Minca – Santa Marta – Medellin – Jardin

Although we had some birding time in Minca while having breakfast, we still had a big travel day ahead.

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We used a taxi from Minca to the airport at Santa Marta to save time and let us hang around a bit longer and watch birds.

Santa Marta Airport

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Pray for a safe flightdscn2959

Avianca domestic flights in Colombia are only 3000 Lifemiles, a real bargain!dscn2960

Goodbye Santa Marta!dscn2961

Approaching Medellin airport we can see the city has a very attractive location.dscn2963 dscn2964

I was amused to see a Spirit plane here.dscn2965

Taxis are pretty straight-forward, passengers just line up and take the next one in line and people supervise.  There are set fares to the city, can’t remember what I paid to go to the bus station, it was around $35-ish in pesos.  It’s quite a long ways though.dscn2966

If we had more time for this trip, I would have liked to spend a couple days in Medellin but we had no time to spare so had to be content with seeing the outskirts from the taxi.dscn2967 dscn2968 dscn2969 dscn2971 dscn2972 dscn2974 dscn2975 dscn2976 dscn2977

Terminal del Sur is the bus station you need to go to Jardin.  We bought tickets on the next bus which was departing around 4-ish for 20,000 pesos each, about $7 USD.dscn2978 dscn2979 dscn2980 dscn2982 dscn2983 dscn2984 dscn2985

Nice scenery enroute!dscn2990 dscn2991

We arrived in Jardin around 8pm-ish and walked into the nearest hotel which happened to be the Valdivia and the rooms were cheap enough so we took one.dscn2995

Morning Birding Trip – El Dorado Reserve Mountain Top

The highlight of a visit to the El Dorado Reserve is an early morning birding trip with the local guide to the top of the mountain where many endemic birds can be seen.  With luck, this would include the Santa Marta Parakeet.

It’s an early start from the lodge, about 5am-ish as it takes about a hour to reach the top due to a very bad road.  Here’s what that part of the trip looks like.

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This is the most common place where people see Santa Marta Parakeets because they have nesting boxes there but they can be seen anywhere in the reserve and occasionally even are seen near the lodge.  Unfortunately they didn’t show up this morning.dscn2767 dscn2770 dscn2769

Some Scarlet-fronted Parrots were hanging around the area.  Notice how misty it was-very frustrating for photography.dscn2773 dscn2776

We walked around the trails for a while while the guide pointed out birds, many of which were endemics.  I have a full bird list here.dscn2785

Band-tailed Pigeon

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Mountain Elaenia

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Santa Marta Warbler

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Black-capped Tyrannulet

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Cinnamon Flycatcher

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Scarlet-fronted Parakeet

These guys always stayed together and I was calling them “the 3 amigos”.

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Scaly-naped Parrot

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Golden-olive Woodpecker

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This is what the walking trails were like.dscn2822

Black-cheeked Mountain-Tanager

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We headed back down the mountain very slowly, still watching for Santa Marta Parakeets.  The guide would listen, hop out and scan the trees with his binoculars.dscn2824

Just when we were about to give up, he spotted 2 flying to a tree and told us to come quickly.  I barely had time to try a couple of Hail Mary shots (which failed) before the birds flew off.img_5275 img_5274

The mist closed in and it started to rain so I knew we weren’t going to get another chance.  At least we caught a glimpse which is better than nothing.  We went back to the lodge for lunch.dscn2825

Santa Marta parakeet (Pyrrhura viridicata)

The Santa Marta parakeet (Pyrrhura viridicata) is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is extremely rare and only seen by visitng the El Dorado Reserve.  There aren’t many photos of this bird online, and my sighting was distant and in bad weather so I didn’t get a shot.  I only saw a pair flying through the trees across the valley and this time “Hail Mary” didn’t work.

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This is the photo from the ProAves website for El Dorado Reserve which is where you go to see these birds.

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This Colombian endemic has an extremely limited range in the Santa Marta mountains.  The only realistic way to see them is through El Dorado Reserve.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT SANTA MARTA PARAKEETS

Wikipedia

World Parrot Trust

Birdlife

ProAves

Neotropical Birds

American Bird Conservancy

VIDEOS

Other people (Colombian birding guides) have been lucky enough to see this lovely bird at close range and get videos of them eating.

 

Lodge Review: El Dorado Reserve, Colombia

The El Dorado Reserve is the flagship of the ProAves Conservation group and was founded over 10 years ago.  Their location high atop the Cuchilla de San Lorenzo, in the western sector of the northern slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta provides access to many Colombian endemic birds such as the Santa Marta Parakeet.  This place is a must for any birding trip to Colombia!

I’d like to say that getting there is half the fun but nothing compares to getting from the lodge to the birding location further up!

A welcome sight after the bumpy ride!

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A restaurant with a view!dscn2683 dscn2684

Some nice handicrafts made by localsdscn2685 dscn2686

The verandah looks out over the grounds and you can see some of the hummingbird feeders.  I’ll have to so a separate post for the birds as there are so many.dscn2687 dscn2688 dscn2689

We had a jennian room with a private balcony.  The room was beautifully furnished and the view was amazing!dscn2690 dscn2692 dscn2694 dscn2695 dscn2696 dscn2698 dscn2699

We went back to the restaurant for lunch and to look for birds.dscn2712 dscn2713

The second story of the main building has another viewing terrace and a cozy lounge to relax and talk to other birders.dscn2714 dscn2715 dscn2716 dscn2717 dscn2718

The lounge is decorated with conservation posters.dscn2719 dscn2720 dscn2721

Amazing sunset!dscn2736 dscn2739

Educational video about ProAves and the El Dorado Reservedscn2741Dinner was quite tasty with local home-made food and delicious juice. dscn2839 dscn2840 img_4839

El Dorado Lodge is easy to book on their website.  I recommend pre-paying the transfers and the morning birding excursion so you can use your credit card as much as possible.  They can accept credit cards at the lodge but only if the signal is working.  This lodge is an amazing experience and the staff clearly love what they do and their contribution to conservation.  Highly recommended!

Getting From Santa Marta To El Dorado Reserve – Fasten Your Seat Belts!

The El Dorado Reserve is one of Colombia’s top birding destinations and once you get there, you are sure to see some amazing birds!  Getting there can be quite the challenge though, especially if you are on a budget.  The easy way is to book a transfer on the El Dorado Reserve website when you book your accommodation.  You can have them pick you up at your arrival airport – Baranquilla, Cartegena or Santa Marta but this won’t be cheap.  Rates from Santa Marta start at $140 one way but that does include up to 5 people so may be cost effective if you are in a small group.

The rock-bottom cheapest way to get there is to take a collectivo (shared taxi) from Santa Marta to Minca for 7000 COP (Around $2.50 USD), then hire a motorcycle taxi to take you to the reserve.  You don’t need to book these in advance, the round trip costs for 2 people are around 160,000 COP ($55 USD-ish).  But the road is long and in very bad condition so your spine and posterior may be the worse for wear!

We went middle-of-the road.  We got a taxi in Santa Marta for around 30,000 COP ($10.00 USD so only $5 more than the collectivo for a couple.  This went very smoothly and the road is excellent up to Minca.

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Gotta love a supermarket with a parrot as a logo!DSCN2640The only annoying thing was getting stuck behind trucks but the taxi passed them as quickly as he could do so safely. DSCN2641 DSCN2642 DSCN2643 DSCN2644 DSCN2645 DSCN2646 DSCN2647

Welcome to Minca!  Here’s a few pics as we passed through.  DSCN2648 DSCN2649 DSCN2651 DSCN2652 DSCN2650 DSCN2653

I decided that there was no way my dodgy back was going to withstand the road to El Dorado on a motorbike so I booked the one-way transfer from Minca to El Dorado to leave at 9am for $80 USD since I wanted to get there as early as possible to see more birds.  I held off on the return transfer hoping to meet other people there to share the cost.  (didn’t happen, we paid by ourselves)

The driver was ready and waiting as we arrived.  We stopped at a small shop to get some snacks & drinks, use the conveniences and we were off and running!  DSCN2654

The road started out not so bad…………………………….DSCN2655 DSCN2656 DSCN2888 DSCN2889 DSCN2890 DSCN2658

…………….but gradually got worse (albeit very scenic)…………………………DSCN2661 DSCN2662 DSCN2663 DSCN2664 DSCN2665

…………………….and worse (getting stuck behind trucks)…………………………DSCN2667 DSCN2668 DSCN2669 DSCN2670 DSCN2671 DSCN2672 DSCN2673 DSCN2674 DSCN2675 DSCN2677 DSCN2678

……………until we finally saw the sign for the lodge!  Arrived at last!  DSCN2680

So for this part of the trip we paid $160 USD round trip vs the $55 for motorcycle taxis but it was worth it to save our backs and derrieres!

A Stroll Around Santa Marta’s Historic Center

Although we didn’t have too much time to spend because we were expected in Minca to meet our ride to El Dorado, we still got up early and took a short walk around the area.  Our hotel, La Casa del Farol was 5 minutes from the main plaza.

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There’s a bank with an ATM about 2 blocks from the main plaza.  I tried to get some cash using my Aussie NAB card and just like the last night in Bogota airport, the transaction was rejected.  Having no time to waste, I used another credit card to get a cash advance (with the intention to transfer money to pay it off as soon as we had internet again) so we wouldn’t be stuck in El Dorado & Minca (No ATMS).  It wasn’t until Jardin and more rejected transactions that I realized something was wrong with THAT one card and I would have to sort it out with the bank.DSCN2637 DSCN2634 DSCN2635 DSCN2636

Anyway, banking done for the time being, we found a taxi on the main plaza and negotiated the fare to Minca for around 35,000-ish.  Since we had to be there by 9am, we didn’t have time to haggle or use the collectivos for 7000 pesos.

Hotel Review: La Casa del Farol Hotel Boutique

La Casa del Farol Hotel Boutique is a very attractive small hotel in the historic center of Santa Marta, Colombia.  We were only here for one night as our main focus was getting up to El Dorado Reserve for birding but if we had more time, we would have enjoyed staying here.

The building is very nice and only 5 minutes walk from the main square.

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Small pool in the courtyardDSCN2625

Breakfast areaDSCN2627

There were several courtyards with seating and some tables for breakfast.DSCN2626 DSCN2624

The rooms all have some kind of theme.  We got one with a Chinese theme which was very surreal after that late night arrival in Colombia, then waking up to THIS!  I had to remind myself that we were actually in Colombia!  The wifi was spotty, I could only use it from the room with the door open and laying on the bed nearest the door.DSCN2623 DSCN2614 DSCN2613 DSCN2616 DSCN2618 DSCN2617 DSCN2619 DSCN2621

Breakfast was really good, eggs cooked to order, toast, juice, sausage and Colombian coffee of course!DSCN2628

We really liked this small, atmospheric hotel and would choose it again if we ever come back.  You can book direct with the hotel on their website but I had some Orbucks in my account that I combined with a $50 off $100 purchase and ended up getting it for free!

The location is perfect, right in the historic center and walking distance to just about everything.  A taxi from the airport has a fixed rate of around 27,000 pesos.

Planning A Birding Trip To Colombia

Planning our birding trip to Colombia was a much bigger challenge than planning the Ecuador trip.  Even though the countries are next to each other, there is a huge difference between the tourist infrastructures.  Ecuador has been a travel hotspot for years and places like Mindo, Napo, Southern Ecuador & the Galapagos are well equipped to handle travelers of all types and budgets.  But Colombia was off limit for many years due to safety concerns and has only recently been returned to birders’ itineraries.  Even now, there is a preference for organized package tourists.  Many of the large birding tour operators are going to Colombia but there is still a good market for us budget minded independent birders!  We just have to work harder to manage it!

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SET YOUR BIRDING GOALS FIRST

With over 1900 bird species, Colombia has a lot to offer and unless you have unlimited time and money there is no way you are going to see it all.  Before you can choose which reserves you want to visit, you need to know what species are your priorities or which reserves have the biggest bird lists if you are looking to build up your life list.

My #1 target is to see as many parrot species as possible and lots of other bird species who live in the same habitats.  While I am not a “life-list ticker”, I do want to see as many different species of parrots in my life as I possibly can.  Therefore, when choosing between destinations within a country I consider these elements:

  1. Endemic species (can only be seen in one country such as Yellow-eared Parrot ( Santa Marta Parakeet).
  2. Species that I haven’t seen before.
  3. Species that are more easily seen elsewhere (Ecuadorian Amazon vs Colombian Amazon for example).
  4. How easily can I get to the reserve and is it in a safe location?
  5. Are some species just too rare that we probably have no chance of seeing them? (Sinu Parakeet – Pyrrhura subandina)?
  6. Can I hire guides in the reserves or nearest town?

So after looking at the 57 species of parrots that can be found in Colombia, I prioritized species that I hadn’t already seen on previous trips to South America and that I wasn’t likely to see in Ecuador, then I eliminated species that had no sightings on eBird and I was unlikely to be able to find.  Actually eBird played a HUGE part in planning this trip as I was able to get really good data on birds such as Fuertes Parrots which were being seen regularly near Santa Rosa and Rufous-fronted Parakeets which were being seen near Manizales.

This is a snippet of my planning spreadsheet for Ecuador, Colombia & Trinidad.  A yellow-filled box means that species is an endemic and needs to be prioritized.  Light green font indicates I have already seen the species elsewhere (but I am always happy to see them again) but I don’t need to make a special trip for that species.  Some birds are seen in both Ecuador & Colombia so I had to figure out which location would be easier logistically.  Just to get to this stage involved hundreds of hours of looking up each species on eBird, tracking sightings, cross-referencing species to get them down to as few sites as possible and making sure we can logistically get to the location.

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ORGANIZING THE LOGISTICS

I was now down to 6 locations and less than 2 weeks to squeeze them all in.  I should probably say 5.5 locations as Minca is enroute to El Dorado.

  1.  Minca & El Dorado – accessed via Santa Marta airport
  2. Jardin – Yellow-eared Parrot Reserve – accessed by Medellin airport and a bus to Jardin.
  3. Rio Blanco & Surrounds – lots of species here, accessed by taxi or bus.
  4. Pereira – nearest city to accessible Fuertes Parrots.  I was trying for Giles Fuertes Reserve but told by ProAves that this reserve was not accessible to tourists.
  5. Chingaza Reserve – accessible by road from Bogota, planned to hire a taxi to get there.

I would need 3 flights.

  1. Quito to Santa Marta via Bogota (used Avianca Lifemiles).
  2. Santa Marta to Medellin (used Avianca Lifemiles).
  3. Pereira to Bogota (originally was going to use bus but found super cheap fare on Avianca).

This is what it all looked like on paper computer screen.

Colombia Plan

FINDING ACCOMMODATION

This turned out to be the easiest part.  Broken down by site:

  1. Santa Marta – flight got in at 9:30 so used an Expedia voucher for budget hotel.
  2. El Dorado – booked online via ProAves.
  3. Minca – booked online via Booking.com
  4. Jardin – got off bus from Medellin and walked into budget hotel on main plaza.
  5. Manizales (Rio Blanco) – must have advance booking so booked by email.
  6. Pereira – booked a backpacker place as I knew they would be able to find a cheap taxi to take us to Fuertes Parrots location at low cost.
  7. Bogota – was going to use Club Carlson bogo redemption but they closed their cheaper hotel so I used Orbucks from last year’s photo contest with 15% off promo code.

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This is an extremely succinct version of all the work I put into organizing a budget birding trip.  It’s very time consuming, especially if you have target species to track down and are limited by both time and budget.  But the end result was worth it for my high success rate.  Birds highlighted in peach were seen on this trip.  Those preceded by a 9 were allocated to Colombian sites (1-6 were allocated to Ecuador).  Red font on white background (ahem – parrotlets!) were total dips for this trip and my lifetime.  Lilac background was a dip on THIS trip but seen previously elsewhere.  For Colombia, out of  15 allocated species, 11 were seen, 4 were dips but the Brown-throated Parakeet had been seen in Panama so not a life dip.  Lilac-tailed Parrotlets could also be seen in Trindad so there was a 2nd chance (which ended up failing).

Colombia targets

So how can you do a trip like this?  Join me for the fantastic ride through Colombia during the next few weeks!

Quito To Santa Marta, Colombia Via Bogota With A Few Dramas

When you are flying to Colombia, Avianca Lifemiles are a great miles currency to have.  Flights are easily booked online and sometimes they have better award flight availability than their other partners.  I found this to be the case at the time I was booking this route.  For some reason, United was only giving availability in the early morning when I wanted to travel around mid-day to squeeze in one more morning of birding at Guango Lodge.

Lifemiles charges 11,000 miles one way for this routing.

AV8374 Quito (UIO) 16:45 Bogota (BOG) 18:25

AV9792 Bogota (BOG) 20:44 Santa Marta (SMR) 22:18

Theoretically, United should charge 10,000 miles but even on my test run these flights weren’t available and their connections were terrible on what was available.

Up until the day of departure I got several emails from Avianca trying to sell me upgrades on a per segment basis but I didn’t think it was worth it for such short flights.

The taxi from the bus stop at Pifo dropped us right outside the terminal and checking in was quick and easy.

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I would have been tempted by the Johnny Rockets as we don’t have them in Australia but there wasn’t time and I was desperate to get online.  The only stop we made was at the ATM inside as the currency of Ecuador is the USD and I wanted to withdraw some to use in the Caribbean Islands coming up.  DSCN2598

Typical over-priced airport shopDSCN2599

We used our last remaining Lounge Club passes from the Chase Ink (now discontinued) to access the lounge.  I had no internet access for the last 3 days and was dying to know more about the earthquake and check my emails.  DSCN2601

I was shocked to see the extent of the earthquake on the coast, it was really horrifying.  It didn’t seem to have affected the airport and all flights were going out on time.DSCN2602

We grabbed some snacks and drinks at the small buffet in the lounge.DSCN2603

Typical Avianca shorthaul flight, an A319.  It wasn’t full and we had an empty middle seat.  I was glad I didn’t pay money for an upgrade.DSCN2604

Beautiful Andean scenery enroute to Bogota.DSCN2606

We arrived at dusk and had just over an hour to make the connection.DSCN2607

We had to use a bus to get to a different terminal which was easy as we only had carry on bags.  I would have worried about checking bags with such a short connection.DSCN2610

I had one errand in the Bogota airport – use an ATM and withdraw some local currency – Colombian Pesos for things such as taxis, buses, food and anything else I couldn’t pay by card.  Much to my surprise, the NAB ATM card wouldn’t work in any of the different bank’s ATMs!  Not wanting to miss the flight, I changed a $50 note cash so we could get a taxi to the hotel.  At the time I just thought the line was down or banks were updating or something.

The flight brought a new drama.  We all boarded just fine but then as we tried to taxi away, something started beeping.  The pilot brought the plane back and although I didn’t understand the details which were in Spanish there was something wrong with the plane.  We were delayed about 2 more hours while they found another plane for us.

It was only about an hour flight and I was much relieved to see Santa Marta airport lights out the window and to watch the plane on the seatback air show get closer.  I was exhausted and just wanted to get to the hotel and get some sleep.  But all of a sudden, I felt the plane pull back and start gaining altitude and I saw the air show plane get further away from the airport.  WTF?  Why doesn’t he just land?  The crew were strapped in and no one around me spoke English.  The pilot did come on and say something in Spanish but it was way beyond my tourist-level basic Spanish.  We circled for around 15 minutes, then FINALLY descended and made a normal landing.  DSCN2611

We got off the plane as quickly as possible and joined the taxi line outside with pretty much the whole plane.  Taxi fares from the airport are posted and fixed rates.  Santa Marta is 27,800 at night but good luck trying to get change from 30,000 pesos!  Direct to Minca would have been 90,000 night rate, 80,000 day rate.

After around 20 minutes, we arrived at our hotel ready to drop from exhaustion!