OURS WASN'T A LUXURY TRIP by any standards but the lodging Gabriel booked was more than acceptable. All of the hotels were clean and relatively quiet, modest places for real people. My favorite was La Parguera Resort in the funky beach town of the same name. And it was just down the street from a roost for endemic Yellow-Shouldered Blackbirds.
Nice digs La Parguera
Gabriel is a bit of a foodie — not frou-frou gourmet dishes, more like good Puerto Rican home cookin’. He has a list of favorite eateries and I can’t find fault with any of them. We had the usual huevos for breakfast unless we needed to get an early start. Then it was either breakfast sandwiches and coffee or freshly baked pastries. Lunch was where the locals ate, often roadside barbecue stands — pork is a big deal and seafood was always on the dinner menu.
Yellow-shouldered blackbird Morning raindrops
If Connie had a dream list of birds to see in Puerto Rican — and I wouldn’t be surprised if she did — it was fulfilled before dinner on Saturday. Gabriel said a friend had tipped him to a nearby location for masked ducks, a species we have been chasing for years. They are widespread but difficult to find and now Connie can tick them off her list.
The elusive masked duck!
By the time Gabriel deposited us at SJ Suites in San Juan Viejo, we had seen 110 species and added twenty-one to Connie’s life list.
