The Piedras River and Casa Kankui in El Zaino, Colombia

It was a long drive from El Dorado to El Zaino (about 5 minutes drive from Tayrona National Park) and walking into the hostel didn't really fit what I had expected. I knew it was along the highway but I expected the property to be a bit set back but this is ON the highway. The pool view is the highway and the highways views the pool.

Kankui Hostal

BUT all of that first impression drastically improved after settling in and over the course of the stay. The breakfast is included and is fantastic with fresh fruit, juice, scrambled eggs and arepas. Our room was river view and really was ON the river with only about 1 m of sand in between. There was air conditioning and TV. We had our own private balcony area with a hammock and chairs.

Piedras River at Kankui Hostal

Piedras River at Kankui Hostal

The river was lovely, crystal clear and cool (but not very deep in dry season) with a rock/sand bottom that was easy to walk in. Stretching my legs after the long drive I walked just a short distance into the river and was surrounded by birds! Hummingbirds, tanagers warblers!! All flitting around these large mimosa shrubs blooming on a sand flat in the river.

Streaked Flycatcher

Blue-gray Tanagers

I walked the river many times in the three days we spent there and I saw many birds including:
Ruddy Ground-dove
Spotted Sandpiper
Crested Caracara
Yellow-headed Caracara

Yellow-headed Caracara

Pale-bellied Hermit
Steely-vented Hummingbird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Snowy Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Ringed Kingfisher
Amazon Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher Male

Green Kingfisher Male

Green Kingfisher Female

Green Kingfisher Female

Red-crowned Woodpecker

Red-crowned Woodpecker

Orange-chinned Parakeet
Blue-headed Parrot

Blue-headed Parrot

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Social Flycatcher
Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager

Tropical Kingbird 

Tropical Kingbird

Southern Rough-winged Swallow

Southern Rough-winged Swallow

Bicoloured Wren
House Wren
Long-billed Gnatwren
Pale-breasted Thrush
Baltimore Oriole
Orange-crowned Oriole

Orange-crowned Oriole

Long-tailed Grackle
Blue-gray Tanager
Crimson-backed Tanager

Crimson-backed Tanager

Palm Tanager

Palm Tanager

Bananaquit
Northern Waterthrush
Yellow Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Grayish Saltator
Gray Seedeater

At night the river was loud with Giant Toads and fishing spiders but surprisingly little else. I did surprise an armadillo one night and it very slowly sauntered off in front of me like an old grump.

Giant Toad (Rhinella horribilis)

The highway doesn't have much around it here and the best places to eat are literally across the street at Chayrama or Yuluka EcoHostal. The food and drinks at both are lovely but I am partial to the ecohostal because of the wildlife. The restaurant is set higher up so you have a nice view of the trees and can bird watch while you eat or if you go for a quick walk around you see frogs, skinks and geckos on the property.

Yuluka EcoHostal

Yuluka EcoHostal

Blue-gray Tanager

Cimson-backed Tanager

Night at El Dorado EcoLodge and Reserve, Colombia

At night they fed the monkeys just after dinner and shortly after had a night walk just down the road to a small creek. They tried to call in owls with no luck but we did see glass frogs, endemic frogs, endemic tarantulas and a climbing salamander very very deep in a bromeliad. If only we had a bit more rain there might have been even more out.

I believe the many anoles sleeping on leaves were only one species of Anolis sp. but I am not sure what it is yet. I do suspect it is a Solitare Anole (Anolis solitarius).

Pristimantis megalops
Pristimantis sanctaemartae

Pristimantis sanctaemartae

Scinax ruber
Ikakogi tayrona are small bright green glass frogs and sadly I didn't get to see more than one of them.

 Ikakogi tayrona

I only got to see one Bolitoglossa savegei, a species of climbing salamander and it was very very stuck in the nooks of a bromeliad.
Spider scorpions

Kankuamo marquezi is the only species within the Genus and is endemic to the Santa Marta Mountain Range area but it was incredibly abundant around the ecolodge.

Kankuamo marquezi

Kankuamo marquezi

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