During my trip to Colombia in February of this year, I had the pleasure of staying at ProAves El Dorado Reserve in Magdalena, Colombia. The reserve is about an hour outside of Minca and 1.5-2 hours from Santa Marta. The trip there is a journey in itself, but certainly worth the trek.
For starters, what is ProAves? ProAves is a Colombian organization of conservationists, scientists, and members of the Colombian Wildlife community that was founded to save the Yellow-eared Parrot from extinction in Colombia. Following the success of that venture, the organization has expanded to manage 27 nature reserves, aiming to “safeguard Colombia’s globally threatened wildlife with a special focus on birds and amphibians through scientific research, targeted conservation actions, and deep community engagement.” In short, these areas in Colombia are some of the top birding, mammaling, and places in general to experience wildlife and nature. Your stay at these reserves directly helps protect and upkeep the areas, and helps fund more purchases of land around Colombia to protect.”
One of the primary reasons that I looked towards El Dorado as a location to prioritize on my trip was the sheer number of endemic species and subspecies in the area. There are approximately 83 endemic species in Colombia, and the Santa Marta Mountains (where El Dorado is) owns 23 of those endemic species. Some of these species include: Santa Marta Parakeet, Santa Marta Warbler, Santa Marta Woodstar, Santa Marta Antpitta, Santa Marta Brushfinch, and the White-lored Warbler.
Before we go too far into what wonders lie in store for the new birds you can see at El Dorado, I do have to mention the trek it is to get to the lodge. Obviously, the lodge is pretty remote, which is a selling point, and does take some maneuvering to get there. There are 2 main ways to get to El Dorado: via a 4×4 car or a motorcycle taxi. I went the 4×4 route, but plenty of folks who were staying there at the time I went used a moto to get there. The reason for this is the roughness of the terrain in the final few miles to the lodge. The amount of large rocks and boulders that are physically part of the road would make it impossible for a sedan to get up the steep, rough incline. You could start your journey to El Dorado from either Santa Marta or Minca – two cities close to El Dorado. The Santa Marta route, which is what I did, takes you through Minca anyway and could be a place you might want to stay for a few days on either side of your trip to see the birds around there. In Minca, there were plenty of motos around that could be hailed to take you to the lodge. I was able to secure by 4×4 by whatsapp’ing the lodge. They gave me the contact information for someone they trusted to drive me from Santa Marta – this is not the cheap option as it will run you another ~$140 for a 4×4 round trip – you will also most likely need to know some Spanish for this route. All in all, yes, it is certainly a hike to get there and back, but realistically, it was not that bad once the details were worked out to hire a car.
The prices for the reserve are certainly more expensive than other hotels or hostels in Colombian major cities, but for a private and secluded nature reserve, it is not that bad (in my opinion). I paid roughly $250 for 3 nights in one of their Koguihabs, but this did not include food, which was cooked on-site and cost approximately $120 for 3 full days of meals (each meal was around $15). With that being said, the food at El Dorado was some of the best that I had in Colombia and was worth the price for me. Special shoutouts to the bagged breakfast before my hike for the Santa Marta Antpitta, which was a thermos of coffee & Colombian hot chocolate, some cheese sandwiches, and Oreos. The thermos of the hot chocolate was worth its weight in gold.
The lodge was perfect for someone who spoke Spanish or only knew English. The folks working at El Dorado were incredibly kind, knowledgeable, and helpful about the birdlife and other nature onsite.
Okay, let’s get to the fun stuff. The birds on the grounds, what I was able to see, and what I missed. Let’s start with my trip report from El Dorado. I racked up 69 species over the 3 nights that I was there, but realistically, I am positive there were a dozen to 2 dozen species that I missed based on my ability to easily ID the birds with such dark lighting at times. Before we talk about my favorite birds of the trip, I got 56 lifers during this short period in El Dorado. This would be about 20% of the total lifers for my trip. The highlight birds of those 3 nights were the Santa Marta Woodstar, the Black-and-chestnut Eagle (a sensitive species), the Santa Marta Antpitta, the Southern Emerald-Toucanet, the Golden-olive Woodpecker (big woodpecker fan), the Santa Marta Brushfinch, the Band-tailed Guan, and the Santa Marta Screech-Owl calling at night.
Birding at El Dorado could be whatever difficulty level and experience that you desire. You can certainly take a hike to Cerro Kennedy, as I did (and will explain below), stay with the local trails near the lodge, or simply hang out near the lodge. Locally, around the lodge is still some high-quality birding with the number of feeders that are present. There are more than 5 hummingbird feeders along the edge of the woods near the lodge. With my novice skills with hummingbirds, I was still able to pick up 9 species of hummingbirds. These feeders were busy no matter the time of day. It was difficult to get a reliable count of the pure number of hummingbirds that were coming in and out, but there were easily dozens at a time. The ground feeders were also a good time. Outside of the Red-tailed Squirrels & Guatíns (which became a favorite of mine during the trip), it was regular to see Sierra Nevada Brushfinches, Rufous-collared Sparrows, Santa Marta Brushfinches, & Band-tailed Guans at the feeder. As a whole, without the miles of trails that are steps away from the lodge, this area is teeming with wildlife just feet away from where you eat and hang out.
I took one long hike during my 3 nights at El Dorado, which turned out ot be one of the most exhausting treks I have taken in my life. I wrote a bit about it in my Top 10 Birds of Colombia, but will post here as well. Seeing the Santa Marta Antpitta necessitated a roughly 6-mile and change round-trip hike, starting before sunrise, with the final mile being a 2000-foot hike straight up a hill to Cerro Kennedy in the Santa Marta’s. This hike is popular with visitors at Reserva Natural El Dorado to see the Santa Marta Antpitta along with the Santa Marta Parakeet, which I was not able to see on this trip.
Upon finally summiting the Cerro, and having to lie down for a few minutes, a group of birders (the same folks I was also sharing the reserve with) arrived at the Cerro. This is when I realized that there was a road that was accessible by car to get to the top, which was disappointing and very funny. After that ~2 and change hours that it took to get to the top, I completely forgot about the Antpitta being my goal at the top of the hike. Within 20 minutes, the local Antpitta whisperers with El Dorado had coaxed the Antpitta out of hiding.
As I was planning my trip to Colombia and noticing the sheer number of endemics in the Santa Marta region, I knew that El Dorado had to be on the itinerary. While it certainly was not the easiest thing to get to the lodge, it was not a huge problem. About 5 months removed from staying at El Dorado, it is still the part of my trip to Colombia that I think about the most. I am already thinking about the next time I get to the country and stay at El Dorado or other ProAves locations. I had an incredible time for the cost and ‘pain’ of the trip and would certainly recommend it.
