Minca, Colombia

We spent from Jan 5th to Jan 8th in Minca before heading up to El Dorado EcoLodge at higher elevation. Minca is a lovely town and it sits at the intersection of river a river and smaller creeks. The town is busy with 'local tourists' aka Colombians from other places coming up to see the waterfalls and swim in the river. The locals don't appear to be phased by the tiny blackflies that come out in mass around 4-6pm every day and eat chunks out of your legs. That being said the river is very refreshing in the hot weather.

The food is much better than I expected after being all to familiar with the simple rice and bean dishes of other Latin American countries. We eat at Restaurante Santisabella for every dinner we were there for. They serve massive steaks with a lovely peppercorn gravy for only about 15 dollars. You can choose from a large variety of drinks to go along with it and all of them are fantastic. My favorite was the Mora Mojito which was packed with fresh blackberry and mint.

Restaurante Santisabella

I got very sick while we were in Minca so I missed out on visiting Pozo Azul Waterfall and Balneario Los Piedras (a rock chute where people usually go to swim). I got some fantastic birding done around the Hotel Minca but I do regret not seeing more of the area. I am sure there would have been lots more to see just walking around the roads and seeing some different habitats.

Collared Aracari

 The Motmots and Black-chested Jays were my favorite birds that I saw. The mass numbers of hummingbirds is always quite thrilling. The jays were eating the long yellow flowers of Combretum fruticosum.

Black-chested Jay

Black-chested Jay

Black-chested Jay

Red-crowned Woopecker

White-vented Plumeleteer

Whooping Motmot

Whooping Motmot

Social Flycatcher

My only rarity for the area (according to eBird) was a Brown Violetear. This  hummingbird was coming to the feeders at the hotel. I didn't actually realize it would be uncommon in Minca until I went to enter it.

Brown Violetear

I was able to find a few snake skins in some ideal places but never any live snakes. There were frogs calling near a small creek beside the road one night.

Savage's Thin-toed Frog (Leptodactylus savagei)

I did quite well for mammals in Minca and I was surprise to see about 2 new species a day including a ridiculous domestic rabbit, 1 unknown nocturnal mammal that reminded me of a ferret with a very long tail, an opposum, bats and Red-tailed Squirrels.

Red-tailed Squirrel

 From a restaurant called Lazy Cat there was a perched view into the trees beside the river below. We had the chance to see a lot more of pretty much all the same birds that were at Hotel Minca plus a large male Green Iguana displaying and chasing away younger males.

Lazy Cat, Minca

Green Iguana