Bird Watching Shore Excursion In Huatulco

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Tara

We were up bright and early to join the Princess shore excursion for bird watching in Huatulco. Princess no longer offers this excursion (they do have an eco-tour though) so I will show you a similar one from Holland America as it is likely the ships use the same tour operators.

Those interested in wildlife and tropical bird watching will discover a rich diversity in the estuary of the Copalita River and/or in a small mangrove and park and the unspoiled low-growth caducifolia jungle beauty, including cedar, mahogany, ficus, mocambos and almond. You will likely spy several of the region’s 227 bird species including orioles, woodpeckers, egrets, seagulls, falcons, sparrow hawks, parrots and eight varieties of hummingbirds. You will likely also see lizards, iguanas, deer, armadillos and squirrels. Enjoy a beverage while you take some great photos. During the journey, your guide will offer several stops to observe and comment. The total walking distance covered in this tour is approximately one mile.

The black line below indicates where the ship docks. I wasn’t sure where they took us but we didn’t drive more than 15 minutes so I am reasonably sure it was in that big green area to the left!

Bird List with images for Huatulco

Here are some of the birds we saw on just a 4 hour trip. Our first stop gave us a nice look out over the bay and some Orange-fronted Parakeets who popped by to check us out.

Here’s a bright Altamira Oriole.

We then drove to another place, might have been near the university.

Another Altamira Oriole.

Citreoline Trogon

Golden-cheeked Woodpecker

Orange-breasted Bunting – what a beautiful little bird!

Here’s a stunning Black-throated Magpie Jay!

Shots not clear enough for me to find them in the book. Any help appreciated!

Black Vulture

Blue-winged Teals

If anyone knows those birds I missed, please comment below! We were brought back to the small market just outside the wharf for some shopping. I am still kicking myself for not buying this. It was out of my budget, don’t remember how much but I now regret not buying it.

That evening on the ship was a formal night but we didn’t have formal clothes so stuck to the buffet. I did get my fair share of free champagne though! As with most cruise ships, there is some kind of show each night. They are all included so why not check them out!

Mexico City & Acapulco Before The Cruise

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Tara

Since the embarkation port was so far away from Australia, I wanted to allow plenty of buffer time in case of any flight delays. This is a good idea when you have something unmissable such as a cruise. I figured 3 days would be enough. We flew into Mexico City, did a morning trip to Teotihuacan by public bus, then picked up our bags and took a nice intercity bus to Acapulco.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Mexico City Centro Historico as they had a special deal at the time (April 2011). We arrived really late at night and took an official taxi and left very early in the morning so didn’t spend much time here but it was nice. We’d gladly come back here again.

This is the bus station to Teotihuacan, it’s the obvious one with the pyramid logo. Coincidentally, another blogger (Point Me to the Plane) who has been there more recently posted precise directions.

We saw this contraption with acrobats as we got off the bus. Not sure if they are always there or if it was for something special.

We spent a couple hours at the pyramids, then it got too hot and we didn’t want to hang around. We also had to get a bus to Acapulco.

Back in Mexico City, scenes from around the main plaza as we walked to the Metro station.

The bus to Acapulco was really nice and comfortable. We didn’t book in advance, just rocked up and asked for the next deluxe bus to Acapulco. It was around $30 pp.

In Acapulco, we stayed at the Crowne Plaza on points and got a nice upgrade to a corner suite with fantastic views!

Since we had a couple of days, we saw most of the tourist sights – cliff divers, market, small zoo and the beach of course.

I had to laugh seeing an Australian Budgie on a Mexican phone booth! It’s not like Mexico doesn’t have cool parrots of their own!

We got around using the local buses.

Finally our ship came in.

We eagerly boarded the beautiful Coral Princess and set off to explore the ship. I was very pleasantly surprised to see we had been given a free upgrade to a balcony cabin after only paying for the cheapest cabin. We later found out it was because the ship was only around 2/3 full but we were thrilled to have a balcony on a Panama Canal cruise!

They had a nice Easter egg display as we boarded on Easter Sunday!

We went up to the top deck to wave goodbye to Acapulco and anticipate adventures to come!

Birding From A Cruise Ship

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Tara

Back in 2011, before I started this blog, we did a fantastic trans-Panama Canal cruise on Princess and were able to find some good birding at most of the ports. I’ll be posting about that trip in detail, but first lets look at why you would want to use a cruise ship for birding…………….and a few reasons why not.

CRUISE SHIP BIRDING PROS

Economical transport, food and convenience of not having to pack & unpack
Variety of locations
Please a non-birding spouse/friend/family – they have other things to do while you are birding

CRUISE SHIP BIRDING CONS

Birding is best in the morning and the ship may not dock in time
Having to rush back in the afternoon before the ship leaves
Ships tend to dock in cities and birding location may be too far for a shore excursion
Ports can be cancelled at short notice for weather, strikes or other complications

HOW TO CHOOSE A CRUISE FOR BIRDING

Just like choosing a land based trip, you need to know what kind of birds you are most interested in and what part of the world they are best found in. You also have to look for national parks or wildlife reserves near to a cruise port. People who are more interested in sea birds and shore birds will have more to choose from than those who are interest in parrots and songbirds. Hummingbirds are active throughout the day so any cruise which calls at a port in Central or South America has the potential to see them. Here are a few typical itineraries from Princess Cruises (you can use this idea on any cruise line) that have at least one port with a good place for birding nearby. It is very unlikely the cruise line will have a specific birding shore excursion so be prepared to find and organize your own guide using sources like eBird, Fatbirder, Trip Advisor and even Google!

PORTS TO CONSIDER

Australia ports for small forest reserves located near ports (most major Australian cities have them)
Belize City for Crooked Tree Sanctuary
Dominica for Northern Forest Reserve
Galapagos – anywhere
Guayaquil for Cerro Blanco
Huatulco for local parks
Ocho Rios for local birding
Panama City for Soberania National Park
Puerto Rico for El Yunque
Puntarenas for Carara National Park
St Lucia for Quilesse Reserve
St Vincent for Vermont Nature Trail

GENERAL MILES AND POINTS TIPS FOR CRUISERS

Book your flights well in advance as you won’t be the only one wanting award flights that day!
Fly in the day before to avoid last minute delays/cancellations causing you to miss the cruise. On long trans-Oceanic flights (for example Australia to/from Caribbean), I’d allow at least 2 days. For example in 2011, our cruise departed Acapulco. We flew into Mexico City on a very convoluted routing BNE-BKK-ICN-LAX-PHX-MEX in J with USDM miles 3 days beforehand and did local sightseeing those 3 days. We would have had a buffer if anything had gone wrong with the flights.
Use hotel points if you have them for your pre-cruise and post-cruise stay.
Book your cruise through your airline’s portal to get a few thousand miles.
Use a credit card that has a travel category bonus to pay for it such as Chase Sapphire Preferred or Citi Premier Thank You card.
Consider dedicated cruises for birders such as the World Parrot Trust’s annual Parrot Lovers Cruise. You must book through the official travel agency but they put on special tours and activities for the group, you also support the World Parrot Trust with conservation projects!

Quick Layover Trip Into Shanghai

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Tara

I wanted to maximize the award ticket and we had never been to Shanghai before so when I saw the routing come up on United’s award booking tool, I grabbed it. After researching online, I decided the best thing to do was take the Maglev into town, get a connecting train to the Bund, take a walk along the Bund and then go back to the airport in time for the onward flight to Auckland.

It’s easy to find the Maglev train as Shanghai Airport is well signed. Our flight arrived around 5:30am so we had to wait for the ticket counter to open and then catch the first train into town.

The first few trains only get up to 300km/h, a snails pace for this train!

When you reach the final station – Long Yang Road Station, you have to change to the metro to get to the Bund.

Not nearly as comfortable as the Maglev!

We got out at East Nanjing Road and started walking towards the Bund. It was drizzling so I knew this did not bode well!

Some of the shops were very interesting though not open yet.

We finally reached the Bund and just randomly chose to turn left and start walking.

We didn’t get far before the heavens opened up and we grabbed a few pics, then took refuge inside Starbucks where we had breakfast.

We waited and waited for the rain to let up but it never did.

We had to find something else to do so we inched along the building the Starbucks was in and found this bizarre tunnel attraction. At least we would stay dry and experience something different!

It really was bizarre! Like tripping without drugs! The ride didn’t last long so we still had to find something else to do.

We didn’t want to spend more money on overpriced tourist attractions and the rain was finally letting up so we wandered around this area of Shanghai while trying to find a metro station.

We got lost and couldn’t find anyone who spoke English to tell us where the metro was but did find this cool peace dove topiary thing!

We eventually ran into a tour group and the guide pointed us to the metro. We went back to Longyang Road to get the Maglev back to the airport.

This time the train got up to the max speed of 430 km/h (267 mph) which was pretty cool!

Before we knew it, we were back at the airport. Since we still had one more Lounge Club pass to use, we hung out at the lounge for awhile.

Killing Time In Kuala Lumpur

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Tara

We arrived in the afternoon and hadn’t had time to eat lunch since we got a quick connection between Kuala Tahan and Jerantut to KL so we were starving! We dropped our backpacks at the Hotel Geo and hopped on the free Go KL bus (every major city should have one of these!)

I highlighted in yellow where we boarded (Pasar Seni) and got off (Pavilion).

Inside the huge Pavilion shopping centre, first stop was the food court where we ended up at Johnny Rockets. Don’t shoot me, remember I am American born, living in Australia so it was nice to have some comfort food, and the fantastic peanut butter milkshake!

After our late lunch/early dinner we wandered around the shopping centre. It has a lot of designer boutiques and is not for the budget shopper but it was fun to have a look around.

I loved these crystal birds!

The best thing for any bird lover who has time to spare in KL is to visit the KL Bird Park so of course we went there. I will do a separate post about that. After we left the Bird Park, we had to get a taxi as no bus goes near the place to get back to the Pavilion Shopping Centre where I just HAD to have more American comfort food, this time at Tony Roma’s!

I grabbed a few shots out the taxi window of some mosques and scenes around town. It was really hot so we weren’t up to walking around much.

Transport Between Taman Negara (Kuala Tahan) & Kuala Lumpur

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Tara

As I mentioned in my other post, you can get private shuttles to get to and from Kuala Tahan from which you take the small shuttle boat across the river. You can also use public transport from Kuala Lumpur via Jerantut. This is how we got back to Kuala Lumpur.

1 ringgit each to cross the river.

Then walk up the road and turn left. Locals will point out the bus station.

The public bus leaves at 10am, 12 noon & 3pm and costs 7 ringgits and takes almost 2 hours to get to Jerantut due to frequent stops along the way. You could also get a shuttle (pictured above) or taxi if you miss the bus or are in a hurry.

Heading out of town, we saw a sign advertising the Taman Negara Bird Count starting the day after we left. Bad timing for us, although on retrospect we may have had trouble getting accommodation if we had been there on those days.

Souvenir shop in Kuala Tahan

Another river a short ways out of town.

Interior of local bus between Kuala Tahan and Jerantut

Arriving in Jerantut. There are some small hotels here if you get stuck for the night.

Bus schedules out of Jerantut.

We were first off the bus and ran to the window and asked for the next bus to Kuala Lumpur. It was leaving around 12:30pm so we didn’t have time to get lunch. There are toilets in the bus station but they are a little far from where you board. The bus to KL is nicer than the local bus and is non stop to KL.

A few shots out the window as we left Jerantut.

And a nice view of the Petronas Towers as we approach KL.

The bus left us outside a bus terminal and most of the passengers got in taxis. We were quoted a high price from the taxi and I was trying to bargain with him when I saw a bus pull up that said “Sentral” on the front which I knew to be close to our hotel so we hopped on. Much to my very pleasant surprise, it was a free bus!

The Canopy Walkway Of Taman Negara

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Tara

Taman Negara boasts the world’s longest canopy walkway at 530 metres.

Opening Time	Prices
Sat to Thurs 11.00 am to 2.45 pm	Adult at Rm 5.00
Fri 9.00 am to 12 noon	Children at Rm 3.00

Although we didn’t see many birds up there (we went around mid-morning so maybe we should have been there earlier) it was quite an adventure. Just getting there through the rainforest trails is a spectacular walk along a well-marked walkway.

This humongous tree is about halfway along the trail.

Follow the signs up a VERY steep trail which thankfully has places to sit down and rest as I found it exhausting. At the top of the trail, there will be people to take your entry fee of 5 ringgits each.

Then you start the wobbly walk across some really stunning scenery. Since we arrived about an hour before it closed the staff kept hustling us along.

The only bird I was able to see along the walkway.

Towards the end there is a steep descent which was really precarious and I had to take it very slowly!

Just before the exit, one of the staff pointed out a gibbon in the distant trees.

This guy is probably thinking “I wish these tourists would hurry up so I can go home!”

Now we are on the ground looking up at the final platform.

Since photos don’t really let you appreciate how wobbly this thing really is, I found a Youtube video to show you!

Birds & Mammals Around Mutiara Taman Negara

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Tara

The nice thing about staying at Mutiara Taman Negara is that it is located right inside the park so you don’t have far to go to see birds and animals. Let’s start with meal times. Sit outdoors and watch the birds while you eat. The restaurant has a perfect vantage point where you can see both sides of the river. I added the 1st two photos just to show the damage done by the floods of early 2015.

Oriental Magpie-robin

Squirrel

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Greater Coucal

Sparrows

Random birds in flight, photo not good enough for me to identify them but you do see lots of birds flying by the restaurant over the river.

Blue-throated Bee-eater

There are lots of mammals in the grounds as well. Monkeys (Macaques) are always around to try to steal food from unsuspecting tourists. Sadly, they will eat all the fruit off the trees driving some bird species such as parrots away. If they can’t find fruit or rob a tourist, they will apparently eat flowers!

Other mammals seen on the trails and near the Tahan Hide include squirrels, bush pigs & deer. There’s more info about mammals here.

Keep an eye out for Blue-winged Pitta scurrying around the beginning of the walkway which eventually leads to the canopy walkway and under the bungalows on the rainforest side. I saw these birds in the late afternoon.

Birding Taman Negara – Tahan Hide

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Tara

Located roughly in the middle of the Mutiara Taman Negara, there is a small footpath leading to the Tahan Hide. The 2nd level has a generous seating area for about 8 birders if there is a group. I was lucky and there was only one other birder there so we could move around and check out various sides all overlooking the rainforest and a large clearing in which birds could be seen flying back and forth. Easy, relaxing birding at its best!

I made 4 visits here – both afternoons and both mornings. I had been hoping for Blue-crowned Hanging Parrots but I later found out that the resident monkeys have eaten all the fruit so the parrots have left the area. We did see lots of Fork-tailed Drongoes, Black-headed Bulbuls, Jungle Mynahs, Asian Fairy Bluebirds, Large Niltavas, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongoes, Jungle Fowl, Blue-throated Bee-eaters, Dusky-crested Hornbill, and what turned out to be my favourite – a Black & Red Broadbill.

Getting To Taman Negara Is Half The Fun – Part 2

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Tara

Continuing from yesterday’s post, let’s have a look at the 2nd part of the journey to Taman Negara.

PART 2 – BOAT TO KUALA TAHAN

After lunch, around 2pm-ish, they will call everyone down to the boat. Depending on how many people there are, there may be more than one boat. The boats do NOT have toilets so go before boarding.

The boats are shallow and I found it very uncomfortable to sit in so it was lucky that at least they weren’t full so we had room to shift around.

The scenery is beautiful and sometimes you can see birds flying by.

There was a terrible flood earlier in the year that actually saw some of the park closed down. As we travelled down the river, there was evidence of the destruction everywhere – erosion and even houses falling down the cliffs. What a horrible thing for the owners of those houses!

We made good time and after just over 2 hours, the Mutiara Taman Negara where we would be staying came into view.

Our boat dropped us off at one of the floating restaurants opposite and we took a shuttle across to the Mutiara for 1 ringgit each.

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