Originally Posted by JohnnyColombia Then I would do Medellin to Jardin on a bus, then contract a Jeep and guide from the hotel. Then I would take that over the mountain bus to Riosucio and change for Manizales. Cab to a hostel where the owner would organise a taxi to Rio Blanco, then bus it down to Pereira for the rest of your trip.
This seems the best way to go!
I had no idea parking would be such a hassle in small towns, I just assumed the hotels would have some kind of parking for their guests. Anyway, it seems like it would be cheaper to use buses for most of my routes, even if I have to get a taxi to Andes or get the guide to drop us in Rio Sucio if he has a 4WD. He can get either a car or 4WD at $50/75 respectively. Do they have those share taxis like collectivos? If there aren't too many seats, it can sometimes be cheaper to just buy all the unoccupied seats in those.
I'm not worried about the guide's language, if he doesn't speak English, he can write the birds down in Spanish and I will translate it later. The trip isn't until April so I haven't worried too much about booking individual guides yet, just getting ball park figures for the budget. I'm keeping an eye on eBird to see what reports come in.
LOL coolcoil, I am probably one of the very few FT'ers/bloggers who is more interested in the remote small towns - actually the national parks that are located near them. No Park Hyatts or Intercons to attract most miles/points collectors! Gotta go where the birds are!
I do have one problem in Bogota, Johnny would you know what happened
here? You probably don't frequent the Club Carlson forum. I chose that property because it is closer to Chingaza NP.
The other part of this trip is Santa Marta to El Dorado, another Pro Aves lodge but at least that one has online booking. My dilemma is that we arrive around 9:45pm from Bogota on Avianca (miles of course). I would prefer to take a taxi direct to Minca so we can get an early start to El Dorado the next morning. Is this dangerous/difficult to do at night? It's easy enough to book something in Minca on Booking.com.