Venturer's Log: Minca II
Bird watching is the new Netflix?
Nick's all time favourite thing to do is wake up super early and go out into the world pre-dawn. He loves it so much he's vowed to do it at least twice a week throughout the duration of our trip.
I'm just kidding. He hates it. If Nick could sleep in until 3pm and go to bed at 5am I think that's the life he would probably choose to live.
The thing about this is that he wouldn't have me as a girlfriend, and I am a beacon of joy in his life.
But, one of the most popular things to do in Minca, Colombia, is bird watching. Colombia has something like 14% of the world's biodiversity, and nowhere else in the world do the mountains rise so quickly out of the sea as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. So it's a prime location for a bit of twitching (bird watching).
Jungle Joe: An honest opinion
The Lonely Planet guidebook, and a lot of other travel blogs (that are far more established than ours) have all recommend the same place for bird watching in Minca: Jungle Joe. We were wandering through Minca's small town yesterday and walked past Jungle Joe where a gentleman was outside selling spaces on today's bird watching tour. About a month ago I told Nick that I wanted to do a bird watching tour while we were in Minca and I was genuinely surprised when he seemed keen, as it's not something that either of us have ever expressed interest in previously. Anyway, we booked the tour and then I announced to Nick the best bit of all: it was a 6am start, with a meeting time of 5:45am. He, obviously, was thrilled.
But we prepared our clothes in advance, set the alarm and woke up early (while it was still dark), got dressed and crossed the river to start the walk into town. Did we arrive at 5:45am? No. But we did get there at 5:55am and we weren't even the last people to arrive.
We were divvied into smaller groups of roughly 10-15 people, binoculars were handed out and we headed off. Dawn was just beginning to break so the light was very dim making it difficult to actually see the colours of the birds, even with the binoculars. At one point Nick whispered to me that there was a bird with such bright yellow plumage and all I could see was a dull yellowish-grey.
Anyway, we walked up through a dirt track for a bit, while the residents of Minca woke up and soon we were being passed by motorbikes and 4WDs as they headed off to do their business for the day.
We stopped numerous times so that the guide could point out the numerous birds as they were beginning their day, but again, the light was dim and soon Nick and I were feeling a bit frustrated that we'd woken up so early for what seemed like very little...
"This is not what I thought you meant when you said you wanted to go bird watching" Nick grumbled to me at one point, and I quickly agreed. Not really what I had in mind either. It was humid, we were in long trousers and long sleeves to prevent mosquito bites, walking up a dusty road with stray dogs accompanying us, and I was quickly getting hungry. And when I'm hungry, I am not the funnest person to be around.
But, we persevered. Nick took some nice photos of Santa Marta down in the distance and it wasn't an unpleasant walk per se. And the day was brightening up so we were beginning to see the actual colours of the birds which was nice.
We eventually ascended to a finca where our guide told us to take some seats overlooking a valley. And that's when things started to get interesting. The sun was definitely up by this point and golden light was falling on the valley rather beautifully. The birds we were seeing were significantly more beautiful in the light, and I had finally mastered the use of my binoculars. Our guide explained to us that the area that the finca was in is a sanctuary for sick birds - they are nursed back to health and then re-released into the wild. There was a yellow-backed Oriole twittering around the finca and as the rest of the group were making a move, Nick stopped to take some photos of it. One of the staff saw him and picked up the bird to try to hand it to Nick but it flew away over towards where I was waiting, and then after chirping and eating some seeds that had been put out, the bird jumped onto my outstretched arm and hopped up to my shoulder. I couldn't see it but I could certainly feel it and hear it chirping away.
Our tour group had already moved on at this point but there was another group who were there who were all watching me and the bird with open mouths - I think they were as shocked and delighted as I was, but I was conscious that we were losing our group so after a few minutes I offered my hand to the bird, who jumped onto it and then I passed it over to another girl so Nick and I could make a move. But I was absolutely buzzing for the rest of the walk: if we hadn't seen anything else, I would've been happy with that.
However, the tour continued to get better, as our guide spotted some elusive keel-billed toucans perching on trees in the distance, and then pointed out some more that were about 50 metres away. It was actually rather fabulous as the toucans were the one bird that I wanted to see the most and we got to see a whole flock. And then back at the finca as we were having a cup of hot chocolate (or coffee for those who were that way inclined), a hummingbird flew up and was indulging itself in some of the nectar that was hanging around the verandah.
So all in all, Nick and I agreed that it was a successful bird watching trip. Especially for only £15 per person, it was actually rather a steal. Would we do it again? Probably not. We've always known that we didn't have it in us to be bird watchers, and Nick isn't particularly interested in wildlife photography. But to be in such a biodiverse haven and not have done it I think would have been a missed opportunity. Plus, I'm still buzzing from the yellow birdy hopping all over me.