Traveling-with-TLC

January 17, 2025

WE FOUND A BIRDING GUIDE!! About a week before we left on our trip, we found an eBird list of over a hundred birds seen in one day along a road we were hoping to visit. I contacted the man who made the list and asked if he guides birding trips. He is a doctor but offered to “introduce” us to a few of his friends that are bird guides Somehow, we ended up contacting him a second time. He once again told us he isn’t a guide, but he invited us to watch birds on his balcony at home. Imagine inviting complete strangers from the internet to come watch birds at your house! That is so indicative of a birder’s mentality and it turns out even more so of the Colombian people. Unbounded generosity!! It didn’t work out for us to meet Dr. Frederico, but we were able to coordinate with his friend, Daniel.

While Ted was chatting with yesterday’s banking friend, Norman, I was texting in the back seat completing arrangements with Daniel.

Oh my goodness. This was probably the smartest thing Ted and I have EVER done. Daniel MADE the first part of our trip. He is about our Danny’s age. He speaks fluent English, is open-minded (quite necessary when hanging out with Ted and I), can hear and identify a bird call while holding a conversation in his second language, is willing to share anything we want to know about Colombian culture, teaches Spanish on the fly, AND is one of the top birders in the State of Antioquia, Colombia. God does bless us!

Daniel wanted to meet us at 6:00am to get a good start. Since our heads were still on Pacific Time but Colombia is on Eastern Time, I opted to delay our start to 7:30am (4:30 Pacific Time – Did I ever give my explanation why I think birding can make a girl temporarily ugly?)

We were set to spend the day at three different parks within Medellin. Each was a different type of habitat from the other. We saw about 30 species of birds before we left the parking lot of the first spot! Enjoy the slide show of some of my favorite birds of the day (photos from eBird):

Are you starting to get an idea of why we are birdwatching in Colombia? Ted likes to look at butterflies and I am definitely fascinated with plant life. Daniel isn’at an expert at either of those, but will go well out of his way to ensure his client’s enjoyment!

I wanted to taste a star fruit – so Daniel climbed the tree for me!

Cultural Note of the Day: Medellin is a huge city with very distinct neighborhoods. Daniel taught us that the City taxes people according to the “tier” of their neighborhood with one the lowest tax bracket and 6 the highest. Our Airbnb is a 3 tier or middle-class neighborhood.

Some of the lovely sites we visited around Medellin: