This summer, we visited Colombia.   We started in the coastal lowlands on our way to the small town of Minca.  Minca is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria.   From Minca, we headed up the mountain to the Cloud Forest at El Dorado Lodge.   The lodge is fantastic and the views from the back porch are amazing – the birds are pretty spectacular as well.  We ended our trip on the coast visiting the Guajira Peninsula.   By the end of the trip, we had seen over 100 new species of birds and had a wonderful time.

Panama is a great destination and easily accessible from the States.  It makes it a wonderful place for a long weekend ‘get-away’.   We stayed at the Canopy B&B in Gamboa and then our last night at the Canopy Tower.   As always, the folks at the Canopy family were extremely knowledgeable and very helpful.   We didn’t find many ant swarms, but got lucky with a Rufous-Crested Coquette (a hummingbird) that I was not expecting to see.  That was a delight (and a new bird for all of us).