South America - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 260

whose songs and calls volunteers tape); or otters
(which participants video from the banks of
rivers).
In an age of disappearing wetlands, proposals
are in place to alter the natural flow of water
in the Pantanal, which threatens to disturb its
complex ecosystem. By helping to monitor the
effects of human impact on its biodiversity, you
will not only become familiar with perhaps the
world's most amazing wetland, but also provide
valuable data that could help save it from
irreversible damage.

Need to know Flights to Campo Grande can be
included on a Brazil airpass, from US$411 for
four flights. For prices, reservations and details of
activities and projects at Refugio Ecológico Caiman
see W www.caiman.com.br; T [phone].
For trips elsewhere in the Pantanal see W www.
pantanaltours.com; T [phone].

344 See fair trade in action,
Peru

Meet the people behind the products. British-
based travel company Saddle Skedaddle ( W www.
skedaddle.co.uk) has joined forces with Fairtrade
company Traidcraft to run two-week tours to
Peru, among other destinations. Guests visit
the suppliers of Fairtrade coffee in the Andes
while stopping off en route in Lima, Cusco and
the Sacred Valley (where accommodation is in a
homestay as a guest of the small communities of
Cuyo Grande and Cuyo Chico).
The coffee suppliers are small-scale farmers
who live in the cloud-forest region of Santa
María. You'll visit the coffee production area
managed by the COCLA co-operative, learn from
some of the workers about coffee processing
and then stay overnight in their lodges. The
tour continues to Machu Picchu and includes a
trip on a luxury Orient Express train to Lake
Titicaca, from where guests take a boat to
Taquile Island to sojourn in a homestay with the
Kollima and Huallani.
This trip has several purposes: visitors not
only see some of the best sights in Peru but also
supplement the income of farmers and rural
families. A bit of give and take then; that's fair
trade.

Need to know Tours depart from Campo Grande
in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Earthwatch
has offices in the US, UK, Australia and Japan.
For prices, booking and more details about each
expedition see W www.earthwatch.org.

343 Stay at tHe refugio
ecológico caiman, Brazil

Refugio Ecológico Caiman, a hotel and converted
ranch, is in the south of the Pantanal, 263km
from Campo Grande, the main access point into
the wetland. The accommodation is suitably
luxurious - thatch and adobe lodges with
outdoor swimming pools and hammocks - but
the Refugio is also the base for research into the
ecology of the Pantanal. From here scientific
projects on the jaguar, hyacinth macaw and blue-
fronted parrot are managed, and you can hear
presentations from biologists on their work.
Naturalist guides will take you on treks into
the caiman-rich wetland of the Pantanal by
Canadian canoe or on horse-riding trips, which
enable you to access the marshes, impassable
on foot or by vehicle. The Refugio is particularly
popular with birders, who come to see the gilded
sapphire, marsh seedeater, king vulture and
yellow-faced parrot. The Pantanal is the natural
world's equivalent of Disneyland: staying here
can feel surreal at times, though always magical.

Need to know Tours depart in August and
September. For tour details, prices and booking
see W www.traidcraft-tours.com; T +44 (0) 191
265 1110.