Santa Marta Mountains

Minca is a town at 600m in the foothills of the Santa Marta mountains (highest peak snow capped at 5575m). The town itself is a bit edgy with the police station literally next door to one of the many shops advertising drugs to backpackers!

We were here for birding however and we spent three wonderful days getting up early (3.30am one day) to see so many wonderful birds -70 lifers in fact. This area is famous for endemics (birds found nowhere else on earth outside this small isolated mountain range) and we saw 17 of them. Probably the best birding of the trip so far. You can see and read more at www.wildscot.blog

We travelled to 2600m by 4x4 with a fantastic driver (needed for the rutted roads and river crossings) and incredibly skilled bird guide Cristian.

We are taking the advice from the US state department and avoiding the long and risky bus journeys here in Colombia (both for armed robbery and mudslides as it is the rainy season). So tonight we fly a short flight into the Andes (saving 22 hour bus) for some more birding and travel through the famous coffee region of Colombia.Read more