COLOMBIA: TINAMU TO TATAMA NATIONAL PARK AND MONTEZUMA ECO-LODGE, PART I

 March 20, 2023    

Our driver arrived at 6:30 AM and we were ready to go, but our guide from the previous day offered to buy breakfast for us and our driver Mario, so we stayed for the overcooked fried eggs, another tough arepa, and a roll, and then we got on the road at 7:00 AM. 

We were in a much bigger vehicle than the one that brought us to Tinamú, a van with four rows of seats. Bob was in front, I was on the second row, and Sav sat on the elevated back row. The beginning of the drive leaving Tinamú on the one-lane dirt road was rough riding, but eventually we got to a divided highway, tough it had way too many hairpin turns. After we passed through the large city of Pereira (which we had flown into from Bogotá two days before), the road eventually became even rougher and narrower, but the scenery, at least was spectacular.

I slept for at least an hour, maybe two, of the 3.25 hour drive as my protection against motion sickness, but I woke up occasionally to look out the window. Bob said I missed a fabulous section of terraced farmland where coffee plants were growing. Savannah also drifted off to sleep occasionally.

By the way, our drive Mario looked just like Savannah's other grandfather (also named Bob). She and I made that connection independently. 

There were quite a few sections of the road where the right shoulder was partially or wholly washed away by mud and/or rock slides from the towering cliffs on our left. At least once there was a large boulder in the road that Mario could barely get around.

We eventually made it to the town of Pueblo Rico. Mario said the "Rico" part didn't refer to the town, which was very poor, but rather to the setting. I was surprised to discover when I was writing this post that it has a population of over 14,000, and many of the residents are indigenous people.

We got out of the car and bought a few Cokes before transferring our luggage to a 4x4 truck for the last part of the drive.

COLOMBIA: TINAMU DAY 2

 March 19, 2023

I was up and out by 6:30 AM to see the morning birds with Bob. It was definitely not as impressive as I expected, and the birds we saw were similar to the day before. However, it was nice to be out in the cool morning air appreciating the glorious scenery.

The reserve folks had sprinkled some bird seed along the driveway that attracted dozens of small birds.

Saffron finch

COLOMBIA: BOGOTA TO PEREIRA TO TINAMU, DAY 1

 March 18, 2023

During the night I began stressing about my stolen phone and couldn't sleep. I looked at my email on Bob's phone and saw an email from either Verizon or Apple (I can't remember which) that said that at 4:45 PM someone had tried to retrieve my password to unlock the phone. That made me nervous and didn't help my insomnia. I was also a little nauseous. I think I fell asleep around 2:00 AM and got two hours of sleep before being startled awake at 4:00 by the alarm.

We were picked up at 4:45 AM and transported to the airport. We were supposed to have been given boarding passes, but they hadn't come, so we had to figure out how to do that. We made it to our gate in time to get Savannah a "pink drink" at Starbuck's for breakfast. I had a Coke to settle my stomach, and I bought some chocolate for the first time on the trip. 

Somehow we got seated on Row 2 in business class, which was the best seat on the plane. (Row 1 had less leg room.) It wasn't especially luxurious, but they did put a little table where the middle seat should be. It was a small plane, and they did make us check our bags.

Our flight to Pereira was supposed to be a little over an hour, but as we were coming in for a landing, the plane suddenly jerked upward for a steep climb, and then we made a wide circle (or two) before making a successful landing.  I have no idea what that was about. Pilot in training?

You can see from the map below that Bogotá and Pereira are not that far apart relative to the distance between Cartagena (top left of map) and Bogotá. We could have had someone drive us to Pereira, a distance of about 200 miles, but it takes almost eight hours to make the drive, which indicates what the roads are like. No thanks.

We had never heard of Pereira and don't know anyone else who has, even those it has a population of over 700,000 people. It is located in the Andean foothills and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia." The soil in this region is rich in minerals from volcanic eruptions.

We were picked up in the Pereira airport by a very friendly and talkative driver who took us to Tinamú Birding Reserve, abouat 1.5 hours away. We started on a very nice highway that eventually devolved into a narrow, bumpy dirt road with tight turns, and by the time we arrived, I was green. At the very end we cam nose-to-nose with a car coming out. Our driver had to back up quite a way before they could pass each other.

We got to the reserve at about 11:00 AM. We had a fairly large cabin not far from the main lodge. Here is the front entrance:

. . . and the side view:

I loved the tropical murals and bed throws in our room.

ECUADOR: HACIENDA CACAO & MANGO AND CHURUTE MANGROVES ECOLOGICAL RESERVE

 March 28, 2022

After hours of winding roads and then dirt roads, which were hard on me but didn't seem to affect anyone else (I'm so wimpy), we finally made it to our last destination of the trip, the Charute Mangroves Ecological Reserve and Cocoa Farm. The Ecological Reserve covers about 220 square miles, and is about 25 miles from the city of Guayaquil.

Map adapted from one found here

We stopped first at Hacienda Cacao & Mango, a farm focused on agritourism.

Our first item of business was a stop at the WC. I don't usually mention that in posts, but this one was extra cute.

Next up was lunch. All the food is grown locally and organically (or so they say). I loved the use of tree sections for placemats.