Four nights in one forest beats seven bases in eleven days
Tailor-made expeditions led by a field biologist. Reptiles and amphibians above all, but in practice whatever you came to find. You say where and what; I tell you what your chances actually are, and then walk the same trail a fourth time because the first three felt close.
Who takes you out
A field biologist. Degree from the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore, a research fellowship from the Organization for Tropical Studies at La Selva in Costa Rica, and seven years of fieldwork I put together myself across five biogeographic realms. Reptiles and amphibians are the specialism; birds, mammals and invertebrates I identify to species in the field.
Trips run in English, Spanish or Italian. The last two are native. More about me
You pay suppliers directly. I only charge for guiding.
A tour operator buys your lodging, your driver and your meals, adds a margin, and sells the lot back as one price you cannot see inside. I plan the trip and then do the talking: I write to the lodges, agree the dates and the rates, and hold what needs holding. What I hand you is a reservation ready to confirm. You put it in your own name and pay the supplier their price, with nothing added. One invoice from me, for my work.
In a group of six, an eleven-day trip works out around $3,135 a head all in. Comparable operator tours run $3,695 to $4,370. The difference is not a discount. It is the margin that nobody is adding.
Three ways I work
Same method, different subject. Most people come for the first; the third is the one I enjoy most.
Herping
Night walks, stream work, few bases and many nights at each. What I studied and where most of my field hours have gone.
Birding
Birds in the morning, herps at night, co-guided with a local specialist for the mornings where ear-birding decides what you see.
Anything else
General natural history, or something specific: butterflies, spiders, orchids, bats. Tell me what you want and I work out how to find it.
You set the comfort level, not me
Because I take nothing on your bookings, my fee is the same whether you sleep in cabinas or in the lodges people write about. On an eleven-day trip that is the difference between roughly $2,690 and $5,825 a head, for identical guiding. With an operator the whole thing is priced at one level and you take it or leave it.
Where I work
Tropical America above all: Costa Rica, where I held a research fellowship in the Caribbean lowlands, and Ecuador, at Tiputini in the western Amazon and Canandé in the Chocó. Tropical Asia, from the caves at Mulu and the lowland forest at Danum Valley to Thailand and Raja Ampat. And Europe, where I live and work year-round.
Anywhere else, ask. What I will not do is improvise in a country I have never worked and discover it alongside you. If a destination needs groundwork first, I will tell you how long that takes and when I could run it.
Nobody can promise you your target species
Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something. What I can promise is that we work the right habitat at the right hours, and that you know the realistic odds on every species on your list before you book.
I held an Organization for Tropical Studies fellowship at La Selva to study colour morphs in the palm pitviper Bothriechis nigroadspersus, and the snakes turned out to be too thin on the ground that season to run the analysis I had planned. It is the truest thing I know about these animals: they are not where the books say they are.
Tell me what you want to find
A shortlist of ten species is more useful to me than “snakes”. Planning costs nothing, and the more specific you are, the more useful my first reply will be.