COLUMBIA WAS THE LAST OF THE FOUR Rock Jumper trips that Connie had to book concurrently just to guarantee that we would have a place. After the Cameroon fiasco I begged off the trip to Papua New Guinea. I am not a fan of groups or the pre-dawn to post-dusk Rock Jumper itinerary but Columbia was just too good to miss. It has more bird species than any other country — 900 — of which nearly 90 are found only in Columbia and enough butterflies and monkeys to keep things interesting.
The motely crew from Rock Jumper
We left the RV in storage at Vandenberg and arranged a hotel/long-term parking deal not far from LAX, perfect for our LA-Panama City-Bogota flight with a follow-on flight the next morning to Barranquilla where the Santa Marta extension began. As birding groups go, this one was pretty good — Aussies, Bob and Darryl (or maybe it was Darryl's brother Darryl), Linda, Butch and David from the US and Jean-Marc from France. Our Brit guide, Rob, restored our faith in Rock Jumper; personable and knowledgeable with a PhD in ecology and a wide range of interests. He has worked with BBC, NatGeo and is currently co-authoring a book on hummingbirds of the world.
Hermes sets out a snack
Hermes, our driver for most of the trip, picked us up in a brandy new WV 15-passenger bus with enough room for some semblance of privacy on the sometimes long drives. When the roads got rough we transferred to FWD Toyota Land Cruisers and Hermes got some well deserved time off. Not only did he drive safely for long hours without getting lost, he kept our on-board larder stocked with water, snacks and, bless his little heart, Diet Coke.
Blue Morpho butterfly Iguana
Silver-handed tamarin Red Howler Monkey
More than just Birds
We climbed from the sea-level mangroves at Isla Salamanca NP on a rutted track flooded by the torrential rains to the El Dorado Lodge, 10,000 feet up the Santa Marta Mountains, only to learn that the storm had knocked out the power. And we would live in the dark for next three nights, except for the dining area powered by the noisy, smelly generator that enabled us to keep computers and cameras charged. But during the day the lodge’s feeders attracted an astonishing number of hummingbirds and other colorful species.
Collared Inca Golden-bellied Starfront
We switched back to the VW for the trip to Riohacha, birding all the way. No trip to SA is complete without a strike — ours was a pre-announced pilot boycott forcing the cancellation of some flights, including ours from Riohacha. Rob, always on top of things, arranged flights from Santa Marta, turning a major disaster into a minor inconvenience instead. You da Man, Rob
The group ritually gathered every evening to discuss and record what we had seen that day. Our score for the five Santa Marta days was 335 species, 90 of which were “lifers” for us including 22 endemic species. As usual, the Aussies really cleaned up. Almost everything they saw was new to them.
