Sunday, February 07, 2010

Puerto Rico Day 6: Last day and final thoughts

We spent the night at Casa Cubuy eco-lodge. It’s a really nice spot overlooking the rainforest. There’s a river and waterfalls nearby. It’s very open, but covered from the rain. There are lots of comfy seats, a little fridge with beer and wine for purchase, and lots of hammocks. It could benefit from some bird feeders. The rooms are nicely decorated, although ours had quirky 4-poster beds which didn’t really match the eco-lodge theme. The rooms were clean and comfortable. Like many tropical sites, they had the “no flushing toilet paper” rule.

IMG_4562

It rained all night and into the morning. We spent 45 minutes or so on the deck, but didn’t see many birds. It was pretty foggy. We did have great views of Greater Antillean Oriole. I’ve heard the breakfasts at Casa Cubuy are great, but we didn’t stay.

IMG_4588

We packed up for our journey toward the airport. We stopped for breakfast at the Fajardo Inn. Not only is this a nice resort with good breakfast, the grounds are a great place to see two sought-after hummingbirds: Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbird. We were not disappointed. Both hummingbirds were right there in the parking lot! We also saw Nutmeg Mannikins and another Greater Antillean Oriole.

carib
Green-throated Carib

crested hummerAntillean Crested Hummingbird

oriole
Greater Antillean Oriole

We made a few stops in El Yunque in hopes of seeing Puerto Rican Parrots, but we didn’t find any. We did see some nice waterfalls and a Black-throated Blue Warbler.

IMG_4594

Thus ended our trip in Puerto Rico. I had a blast. I highly recommend Wildside Nature Tours. My experience was great with very competent, flexible, and personable leaders. Others who have done trips with them have said similar things. Thanks again to 10,000 Birds and Wildside Nature Tours for sponsoring the contest that got me there!

Go to Day 6

4 comments:

dguzman said...

WOW! I've missed all these posts--can't wait to scroll down and see more. Love those BTBlues.

Christopher said...

Wow - truly sounds like a really fantastic trip! (Not that I doubted it for a moment)
And nice job writing it up. I've had Wildside bookmarked for a while - if I do hire a company for a trip anywhere, these folks will likely be the first ones I go to!

Alberto said...

I am very glad that you had a great time in P.R. This type of tourism is need in Puerto Rico, and articles like these will motivate others to come and visit this spectacular Island in the caribbean, in which I was born and had the privilege to live in for 27 years.

Thanks for sharing!!

P.S

Could you post a list of all the species you saw?

Patrick B. said...

Hi Alberto, I just posted a complete list of species seen.

http://www.hawkowlsnest.com/2010/02/puerto-rico-bird-list.html