High in the Nevados del Ruiz, the hotel at the Termales del Ruiz has a lovely little garden with lots of hummingbirds.  You have to pay 18,000 COP admission to the thermal pool to enter the gardens even if you aren’t planning to swim.  I wouldn’t have minded a swim but the high altitude was making my husband woozy so I just ran in for about 20 minutes to see the hummingbirds and any other birds that happened by.

It’s quite an attractive hotel and I would have liked to spend a night here if it weren’t for the 3500 metres altitude.

Great view of Manizales!

I should have prayed harder for those elusive photos!

Even a quick walk around the garden produced hundreds of hummingbirds that were buzzing around everywhere!  I couldn’t keep up with them and the guide didn’t speak English or know all the species even in Spanish.  He wasn’t a birding guide, just a hotel employee.

Shining Sunbeam

Black-thighed Puffleg

Buff-winged Starfrontlet

Rainbow-bearded Thornbill

When I first entered, I had shown a picture of a Rufous-fronted Parakeet to the guide and asked him to be on the lookout for the “periquitos”.  We had heard them in the trees down the road from the hotel but didn’t get a good look.  So I was really excited to hear some parrot-y squawks while walking through the garden.   I asked the guide “periquitos” and he nodded and led me to a better vantage point.  I barely had time to watch a pair of Rufous-fronted Parakeets zoom overhead and disappear into the fog.  Unfortunately “Hail Mary” wasn’t on my side that day as all I got was this shot.

At least I did see them, albeit very briefly!  I wanted to get Ina back down to a lower altitude so we left right afterwards and headed back to Manizales.  When we got back, the drive got a call just as we were about to go to the bus station with the news that the Golden-plumed Parakeets were at Rio Blanco, so off we went!