there are almost no mosquitoes. When we're out in our launches exploring, we're just in shorts and t shirts and it's quite comfortable. It's not a problem.
Paul: Wow, that's wonderful to know. And then I guess when going into the forest, you have guys and people who know what they're doing.
Mark: We do. We have two staff guides. The word staff is pretty important word in this context because we don't use freelance guides. We have people that have worked for this for many, many years and they learn how to go about demonstrating this place. And they also have to get to know our trails because we have our own trails, very remote. The trails are not improved in the sense that there are interpretive signs and little white stones that show the edges. Rather, these trails go deep into the howling forest. So they need to have a good understanding of where we are.
Paul: That's wonderful. I mean, I think that is so cool because that's really what all of us are looking for. And this is not so much an experience of carefully outlined trails and then the glass suspension bridges and things like that. You really want to feel like you have been somewhere. Seems to me that is one thing that Nature Tours does very, very well.
Mark: Well, just as an example, consider the kinds of places we go. On a trail we occasionally see things that are simply not seen where there are lots of people. We'll see rainforest trees, wild, large, wild pigs. Oh, yeah. We see lots of different primates - monkeys that you would not see where there people because they're pretty good food source for local settler. So we're way, way far from settlers. We see trees with deep 2 inch scratches in the sides and those are from Jaguars scratching post for Jaguars. So it's pretty exciting.
Paul: I have to say. And do you see sloths there, too?
Mark: We always see sloths - constantly. They're actually really quite common animals. And we keep lists of what we see. So on a typical six night cruise, we'll see a hundred something kinds of birds, four or five kinds of monkeys. I hate to say this, but I will use the "s" word. We'll see two or three pretty ugly snakes, mostly at night and thousands and thousands and thousands of kinds of plants.
Paul: Well, it's just the flora and fauna of the unspoiled temple, I think. I think that's a remarkable product, because with naturetours, you get that sense to actually go somewhere that you can visit and know you're going to come back alive. That's a good thing.
Mark: A lot of people feel that way. These are vacations and they're not academic trips and we don't expect people to take notes and be tested. We're there to have fun. And the it's such an interesting and exotic place, even for people like me who've been there countless times for much of their adult lives. It's still a lot of fun. And we see really, really interesting creatures.
Paul: Wow. Well, I guess speaking of creatures, what's the food like?
Mark: Well, it's not fine dining in the sense that we don't have international cuisine. What we try to do is use local foods that are a little bit adapted to the sort of North American palettes. It's very good. We have lots of fish because that's a fish place. There are lots and lots of big ones and very tasty fish. And then, you know, various sophisticated combinations of chicken and beef and so on. We also have a lot of vegetarians that come with us. People come from around the world for our cruises, really and so prior to each trip, we try to find out what our travelers' food preferences are and then we design the menu accordingly.
Paul: That's wonderful. I think that naturetours to me, is one of those companies that you just have to go with at least once in your life and hopefully more than that. Just give us a very brief idea of costs. Not a you know, a detailed thing, but.
Mark: Sure. Well, I wish it were less expensive, but it can be costly to go to the remote corners of the world. Sure. For a traveler who we have different categories of cabins. If a traveler that would like to share with another person in one of our smaller cabins can expect to pay about five hundred and fifty dollars per day for the cruise.
Paul: That's nothing. Some of these luxury expedition cruises are twice that.
Mark: So they are, you know, and you're not seeing the unspoiled Amazon. They're not luxury cruises, but they're very, very nice.
Paul: Oh, I understand that. When I when I say luxury, you know what I'm talking about. These companies that tout that they're the most expensive or the most luxurious or the most this or that. And frankly, that would be out of place on the Amazon or the Rio Negro, I would think. But now I love the name of your boat, the Tucano. Hey, isn't that is that named after the bird?
Mark: It is named after the bird. It just that's one of my favorite birds. I have to say it's a personal preference. And we'll see six different varieties while we're traveling. And so, yes, it's named after the bird toucan. My cell phone ringtone is actually the same bird. So I have to say, I'm a little bit fixated on this.
Paul: Well, if you book with naturetours.com, you just might be on a cruise with Mark and he could play that recording for you. Great. Mark, thank you so much for joining us. And the company, it just sounds like one of those very special things that should be on everybody's bucket list because go see it while you can.
Mark: You never know.
Paul: But what a wonderful experience to sail on the Rio Negro in the Amazon Basin with Mark and naturetours.com. Mark, thank you so much.
Mark: Thank you very much, Paul. I really appreciate it.
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