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Best birding lodge near Bogota (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter Eildert
- Start date
AveryBartels
Well-known member
Unfortunately, there isn't really anything in the way of actual birding lodges around Bogota. If you have that sort of time I would strongly one of the following:
-flying on to Cali (internal flights are pretty cheap and don't take long) and go to the Araucana Lodge. That will give you access to a whole host of different birding options within an hour of the lodge covering a good variety of habitats and elevations, and some great feeder setups for hummingbirds, tanagers etc if that is your thing.
www.araucanalodge.com
-A 3-3.5 hour drive from Bogota can get you to Villavicencio where you can stay at the fairly basic Rancho Camana, which gives you access to Amazonian foothills, the llanos (savannah/dry gallery forest/water bodies) and you can bird the higher and middle elevations en route.
www.araucanalodge.com
- Fly to Santa Marta and go to El Dorado Lodge/Minca. El dorado offers more birding right from your front door than the other two options, but you will likely hit less variety (though many more endemics)
As a general rule, I find birding around Bogota rather tedious in that most sites are a ~2hr drive minimum and you spend a good chink of your time beginning and end of day sitting in traffic. It's one thing if you only have 1-2 days and not worth going elsewhere but with the kind of time you indicate you have I would advise one of the above options.
I realize this doesn't necessarily answer your question but hopefully it is helpful.
-flying on to Cali (internal flights are pretty cheap and don't take long) and go to the Araucana Lodge. That will give you access to a whole host of different birding options within an hour of the lodge covering a good variety of habitats and elevations, and some great feeder setups for hummingbirds, tanagers etc if that is your thing.
Araucana Lodge
www.araucanalodge.com
-A 3-3.5 hour drive from Bogota can get you to Villavicencio where you can stay at the fairly basic Rancho Camana, which gives you access to Amazonian foothills, the llanos (savannah/dry gallery forest/water bodies) and you can bird the higher and middle elevations en route.
Araucana Lodge
www.araucanalodge.com
- Fly to Santa Marta and go to El Dorado Lodge/Minca. El dorado offers more birding right from your front door than the other two options, but you will likely hit less variety (though many more endemics)
As a general rule, I find birding around Bogota rather tedious in that most sites are a ~2hr drive minimum and you spend a good chink of your time beginning and end of day sitting in traffic. It's one thing if you only have 1-2 days and not worth going elsewhere but with the kind of time you indicate you have I would advise one of the above options.
I realize this doesn't necessarily answer your question but hopefully it is helpful.
AveryBartels
Well-known member
Right around Bogota, perhaps the closest you could get to a Birding Lodge would be Chicaque Natural Park which has some accommodation in the lower section. I've not birded the lower part though, just around the upper parking area/restaurant/entrance road and upper part of the trail network. Note, the trails are very steep though maybe there are more accommodating options around the lower par of the park(?).
Another alternative would be to just book an airbnb type thing out in the countryside west of the city around Tena, Fusagasuga etc. Usually, reasonably good birding in the mix of plantations and forest patches.
Another alternative would be to just book an airbnb type thing out in the countryside west of the city around Tena, Fusagasuga etc. Usually, reasonably good birding in the mix of plantations and forest patches.
AveryBartels
Well-known member
I just realized I linked Araucana Lodge a second time rather than Rancho Camana in my previous message:
ranchocamana.com
Rancho Camaná – Reserva Natural de la sociedad civil
ranchocamana.com
