Bokmakierie99
Well-known member
I thought I'd write up a trip report for my recent trip to the Santa Marta Mountains of northern Colombia, from April 17-24.
We visited Los Flamencos reserve, El Dorado lodge, and hiked to the Lost City (4 days), seeing a grand total of 199 bird species.
To get there, we flew Newark to Houston, then to Bogota overnight and a morning flight to the city of Santa Marta, where we arrived about 9 and met our guide, Sebastian Ballesteros, who can be contacted on Viator here. He guided and drove us on the first 1.5 days of our trip, out to the Los Flamencos reserve and back.
Our first stop was at the Via Tayrona, the road that leads to Tayrona National Park (Google Map here. This road breaks off to the left from the main highway, across the road from a gas station. Sebastian did not recommend visiting the park itself because it's expensive and apparently they force you to spend 30 minutes watching some video before you can do anything. Birding in the habitat along this road we saw a male Black-backed Antshrike and several Russet-throated Puffbirds.
From there we drove east until lunch time, when we stopped at the Restaurant Acacias, which is located along the main highway at the main entrance to the national park (Cañaveral). The restaurant has an incredible setting along a river, and we saw a number of neat birds from it, such as Crimson-backed Tanagers, Bananaquits, and Buff-throated Saltators.
We stopped once more on the way to Camarones, which takes about 2 and a half hours driving continuously from Santa Marta. This stop was at another small road leading toward the ocean, called the Gaviotas road ("tern"), after some cabins at the road's end. Along this stretch we saw Lance-tailed Manakins, White-bellied Antbird, Cinnamon Becard, and many more.
Approaching Camarones, we took the old road into town, skirting the edge of the reserve, visible on Google Maps here. This was a quite productive stretch in late afternoon; we stopped at a couple points where the road crosses little rivers and saw two species of Night-Heron, as well as Rufous-vented Chachalaca, Crested Bobwhite, and a pair of White-fringed Antwrens.
We spent the night at Remanso el Sanctuario, a rustic place right in the reserve, and on the beach. As night fell a large number of Lesser Nighthawks came flying overhead, and there were several Ruddy Turnstones on the beach.
We visited Los Flamencos reserve, El Dorado lodge, and hiked to the Lost City (4 days), seeing a grand total of 199 bird species.
To get there, we flew Newark to Houston, then to Bogota overnight and a morning flight to the city of Santa Marta, where we arrived about 9 and met our guide, Sebastian Ballesteros, who can be contacted on Viator here. He guided and drove us on the first 1.5 days of our trip, out to the Los Flamencos reserve and back.
Our first stop was at the Via Tayrona, the road that leads to Tayrona National Park (Google Map here. This road breaks off to the left from the main highway, across the road from a gas station. Sebastian did not recommend visiting the park itself because it's expensive and apparently they force you to spend 30 minutes watching some video before you can do anything. Birding in the habitat along this road we saw a male Black-backed Antshrike and several Russet-throated Puffbirds.
From there we drove east until lunch time, when we stopped at the Restaurant Acacias, which is located along the main highway at the main entrance to the national park (Cañaveral). The restaurant has an incredible setting along a river, and we saw a number of neat birds from it, such as Crimson-backed Tanagers, Bananaquits, and Buff-throated Saltators.
We stopped once more on the way to Camarones, which takes about 2 and a half hours driving continuously from Santa Marta. This stop was at another small road leading toward the ocean, called the Gaviotas road ("tern"), after some cabins at the road's end. Along this stretch we saw Lance-tailed Manakins, White-bellied Antbird, Cinnamon Becard, and many more.
Approaching Camarones, we took the old road into town, skirting the edge of the reserve, visible on Google Maps here. This was a quite productive stretch in late afternoon; we stopped at a couple points where the road crosses little rivers and saw two species of Night-Heron, as well as Rufous-vented Chachalaca, Crested Bobwhite, and a pair of White-fringed Antwrens.
We spent the night at Remanso el Sanctuario, a rustic place right in the reserve, and on the beach. As night fell a large number of Lesser Nighthawks came flying overhead, and there were several Ruddy Turnstones on the beach.