West Mexico (Nayarit) – Jan 2018

In January we were fortunate to have a week down in Nayarit, west Mexico, visiting friends Jerry and Linda who had rented a house in Rincon de Guayabitos (about 40 miles north of Puerto Vallarta). (We’d say we were escaping a harsh winter for warmer weather, but truthfully winter in southeast Arizona this year has been remarkably mild.)

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Panama, Redux

tn_P1030769In March 2012 we eagerly returned to Panamá with naturalist and bird guide Mark Pretti. This trip covered some of the same ground we did with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT) back in 2005, e.g. the canal zone on the Pacific side near Gamboa, and added in several days up closer to cloud forest at the Canopy Lodge in El Valle de Anton. Read more about it!

Chiapas – Mar/Apr 2009

In late March we travelled to the state of Chiapas, Mexico to bird, hike, and camp in the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve.  Our trip was led by Mark Pretti of Mark Pretti Nature Tours (Hereford, Arizona) with local guide Jorge Montejo of the El Triunfo reserve.  We flew into Tuxtla Gutierrez and after a morning in nearby Sumidero Canyon, drove to Jaltenango, the next morning to the coffee farm Finca Prusia, and from there hiked ~8 miles up to the El Triunfo base camp at ~6500 ft elevation. 

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Panama – Aug 2005

In August, Robert and I embarked on a birding/nature trip to Panama with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours.  Our destination was the Canopy Tower, a former US Air Force radar tower facility on Semaphore Hill overlooking the Culebra Cut of the Panama Canal, later used by the DEA before being abandoned in the 1995.  Remodeled and turned into an eco-lodge, the four-story structure provides visitors a bird’s-eye view into the surrounding canopy and was the perfect base from which to explore the surrounding area. Click here to read more about it!