Colombia Ecuador and Galapagos

Today we had a tour to the Corcora Valley and then visted the colonial town of Salento. During breakfast a lovely little humming bird visited the feeder in the restaurant area. Hummingbird It had poured with rain for much of the night and also for the first part of the day.  We were driven to the Corcora Valley which was about 1 hours drive to the South East of Periera.  Here is the home of the Quindío Wax Palm.  This Palm grows up to 60m high and is the tallest palm in the world. On arrival at the National Park of Los Nevados, we were taken to plant our own Wax Palm into the wild to help offset our carbon footprint.  Holes had already been dug in the soil and we were given one plant per couple.  We were asked to name our plant.  Paul chose "Penny" after his MG car.  We took  Penny out of her plastic container and planted her into the ground and put the soil around her roots and pressed it firm.  We then had to say her name wh...

We are now in Periera, which is south of Medellin and is considered to be the coffee capital of Colombia.  We had a thunderstorm in the night which woke everyone up. It was just getting light when we got up and we had coffee on the balcony and watched as things came to life.  The lodge is not as isolated as we thought as there is a small community nearby.  Lots of exotic birdsong. View from our room Lovely little red and black bird seen all around the lodge Cattle Egret in tree near the lake Blue and black bird Yellow bird Lovebirds - Dusky Billed Parrotlet Lovebirds - Dusky Billed Parrotlet Bird at lodge After breakfast we went on our Coffee Plantation tour.  This was about an hours drive away and on some very uneven and bumpy roads.  We were given a coffee on arrival at the Hacienda Venecia plantation near to Manizales and then had a short talk on how coffee came to be grown in Colombia as the plant o...