Traveling-with-TLC

February 10, 2025

Ted had one more bucket list bird to see while in Colombia: a toucan! Our hosts at La Florida made arrangements for us to hire Gilberto, a top guide in the area, to take us to San Cipriano. For a jungle trip.

We met Gilberto at 4:30am for the 90 minute drive down to the San Cipriano jumping off point. Along the way we stopped for breakfast at a Panaderia (bakery). I noticed Gilberto bought extra baked goods before we left. When we arrived at the parking spot, one bag of goodies went to the parking attendant.

My impression of a jungle is an over-grown area full of bugs and snakes. We were dressed to impress those bugs – long-sleeved shirts, plenty of bug spray, hats. We even had netting tucked into the backback for draping over our heads when the bugs got too bad. We were NOT dressed for heat or humidity. Protection from bugs was the aim. We grabbed our backpacks, a couple bottles of water and headed across the bridge for our adventure.

Turns out, for me, the bridge was part of the adventure. I can handle snakes, even spiders aren’t too bad, but I hate swinging bridges. Especially if I can see down below through the slats. I was holding on to Ted for dear life!

Notice it was raining. Eventually the rain stopped, but I’m pretty sure the humidity stayed at 99% all day! Next stop – the Brujita. Colombias are very creative, especially with motorcycles. This one takes the cake. There are no roads to San Cipriano, just an abandoned rail line. The folks at San Cip, figured out that you could make a cart to run on the tracks, put the front wheel of a motorcycle on the cart with the back wheel on the ground and push the cart along the track. The driver and the receptionist received a bag of goodies from Gilberto, we climbed aboard the brujita, and held our breath!

Do you remember the feeling you have as you are ready to go on the Jungle Ride in Disneyland? I had the same feeling here, except it was a ride into a real jungle!

About 20 minutes later, we disembarked and began looking for birds even while in the town. We walked about a mile along a crystal clear river and watched birds all the way. Yes, Ted got to see a Toucan! We also saw monkeys (capuchin) munching in a tree. Here’s the slide show of birds for the day courtesy of eBird.

At one point along the way, the heat and humidity had gotten so bad, I was bending over to keep from passing out. All of a sudden Ted and Gilberto headed down a muddy little track out into the middle of the jungle swamp. I thought, “REALLY?!! Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. My one and only trip into this kind of jungle, I might as well try to keep up.” Off I went sloshing and slipping and wondering if I was going to die (ok, I do get a little dramatic when the weather is like that.) Just as I was congratulating myself for catching up with the guys, Gilberto turns around and says, “Don’t grab any trees because there are lots of bullet ants out here.” They are called bullet ants because if they bite you, it feels like you have been shot and you have to spend a few days in the hospital. Great! We did see the owl we had gone traipsing off to see and then I high-tailed it back to the main road!

Turns out we were very over dressed. San Cip is mostly a tourist location for people to play in the rivers, which are beautiful. Everyone else was dressed in bathing suits or shorts and flip flops. The locals didn’t seem surprised to see us all covered up. I guess bird watchers regularly come to the jungle looking like they are on safari!

We met another group of birders – this one from an organized trip – of about 20 people. Their guide is a friend of Gilberto so there was a bit of sharing of bird sitings along the way. We all ended up having lunch at the same place. They headed back to the car a bit before us because Gilberto heard another rare bird off in the jungle. I started to follow along, but then just went back to the picnic table and put my head down. Ted tried to get me to go see the awesome little bird, but I think I had hit the birder’s wall. I just didn’t care!

It is not a day I enjoyed. However, looking back, I’m so glad we went! Strange how that is sometimes the case with adventures! At least our adventure ended when we got back to the car thanks to Gilberto’s bakery gifts. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, the attendant came running up to tell Gilberto there was a demonstration on the main road and how to avoid it. The other birding group didn’t have anyone to warn them of the demonstration and they got caught in the traffic jam. They ended up spending the night in their van. Yikes!