Thanks everyone.
Our time with Ernesto had pretty much gone perfectly except for the Zapata Wren we had seen all of our targets, so we decided not to hire a car and do the area ourselves. We did wonder if we hadn’t been able to make the trip with Ernesto work how many birds we would have missed. Although I had downloaded the calls and had rough spots for a few of the major birds I think I would have missed at least 5 or 6 assuming we could have still have stayed at one of the two Casas (details for Casa Ana are
[email protected] +53 45987544) but even that wouldn’t have been certain as our rudimentary Spanish might have failed to get us accommodated.
As I said earlier in reply to Dave staying in Casa's and travelling away from a Resort Hotel would be preferable but until the world gets back to normal doing a package with help with testing etc and then just a few days in somewhere like Playa Larga or Playa Giron will get you some great birding.
Just before we were due to return to the UK, the Government announced that anyone entering the UK needed to have a negative PCR test but they didn’t set a date. When I looked in to it the SMC medical centre in the Hotel and in other major resort hotels could do a test 2 to 3 days before departure for only US $30 but we didn’t need it because the government moved back the date. However worth knowing after the lockdown if the UK stills require a negative test before arrival (even for countries with proportionately less than 1% of active cases of the UK).
Last thoughts
After nearly a year devoid of new birds it was great to add 31 new bird species in a really friendly country and to tick off country 94 (surely we can add 6 more in 2021 as the world emerges from the pandemic).
Our last bird of 2020 was Cuban Pewee and our first of 2021 a Cuban Parakeet.