Traveling-with-TLC

February 8-12, 2025

La Florida is set at about 6,000 feet above sea level. It is perched on a hill with cloud forest in the background – just enough to attract the most amazing wildlife but still allow for more than a few human creature comforts . It also has a marvelous view of the pretty little farms and estates surrounding it.

To this beautiful setting the owners, Javier and Sue, have added passion. They are the penultimate hosts. From the moment we arrived we felt welcome and pampered. They have assembled a tremendous team of employees who are also passionate about their roles. Nester is the bird guide. He is up by 6:00 each morning to help guests see, identify and photograph the birds and other wildlife. Also, the Banana Guy -I never caught his name. He is the man in charge of keeping the feeders supplied with food for the birds. Imagine a place so busy with birdlife it requires a fulltime person to keep bananas and sugar water in the feeders! Dona Nancy always provided scrumptious meals with a smile while Sue ensures the homemade touches are included in every meal(hot spiced juices on chilly nights are divine!) Javier makes espresso basically on demand. I love these people and this place!

Really, it feels a little like Swiss Family Robinson. Our first lunch, we were joined by a Motmot! Obviously this was going to be a magical stay!

Note the length of her tail -there is a section with no barbs- and then little “rackets” on the end. Quite an exotic and beautiful bird. This mom and her offspring live nearby, so we got plenty of photos:

After lunch, we headed to the tinamu feeder where Nester (the bird guide) puts out food and calls in the birds every day at 2:00PM. Three species not commonly seen in Colombia will come down to get their afternoon snack when they want to (not everyday of course, they aren’t exactly pets!)

Little Tinamu, Chestnut Wood-quail, White-throated Quail Dove

We also saw a little mammal lurking in the brush. After much discussion, we decided it is most likely a Tayra.

We checked into our cabin which still has the new-cabin smell! After settling in, we were back to the main feeders:

The birds at La Florida were phenomenal!

I think my favorite evening of the entire month long trip was spend at La Florida. Ted and I and two new friends, Mike and Niko were the only guests for dinner. We all ended up on a birdwatching circuit of sorts. We had met and enjoyed getting to know Mike at Dona Dora’s. Mike is British and lives in NYC. He has done some acting, is a life -coach and has various other businesses/endeavors. His current passion is photography. He spent one whole day at Dona Dora with his camera trained on one spot. He was so still, the Hummingbirds started landing on his red flip flops. I love the way birding creates friendships. Niko was traveling in basically the same circuit that we were on. He is from Germany, had spent a year in Argentina and is an artist. I wanted to keep in touch so we had a great time laughing about how Ted and I can’t quite work our phones. Good times!!

Speaking of iPhones here are a few pictures we took:

I guess because things were too easy for us, we decided to go on an ADVENTURE to the jungle (more of that in the next post). The main problem was funding – as it was unplanned . We only had enough cash to go to the jungle. By the time we returned to La Florida, we had no cash. Nada. Our first thought was to get a ride down to the ATM in Cali. Unfortunately, the roads were blocked from a demonstration.

Javier and Sue offered to take us to our next location just so we wouldn’t worry about paying a driver. So, we took them to lunch! Another fun time with Colombian people. We are so so blessed!

I can’t believe I only got a picture of Sue. I’m borrowing one from the internet of Javier. Actually the picture reminds me how funny it was to wake up and see the horse just wandering around the place without a harness. More of that Swiss Family Robinson vibe!

I actually felt like crying when it was time to say good-bye to our new friends at La Florida.