Hi ,

I am asking you where you will go birding in the coming years because, at the end of this long newsletter, I have a unique offer for you to take a tour with us within the next three years.

Anywhere in the world!

It does not have to be Peru.

It does not have to be 2022.

If you wait until 2023 or 2024, the value of the offer will be worth even more!

You probably know by now that Kolibri Expeditions and 7 Wonders Birding provide focused tours to bucket list places and key birds worldwide, so there is a lot to choose from. 
 

Read on to know how and why - or skip the explanation and go right to the offer further down on this page.

Goals and challenges

It is certainly not the best time in history to be a world bird tour operator right now. But, if you know me from my recurring newsletters, you know that I love to set what seems to be almost impossible goals: the more significant challenge, the better.

Here are my present challenges that I am taking on during 2021.

• Run the Berlin Marathon in September in less than 3 hours. (I won't bore you with my detailed training plan in this post)
• The Condor hide, and the Condor feeding project in Santa Eulalia Canyon. See the YouTube video.
• The Satipo road conservation and community birding lodge project. See the blog post.
• A totally new pelagic and whale-watching operation in Peru. I will explain this below.
• Expand and staff 7 Wonders Birding Tours with more tours and additional guides to become a leading world birding tour operator within the next couple of years.

Aim for the stars or go bust?

Although, I have learned that one should not try to take on too many things at once—the three infrastructure programs above I have had in my head for a long time. The idea was always to go slowly about these. Make the one with the minor monetary investment first and then get each of them one by one. The planned order was: Satipo road project first, then the condors-project and finally pelagic/whale-watching.

However, because of COVID 19, things have changed in the timeline. Since we couldn't move around during the COVID-spike in August, I prioritized the geographically closest project when suddenly the possibility opened for state-financed grants for tourism projects. Condors in Lima was just right geographically and right in time. 

Of the three infrastructure programs for Peru mentioned above, two are on a good way. The condor project won project money and is financed already by the Peruvian government until May this year. The Satipo project is coordinated with the community. It will develop as we get volunteers and small donations through the ongoing fundraiser. There are also a fair number of reservations for the second half of the year.

The Satipo road project's birder volunteers will also be eligible for recruitment to become the talented future in-house bird guides necessary for the 7 Wonders Birding expansion.

I thought it would be possible to sell Condor-watching to Lima's domestic market during the Lima summer months of Dec-March. But, few people in Lima are interested in going to the mountains in the rainy season, when it is nice and warm on the coast, and the beaches are calling. It will be an excellent project once the Andes dry out and the road conditions are better, and especially when foreign tourists start arriving. The quarantine for international arrivals will be taken off next week, and we hope that direct flights from Europe also resumes shortly. 

The money for the project runs out in May, and we need a plan to survive until tourism pics up again. There will be some tours running from the end of May until the end of the year, but they still have few participants. I think it is clear that many birders have set their travel goals for 2022 and beyond. We will not be able to maintain the current staff, if we don't do something drastic. The solution is to cut costs and increase sales.

I am also open to selling shares of the company to buyers who are excellent bird guides or have special skills to take the company to new levels. If you think you are a fit for a partnership with us, let me know. Because of the current situation, you'd get a lot of investment return. I am selling the shares at a bargain to investors who will bring synergism to the company. I am willing to let go of between 20-40% in total. 

Rather than going bust on June 1 when the condor project's money ceases, I have decided to aim for the stars! 

In five years, Kolibri Expeditions/7 Wonders Birding shall be a leading bird tour operator in the world.

We will have recruited guides and new personnel with special skills to sustain this growth. Present co-workers will have upped their game.

Why this shift in focus compared to hardcore birding tours? 

One thing I have learned during the COVID pandemic is that hardcore birding tours belong to a niche that is way too narrow. It needs to be broadened and also adapted to the local market. There are not enough hardcore birders in the world to supply clients to sustain such rapid growth, and they don't provide enough income to support our staff of six people.  

We have two ways to broaden our scope instead of relying on only traditional birding tours and make ourselves more resilient. 

The first thing is to supply a natural history infrastructure that will provide birders and more general tourists - even backpackers. It will also include the domestic market. The planned infrastructure and critical ingredients in Peru include lodging, feeders, photography hides, and special services for spectacular nature experiences. 

The second thing is the 7WB strategy, which in contrast to traditional birding tours, supplies shorter birding/bird photography experiences with lots of wow-factor to the top destinations worldwide. These tours target a completely different segment - birders with little time, new birders, and their non-birding friends and spouses. Potentially, this could be huge. Time will tell!

There is little reason why we should try to compete in the already saturated traditional world birding tour market. Some experienced world birders who like our focus will prefer to come with us. They can also add extensions before and after, so the complete tour looks similar to those offered by other birding tour companies.

At the same time, we will not forget our core. We continue to also offer longer birding trips in Latin America to our trusted clients. One such expedition is our Complete Bolivia itinerary which is confirmed for March 2022. Our slogan is still and will always be - More Birds.

Pelagics again in Peru

Because we currently have no tours, there is also time to start the third leg of our infrastructure projects in Peru. The pelagics and whale watching project needs more explanation and much larger funds. Deep-sea pelagics from Lima, which Kolibri Expeditions pioneered at the end of 1999, were suspended in late 2017. The boats we used could not obtain the permits necessary to operate far offshore.

We started running pelagics from Paracas instead with the available speed boats there. Still, the costs were prohibitive. We rarely reached waters deep enough for the best species such as Markham's and Hornby's Storm-Petrels anyway. We would have needed to go some 45 nautical miles to get to the 1000m mark, and the strong winds, which start already 8.30-10 AM, often had us return to the coast ahead of time.

In 2018, I visited Kaikoura, New Zealand, and did a pelagic from there. I was alone on a vast ship paying a mere US$200. The shelf's 1000m depth mark is only some seven nautical miles out here, compared to the 34 nautical miles in Lima. It meant they could operate with far smaller groups in less time (my trip lasted 2 hours) and with less fuel.

The albatrosses and Cape Petrels at close range blew my socks off. 

It dawned upon me that I needed to find the place in Peru where the continental shelf came closest to land. That place is just south of Nazca - the location of the famous Nazca Lines - and the port of Punta Lomas. Much better. Not as good as Kaikoura, but only 12 nautical miles to the 1000 meter mark. 

The problem here is that there are no suitable boats—only very slow fishing boats which are too uncomfortable for regular tourists.

I realized that we needed to find a way to get our own speed boat for pelagics.

Kolibri Expeditions Pelagic and whale watching project - market feasibility.

There are not enough pelagic birders to make this a profitable enterprise. I calculate that we could run some 20 departures dedicated to pelagic birding per year during the first years. The best time for pelagic birds is between April and mid-December, when water temperatures are cold and rich with nutrients resulting in high bio-production.

If we were only to do deep-sea pelagics for birders, this project would not be viable.

This is where whale-watching and observation of general marine life, such as dolphins, sea-lions and fur seals, penguins, comes in. At Paracas, some 250 km north of Nazca, some 250 000 people visit Ballestas Islands for marine wildlife. Additionally, 143 000 people flew over the Nazca Lines in 2018. These numbers show there is certainly already an existing market.

Let's assume 2-5% of Nazca visitors are prone to join for whale-watching if offered. Around 3 000-7.000 people. The price for whale watching would be roughly $50/person initially. Thus between $150 000-350 000 in sales only from the regular Nazca visitors. Additionally, many Peruvians would be interested in only the whale watching and not necessarily fly over Nazca lines.

Someone short of time could consider this plan using just one day. 

1. Take a comfortable sleeper night bus from Lima. 
2. Do a pelagic/whale-watching first thing in the morning.
3. Fly over the Nazca Lines in the afternoon, 
4. Get additional birds of the Nazca desert. 
5. Take a sleeper night bus on to Cusco or Arequipa or back to Lima.

Researchers at the nearby bird colony reserve at Punta San Juan, Marcona, often spot whales, mostly Humpback Whales, from shore between November and March, with peaks in the first and the last months. December to March is also the warm season with calm seas and national school holidays, making it a coastal resource attractive for the domestic market. 

Since the continental shelf is so narrow here, it will likely be easy to spot the whales, as they usually migrate on the shelf or right at the edge. Even if there are no whales around, the marine wildlife is captivating. You are next to certain to see Waved Albatross, Humboldt Penguin, an incredible number of Guanay Cormorants, South American Sea Lion, South American Fur Seal, and various dolphin species.

Anyone having this experience would find that a trip to Paracas would be superfluous.

In comparison, the well-known whale watching company Pacifico Adventures in Los Organos in northern Peru started their operations 15 years ago with just one boat. Today they have four vessels. Their season is from mid-July to September. Only two and a half months, while our primary season would be five months, also corresponding with school summer holidays in most of Peru. They likely do two trips or more per day, moving 100-150 people daily in their boats during their peak season. There seems to be great potential for growth in the short term if we were to undertake this project.

How to raise the money? A new boat and engines would set us back with at least US$70 000. Compared with the annual calculated sales per year only for one year, it seems like this is a no-brainer and could become very successful very fast.

There is only one problem. 

You guessed it.

I don't have that money.

We need partners, and we need to do a lot of fundraising.

Partners

The idea is to form an entirely new company of which Kolibri Expeditions would be the major shareholder. Still, the new company would be anchored with people connected to Marcona and Punta Lomas as shareholders.

• I have connected with the former head of the Punta San Juan reserve at Marcona, which protects Peru's largest Humboldt Penguin colony and also oversees the harvesting of guano from the huge Guanay Cormorant colony. 
• I am also online friends for many years with several cetacean experts in Peru who could be potential partners to carry out continuous research and have shown interest in investing in the project. 
• Recently, I talked with the former head of both Port Authorities in Marcona and Punta Lomas. He gave me a lot of ideas and is also interested in being part of the project.
• Additionally, I know a few local fishermen who have taken us out in the past, who would be, if not investors, staff to take care of and operate the boat(s).
• Another option is to liaise with an existing tour operator in the area. 

Fundraising - Win-Win

The money part we would have to come up with from Kolibri Expeditions remains. How can we get $35-40.000 to get started?

Suppose you are considering visiting Peru soon. In that case, it would be of great help if you would pre-book a 3-4h pelagic tour with chumming for $185/person, which we would run with a minimum of three passengers. We are taking reservations from September 2021 onwards.
 

It would put many pelagics in the calendar, but it would unlikely raise all the money we need. If the fundraising is too slow for any reason, and our schedule is delayed, we can still operate with the fishing boats at the site even if it is not ideal for comfort and speed. 

Another traditional way to fundraise would be to make a Kickstarter or GoFundMe campaign. We shall certainly do this, but we will likely run short of the goal with only these two strategies. 

A much better way is to make Win-Win offers. Remember that I asked you where you are going birding in 2022, 2023, or 2024? I have a plan for you!

A much better idea. Considering this:

If you have money in the bank, how much interest do you get? 

1%? 

Less???

The interest rates in the developed countries are close to being negative when taking into account fees.

If I were to ask the bank here in Peru to lend me the money needed, they would likely refuse when considering the uncertain times we live in, and when looking at our recent sales. If they, by a miracle, agreed, I would probably have to pay a staggering 12-15% interest rate. 

So instead, here is an idea I have been playing with for some time that could be an option:

I can ask you, who receive my newsletter, to lend me $1000 for three years, and I would, in turn, give you a guaranteed yearly interest rate of, say, 5%.

At first sight, this sounds like it could well work. Looking at it more closely, though, shows that it will become too awkward with the bank fees when sending the money back and forth. It would still be a better rate for me than getting the bank loan, so it is certainly still an option. But I have come up with a variant that seems like an much better idea.

Much better still:

Coming back to the title of this email. 

• Decide when and where you want to go birding with Kolibri Expeditions or 7 Wonders Birding between 2022 and 2024, 
• Pay a deposit now of around US$1000 (or the equivalent in your currency if it is EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, or ZAR). 

Sounds reasonable, right?

Let's make that even better: 

On your down payment of $1000, which currently gives you no interest in your bank, I offer you: 

• 10% yearly interest compounded daily.
• A trip that would run three years from now would earn you US$349. Check this online calculator of compound interest if you don't believe me!
• Guaranteed price. You'd be guaranteed your total price fixed at today's value rather than the likely increased price in a year or two.

All tours listed on the Kolibri Expeditions or 7 Wonders Birding webpages are eligible. Just let me know your approximate dates and destination.

If your target destination is not on our websites yet, it may well be in production. Let me know, and we shall get the itinerary up on the page ASAP. Remember, we shall soon offer Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Namibia, Galapagos, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, South Africa, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Patagonia, Easter Island, New Caledonia, and many more.

If you can't decide exactly where and when you want to go, that is fine. You can still participate. Deposit $1000 now, and just let me know a minimum of a year ahead when and where you want to go.

Suppose we can get 35 to 50 people taking this offer. It would give us the funding necessary for the idiot-proof pelagic & whale-watching investment explained above. It would also secure future tour departure dates that other people can join. Meanwhile, you get the best price, and you get to choose the date for something you planned to do anyway. 

Our list prices are from 5 people minimum, but we would run the tour with only two people with a surcharge. Having three years to get a minimum of 5 people for the best price seems very feasible.

The point of this idea is that it is a win-win for everyone involved. It shall work with as few as 35 people, although I would not mind if 100 people decide that this is an offer they can't refuse. 

If more people sign up for the program, I have many other birding infrastructure ideas in Peru. Central Peru is a much-neglected biodiversity hotspot of Peru in need of more infrastructure for birders. 

There is one offer per departure available (or two if you are traveling together with your spouse). It would give us the necessary profit margins when other people sign up for your tours. As the early bird, you will get the best price.

You could naturally sign up for three (or more) trips at once—one in 2022, one in 2023, and one in 2024 to maximize your savings.

For the first two weeks, until Friday, March 25, you can deposit with a credit card without surcharge for you, nor for us, as we are getting an online credit card payment set up (at last). They are giving us 15 days of fee-free transactions. The charge is 3700 Peruvian Soles, which is currently equivalent to US$1000.

After March 25, you may still join the program; there would be a $40 (4%) surcharge to pay the deposit with a credit card. 

A cheaper option is to make a direct ACH bank transfer free of charge from your bank account via our current payment platform. This option is only applicable to those living in countries that use USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, or ZAR currencies. 

The ACH bank transfer increases the costs for us to receive the funds to our platform account and then transfer the money to Peru. Should you use this option, please add 1.9% to the amount you transfer.

It is best for you to make this deposit with your credit card as soon as possible.

The credit card payment platform should be ready by tomorrow or on Monday. Should it delay, for any reason, it will push the two weeks of free credit card deposits forward.

The five quick steps for you to do now.

1. Please reply to this email telling me you are in on a $1000 deposit for a trip
2. Decide destination
3. Decide date
4. I will send you a certified safe internet link for payment with a credit card
5. Enter your information on the encrypted credit card payment site.

I am looking forward to go birding with you!

Saludos

Gunnar

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