Ask anyone who has travelled with me, and they’ll tell you my number one concern (and sometimes my only concern) is the next morning’s coffee availability. And bless their hearts, Colombia is the world’s third-largest coffee producer (growing 100% Coffea arabica). Our birding trip, though very bird-forward, included an afternoon tour of a local coffee plantation at the Hacienda Venecia Coffee Lodge just outside Manizales.
July 27, 2023: Our group at the coffee plantation learning how to tell if a coffee bean is ripe or not. Our tour followed with a coffee tasting, which I actually didn’t take part in because I can’t drink coffee in the afternoon. Though life-giving in the morning, it has the opposite effect on me in the afternoon. Photo by Birding By Bus.The plantation also grows cacao trees, and here is me lovingly handling a cocao pod. Do I love chocolate more than I love coffee? No, but close? Photo by Birding By Bus.Ripe coffee beans are red. Brilliant red. For somebody who relies on coffee daily, I had no idea. We bought a whole bag! No, we did not. We actually found out that you can’t take coffee beans into the USA unless you check your bag, so we didn’t buy any. Photo by Birding by Bus. Our day was not without birds or delicious Colombian snacks though. Upon returning from our coffee tour, we snacked on buñuelos with a side of custard, with hot chocolate of course. Photo by Birding By Bus. Palm Tanager and Blue-gray Tanager at the feeder at Tinamu Birding Nature Reserve. Thick-billed Euphonia at Tinamou. Blue-headed Parrot at Tinamou.
And wow, I thought I could squeeze another day into this post, but July 28 involved at least three species of antipittas, and that’s going to need its own post.
Sauntering Birder 