Scaled Antpitta

Colombia’s Central Andes – Rio Blanco, Paramo del Ruiz, Termales del Ruiz, Termales de San Vicente, Otun Quimbaya, and Cañon de Combeima

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August 2015. While the Chocó and the Western Andes host a wealth of exotic endemics, the area surrounding Los Nevados National Park (near the towns of Manizales and Pereira) cannot be underestimated. Diversity is through the roof here, the sites are very easy to access and comfortable, the birding is excellent, and there are hot springs all over [...]

Antpitta quest – Tapanti National Park and Reserva El Copal

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29 May – 1 June 2014 Tapanti National Park is situated in the Orosi Valley, not far from San Jose. The drive to Tapanti takes you through small towns and “shade” coffee plantations. I say shade in quotes because many of the plantations were shaded with non-native eucalyptus, a species of tree that provides little value to birds. To me it [...]

More Costa Rica – Carara, Caldera, Chomes, Lands in Love, Pocosol, and Fortuna Waterfall

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25 April – 2 May 2014 Carara National Park is a well-known birding destination in Costa Rica where we squeezed in a short day of birding. Unfortunately Carara doesn’t open until 7am (8am after May 1!), and with the sun rising at about 5:15, the best two hours of the day for birding are gone before you can even get in the park. We birded [...]

Reserva El Jaguar – Nicaragua

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28 – 30 March 2014 The border crossing into Nicaragua at Los Manos was a bit hectic, but we made it through the border in just under 2 hours and made it to Estelí before dark. We decided to stay at a hostel that night so we could use the internet to make plans for the rest of our time in Nicaragua. We stayed at a popular backpackers hostel [...]

San Cristóbal de las Casas and surrounding areas

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Oct & Nov 2013 We started our trip with barely passable Spanish, learned over years traveling in Latin countries, studying in the car and trying to pick up bits and pieces where we could. Never having formally studied Spanish, my Spanish was a mess, and while Kathi had studied a little bit, it was long ago and years of French confused things [...]