Bursting the bubble

Anyone here ever had Bubble Tea? If you have not, let me offer this post to help you make up your mind. You can thank me later.

A while back a local salad shop in Canary Wharf quite close to my office closed its doors for the last time. What would replace it we wondered? The windows were boarded up or otherwise rendered opaque, and for several months nothing happened, or at least not visibly. Then one day I when I was passing I could could barely make it past such was the crowd. The demographic was strongly East Asian for a reason that I could not then discern, but having been to Singapore quite recently the answer is now clear. Bubble Tea. It might not be much of a 'thing' over here, or at least not to my knowledge, but in Asia people are wild for it and so the opening of a store in Canary Wharf with its international workforce was clearly highly anticipated. 

Earlier this week a colleague of mine suggested that our team went out for a Bubble Tea Experience. He had become hooked and wanted to show us what all the fuss was about. You only live once I suppose, I gave it a go. The menu is fixed, there are perhaps a dozen different drinks, all variations on a theme. Even this was too much for our small group of Bubble virgins to cope with, and whilst we dithered a large queue of the expected diaspora built up behind us, eager for their fix.

Here's what I had, the catchily-named Coconut Mango Boom. It cost £5.90, more than my lunch. This is broadly the same cost as beer, it had better be good. I picked up a straw the width of the Dartford Tunnel and took a preliminary slurp. Boom! This was the sound a marble-sized ball of firm gloop made as it hit the back of my throat and caused me to nearly choke to death on the spot. Now I understood why the straw was so immense. I was also beginning to understand why it is called Bubble Tea, something which I had never really given much thought to before. I spat the aforementioned bubble into the palm of my hand and examined it. Clear, vaguely spherical, dense and sticky with air. I gave it a tentative chew - firm, springy, a bit like a tasteless jelly bean. Tapioca, or cassava starch, something I'd not had in this format before. And now I know why. Exploring my drink a bit more it became clear that there were two sizes of this stuff in there. Big ones about the size of a small marble, and little ones like a tiny bead. The big ones I could detect and spit out (or spray out, as happened with a particularly large straw-full) but the little ones I ended up swallowing whole. My goodness what a vile drink this was. A vile concept in fact, completely lost on me. Why on earth is it so incredibly popular? The market is worth billions apparently, but once you have got rid of the pointless tapioca balls you are left with milk and fruit pulp, and of actual tea there was little sign. Anyway, my advice is to avoid this fad and have a proper cup of tea, or a milkshake, or a smoothie, but certainly not this bizarre combination of all three and laced with blobs. The only good use for it that I can think of is chucking it at Nigel Farage should you be unfortunate enough to happen across him. Probably not much of a market for Bubble Tea in Clacton....

Colombia - August 2023 - Trip List

The full list of birds seen is below, and the eBird trip list is here. I amazed myself by seeing more birds by myself than with Alejandro, but then again I suppose I was in prime habitat for four days and I am nothing if not keen, even in sweltering weather.

184 species was the final total, of which 100 were new for Colombia and 64 were new anywhere.

Colombia - August 2023 - Day 6 - Sabanalarga to Bogota and home

With my stomach bug behind me I was once again up at dawn and birding. This time I went a little further beyond the track down to the river and birded an area of rough ground around some agrticultural smallholdings, and where some friendly horses gathered. I had a list of eBird targets from the general area but wasn't sure how useful they were given how little data there was. But I felt sure that there were certain birds that I hadn't yet seen were almost certainly here, and this morning's walk was a deliberate effort to try and find them. So it was that I eventually found Scaled Piculet, a tiny woodpecker, in some trees on the outskirts of town, and also picked out a Spectacled Thrush in with the more numerous Pale-breasted Thrushes. 

As ever the plants I struggle to grow at home in pots grow like weeds in Colombia. This is Phildendron gloriosum.

It was time to pack up and go. I flew back tonight and we were a seven hour drive from Bogota airport. Don Gilberto had arrived with his van and we all packed into it again. It was slow going, with numerous landslides stopping the traffic. During one of these an Andean Cock-of-the-Rock flew over the van, sub-species equatorialis, so different to the ones I'd seen in Jardin in Antioquia which were sanguilonentus. Somewhere on the outskirts of Bogota the van died, insufficient prayers perhaps, and so I swapped out with a one of the people in Albert's father-in-law's car and he drove me the rest of the way to ensure I did not miss my flight. It had been an excellent trip and so different from most holidays I take. I had hugely enjoyed the experience and Albert and his families had been amazing hosts. I returned as I had arrived, with Iberia via Madrid, which was uneventful - I think I slept almost the whole way. Like all good holidays it had been very tiring!

Colombia - August 2023 - Day 5 - Sabanalarga again

I had enjoyed my Oilbird excursion so much that Albert helped me hire the driver again for a morning trip a little outside of Sabanalarga. We did not go far, just a little ways outside of town, but a distance I could likely not have got to on foot. The guy actually knew his birds fairly well, and with Albert's help translating I was able to get the gist of what he was saying. For instance at one point he could hear what he knew was a Toucan calling, but then it was up to me to find it on a vast expanse of hillside.

It was good birding of the sort I have come to expect on quiet rural roads in South America. Pishing was incredibly effective, and I added Dusky Antbird, Cinnamon Becard, Purple-throated Euphonia, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Brown Jacomar, Purple and Green Honeycreepers, Grey Seedeater and Buff-throated Saltator to my Casanare list. Best of all was Magpie Tanager, a bird I couldn't find in the guide for ages simply as I didn't equate it with Tanagers.

Albert birding

The birding did not last however. As we pulled up to a bridge over the river and I got out to have a look for birds I felt an uncontrollable urge to be sick. You will know the feeling no doubt, I can only describe it as "When you know, you know". Sure enough a few seconds later I was bent double at the roadside getting rid of my breakfast. Albert had been snoozing in the car as early morning birding isn't really his thing, and leapt out! Well, maybe neither early mornings nor birding are his thing, and together they are definitely not! But he was awake now! Turns out that some kind of bug had afflicted the household as various people were having the same thing. We returned to town where I spent the rest of the day comatose in my room getting rid of whatever had assailed me. What a bummer!

The Sabanalarga tree

Colombia - August 2023 - Day 4 - Cueva de los Gaucharos

Any birder who speaks Spanish will know what a Gaucharos is - the Oilbird, Steatornis caripensis. Albert's brother had suggested visiting this local roosting cave, and so early on Saturday morning four of us - Albert, Albert's brother, Albert's mother-in-law and I set off to the town square in Sabanalarga. On the way I remarked that people at a local café were up pretty early today, but in fact as this was Saturday morning they hadn't gone to bed yet and this was still Friday evening revelry. In the square we met Gustavo Guevara (of Sabana Travel). He is a local guide keen to promote the area and I think we were his Oilbird Cave guineapigs....As you will see the Cueva de los Gaucharos in Sabanalarga isn't a mere stroll in the park!

After a quick chat underneath the amazing Samanea tree (I think), which is wider than it is tall and covers most of the square, we set off the short distance to the cave. It's on some land owned by a farm and a fledgling eco-tourism effort is underway. We were served breakfast and coffee under and awning before the landowner as well as the driver (who's name 11 months later I have unfortunately forgotten but who was a great guy) set off on foot to the cave.

It was a pretty steep climb up towards the cleft in the hillside seen in the photo above, but that was nothing compared to what we had to do when we got the top. Go down again, but with ropes! It was more like abseiling than trekking, and really quite tricky. Once down in the ravine we then had to wade waist deep into the cave. This was no great bother as by then some torrential rain had started and we probably going to be drier inside despite being stood in water than we would be staying outside. We picked/waded our way through various pools and over slippery boulders until we were in the main chamber. Oilbirds were everywhere! Perched on the walls of the cave but also constantly flying around in a swarm. It wasn't quite a cave, more a deep chasm in the rock with various holes and vents to the surface. Photographs were impossible, and even with a proper camera would have remained impossible. Nonetheless I find the second of these two images quite atmospheric. In the first you can just about make out Oilbirds perched on the walls, there are probably upwards of a dozen in view. In the second this is part of a constant vortex of birds swirling around one of the vents.

We picked/swam our way back out into the open to discover the torrential rain had not eased. If anything it was heavier than it had been. Regardless, we had to get out, which was the same way we had got in - basically vertically, but this time with the added complication of water and mud. Somehow we managed it, Albert's mother-in-law leading the way - she is tough as nails. Despite the effort it was a massive thrill to have gone down and come back up, an experience that will live with me for a long time. I don't suspect this will become a prominent stop on any Colombian bird tour, it is just too hard. I've seen first hand several times what most South American tour groups are like and there is just no way, or at least not without mass casualties.

Don Gustavo

Back in town we were treated to the other half of the tour operation, some nice food and a drink in their headquarters, and boy were we all in need of that. The full list of species seen is here, and included some new birds for the trip such as Chestnut-eared Aracari, Swallow Tanager and Blue-necked Tanager. But it was all about the Oilbirds really, what great birds they are. One of those almost mythical species that you've read about, seen on nature documentaries and so on, but that few people have seen with their own eyes. I'm glad to have rectified that.

What better than a restorative fruit salad?

Colombia - August 2023 - Day 3 - Sabanalarga

The daily routine at Sabanalarga was simplicity itself. Half of the morning would be spent asleep at the holiday camp. Mid-morning you would rise and meander over to Albert's Mum's house for some coffee and a snack. Early afternoon a lady and her assistant would arrive with a tremendous amount of food - an entire pig, different parts of which were consumed over the four days. There would be constant music and if you wished it, a cold beer would make an appearance. Replete, you would then go back to sleep, usually on the floor inside which was a little cooler. Late afternoon people would rise and sort themselves out, perhaps have another beer. Then, as the day cooled, we would gather around the swimming pool at the holiday camp and splash about in the water, playing with the various kids or just floating around. I am very buoyant. Mid-evening we would drift into town and assemble at one of the fruit salad cafés and have what was essentially a gigantic icecream sundae - with cheese if you were feeling particularly Colombian. Which I was on the first evening, but for round two I decided to stick with icecream as the sole dairy product. It's an acquired taste I think.

Naturally I could not cope with spending the morning asleep in a town filled with tropical birds, and so I got up nice and early and went for a three hour walk, through the town and out the other side. I found an excellent track down to not quite the river. This first foray netted 40+ species. No doubt there were loads more than that but birding in the Tropics when you know very few of the calls is pretty hard work. I was particularly pleased with Two-banded Puffbird, Spectacled Parrotlet and Straight-billed Woodcreeper, but there were birds everywhere, some of which I managed to identify! White-winged Becard, Yellow-Olive Flatbill, Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet, Piratic and Social Flycatchers, Russet-backed Oropendola, Oriole Blackbird, and Silver-beaked Tanager.

Habitat down towards the river

Sabanalarga

I returned to the house at roughly the same time most of family were getting up, ideal really, and then fell into the routine described above, albeit that I went on a couple of short walks when everyone else had a siesta. I added Black-faced Tanager, lots of Saffron Finch, a very tame Double-striped Thick-knee, both Caracara, Lesser Elaenia, Sepia-capped and Dusky-capped Flycatchers, and Crested Oropendola. At the pool later in the day a flock of 22 Oriole Blackbirds gathered before heading to roost, and a Bat Falcon hunted on the slope down to the river at dusk. 

That evening there was a birthday party held for Albert and I had to play charades in Spanish along with various other silly games compered by one of his nephews who, amongst other things, also runs kids parties in Bogota. A lot of fun, I felt part of the family at this point.

Colombia - August 2023 - Day 2 - Bogota to Casanare

I think I met something like another 15 of Albert's extended family members at the restaurant. I had to write notes to try and remember who everybody was. In addition Albert's wife and son, there were his Mum, Dad, Stepmum and youngest step-brother. One of his sisters was also there with all three of her kids. Also there were his wife's parents and her sister, her sister's boyfriend, her Aunt and her Aunt's son (who I had met briefly at the airport), and finally her Grandma. Later I would eagerly ink in the family tree I had been maintaining. I would name them, but this is a public site and I don't know if they would be comfortable with that so it's easier not to. But I do remember all of their names as I spent nearly a week with them, and they were the most delightful and welcoming family - well, two families - that you could ever meet. I should at this point mention that a saintly miracle (Saint A, Albert's wife's mum) had occured the previous day in that my suitcase of dirty washing had been emptied out whilst I had been birding and all my clothes had been washed. I was back in business! 

Despite the late finish we were on the road pretty early the next morning as we had a long drive ahead of us. We didn't leave exactly on time but there were a lot of people to organise and to fit into vehicles. So shortly after dawn a load of us and our luggage piled into Don Gilberto's minivan. The doors didn't all open, and neither did the windows particularly, but despite the decrepitude of the vehicle Gilberto was a particularly cautious driver and ensured continuous divine protection by genuflecting with both hands whenever we came across a roadside shrine to the Virgin. 

The route took us north of where I had been the previous day, north of Bogota and then east along what is called the Transversal del Sisga in the department of Boyaca. A lot of the time you are following the banks of the Embalse de Chivor which has some nice viewpoints. The road then descends from Santa Maria through La Esperaza and crosses the Rio Upia (which eventually joins the Orinoco much further east), at which point you are in the department of Casanare. Sabanalarga, where Albert's mum has a house, was our final destination. This is on the very western edge of the Llanos plain, primarily lowland habitat and a very different climate to Bogota. The latter is at 2,600m, whereas Sabanalarga is under 500m. It would be hot!

Despite the leisurely pace it was hard to bird from Don Gilberto's van but there were quite a few breaks along the way. At the first one, still in the larger Bogota area, we stopped briefly alongside an agricultural area on the banks of the Bogota River. Here I managed to see Bare-faced Ibis, American Kestrel, White-tailed Kite and both Glossy and Black Flowerpiercer. Further along the route as we crossed the Cordillera a late breakfast above the Embalse allowed for a bit longer looking through my bins. Crimson-mantled and Golden-Olive Woodpeckers, Bananaquits, Tropical Parulas, Kingbirds, Plain-crowned Spinetail, Common Tody-Flycatcher, and a Spangled Coquette amongst others. 

We arrived early afternoon after something like a six hour journey. Most of us were booked into the local holiday camp, with a few of the gang staying at the finca. Albert's brother, a local teacher in Sabanalarga, lives next door to his Mum; they bought the land together, and so I was able to ink in some more of my rapidly-expanding family tree, including two of his children. Later on his wife's brother, wife and young daughter also arrived, and my pen had to come out again.

Whilst we all settled in I kept an eBird list going for the afternoon. Largely we all just chilled out at the family house - Albert had organised vast quantities of food and drink to be deliverd regularly in order to sustain 20+ people. The house is on the edge of town, mainly amidst agriculture, but whilst there were views of the river it wasn't possible to get all the way down to it. I contented myself by wandering down the lane and back, but most of the birds were seen in the garden, beer in hand. These included Golden-Olive and Lineated Woodpecker in the trees opposite, a Black-throated Mango nesting on a lamp post, lots of various Doves (Band-tailed Pigeon, Ruddy Ground Dove, Scaled Dove and Eared Dove), Yellow-crowned Parrots and Brown-throated Parakeets, tons of Flycatchers (Cattle Tyrant, Great Kiskadee, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Rusty-margined Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird), Blue-grey, Palm and Burnished-buff Tanagers, Violaceous Jay and lots lots more. By the end of the day I'd recorded nearly 40 species without going anywhere and with virtually no effort expended bar a short walk into town for the daily fruit salad ritual, more on which later.

Colombia - August 2023 - Day 1 - Cundinamarca

Normally I begin every trip report with a "Logistics and Itinerary" style post, detailing how I got there, where I went, my preparation and things people may find useful. This trip was a little different though as it was not strictly a birding trip at all. Birds did of course feature but this was primarily a people trip. For many many years I have had a Colombian colleague called Albert. I've known him from the day he arrived in this country, and watched in admiration as he has made his way. Whilst I have a professional relationship with him, over time a family friendship has developed as well. I've got to know various members of his family, and he and his mine. Last year he invited me to meet even more of them in Colombia. He was spending some time there on a break from work, introducing his newborn son to his relatives and frankly relaxing after a long stint working for me! A plan was hatched whereby I would squeeze in a few days in Colombia at his Mum's finca in Casanare, to the east of the Andean chain, enjoying a Colombian family get-together and seeing a side of the country that as a birding tourist in 2022 I hadn't. As such there are not really any logistics to talk about. I booked a cheap flight via Madrid like last time and that was about it.

As in 2022 when, concerned for my safety in big bad South America, Albert's dad had met me at El Dorado to hand me over to Alejandro the Mannakin Nature Tours guide, this time Albert and his cousin were at Bogota to meet me off the plane at an ungodly 4am. Along with Alejandro again, now of Tanager Photo Tours! Yes readers, you know me, I had organised a day of birding before the family festivities kicked off. This was the principal reason it was so critical I made my flight, I had really not wanted to miss this one-off day. I gave Albert my suitcase, organised a time to meet him later on, and departed east with Alejandro and his companion. Destination: the western slope of the Cordillera Oriental. The trip the previous year had taken in some of the Central and Western Cordilleras, each with their own birds, and so the thinking was that even though this was pretty close (as the Cotinga flies) to where I'd been birding before it would result in a host of new species. And so it proved.

Our first stop was the Reserva Forestal Carpatos, about two hours drive from the airport towards Guasca. The first half hour or so is through Bogota, and when you reach the eastern suburbs you then begin to climb up and up. Apparently Alejandro cycles this route for fun... As is normal with tropical birding, once you find a good road it is then just a question of stopping the car at promising spots and having a listen. In this way we found Black-billed Mountain Toucan, Speckle-faced Parrot, and Chestnut-crowned Antpitta. There were also Scarlet-bellied and Buff-breasted Mountain Tanagers, a truly magnificent Beryl-spangled Tanager, and a couple of Longuemare's Sunangel, which as you may have guessed with a name like that is a Hummingbird. The full list is linked in the site name above.

The habitat around Carpatos

We carried on up the road known as the Reserva Bioandina entrance track. This was a rural area with fields on the lower slopes and forest on the higher steeper sections, and as we progressed the forested areas became thicker even though we continued birding from the road. One of our stops was at a smallholding that had been set up with feeders as is typical in Colombia, and here I laid to rest my 2022 poor views of Sword-billed Hummingbird, as well as getting great views of Lesser Violetear, Tyrian Metaltail, Blue-throated Starfrontlet, Mountain Velvetbreast and White-bellied Woodstar. Pale-naped Brushfinch were also visiting the feeders here. Would that I had had a proper camera but such is life. At least I was here though, what a disaster that would have been! A highlight along this section of the track was - remarkably I might add - another Antpitta for my collection, Muisca Antpitta. Alejandro heard this calling from deep within cover and managed to momentarily lure it close enough to the edge for me to be able to see it. This is basically another version (of many) of the Rufous Antpitta, which was split into a million different species in about 2020. Think a small orangey blob with almost no tail that likes hiding a lot. The full list of birds seen on this part of the trip is above.

Pale-naped Brushfinch

Lesser Violetear

This area was the furthest east we would go and took up the entire morning, so around lunchtime we were on our way back west to Bogota via some more sites and a picnic. The first of these was the Reserva Natural El Zoque, a montane/semi-paramo habitat which we had driven through earlier in the morning. I think I am right in saying that this is the highest section of the Bogota to Guasca road, and as such had the possibility of some different species. We were challenged by thick cloud (you are at 3,300m here) and sporadic driving rain, but nonetheless managed to see Andean Siskin, Glowing Puffleg, Great Sapphirewing, Bronze-tailed Thornbill, Black-chested Mountain Tanager and Mountain Elaenia. 

Our final stops were at a lower elevation specifically looking for Bogota Rail. The first of these was just to the west of Guasca, in some pools behind the Hotel Pedro Paramo. This stop added a number of wetland species to the day list, and another new Hummingbird with Green-tailed Trainbearer in the reeds. We were successful with the Rail, with two seen well on the edge. Sadly I deleted a crappy phone video I took as it was taking up too much space and to retain it would have meant yet another monthly subscription to Google for more space. However if you imagine a Water Rail you are basically there. As the name suggests it is endemic to this one tiny area of Colombia and there are not many of them - I was pleased to be able to squeeze it in. Another stop at the Gravilleras de Capilla de Siecha added another three Rails, as well as a Noble Snipe. 

Alejandro and I at the end of the day

Our final stop of the day was along a backroad from Capilla de Siecha to El Salitre. This added some Sparkling Violetear, Silvery-throated Spinetail, Streak-throated Bush-Tyrant, Brown-bellied Swallow and a few more Great Thrush. We had been going for about 12 hours and I was pretty exhausted having come off an overnight flight, but it had been a successful day and we had seen just under 100 species, not bad going at all. Alejandro dropped me at Albert's wife's parents' apartment in eastern Bogota where I enjoyed a deep and restful sleep whereupon I had a quick shower and we all went out for the evening to a rooftop restaurant in central Bogota to celebrate his birthday until the small hours.

Nearly a year since I wrote about a trip

It has been nearly a year since I wrote a single word about travelling anywhere. Trip reports, once a labour of love, seem to have become a thing of the past. They were never especially well-read, but I liked being able to record what I had done, where I had been, and ground them out regardless. Then something changed, not sure what. I still have this vague notion that the death of Photoshop on my main PC is to blame. I refuse to enter into a subscription model, there are enough of those in my life, and so I just accepted that that was that and largely stopped editing my trip photos. And so trip reports stopped. I still get around of course, I just don't bother telling anyone about it. Who wants to hear about other peoples' holidays anyway?

Well.

Last night I was plagued by a party and a mosquito. The party, largely outdoor based, was at one of my close neighbours and started around lunchtime. At 2.15am it was still going strong. Mrs L regularly sends me Victor Meldrew memes as I descend into churlishness, a reminder of what I could become, and so I don't suppose I should begrudge anyone a party. I hope they all had a nice time. It sounded like it. The mosquito I have yet to settle the score with, it continues to elude me. All I know is that any appendage that I poked out from under the covers to try and cool down on what was an oppressive night was immediately sucked dry. The bites on my right elbow are particularly impressive, and somewhere in this room a bloated mozzie is struggling to sleep comfortably. I know how it feels. Despite a less than good sleep I found myself awake at 6am. I could have gone birding, but I am still building up to that after a week in Brazil. Nobody should feel sorry for me, but going back to patch birding after spending time in the Tropics is extremely difficult and I'm not ready yet. 

So what to do? Well the last trip I ever wrote about on here was Madrid in August of 2023. I shouldn't even have been in Madrid for any length of time, but in order to ensure that I did not miss a flight to Colombia in the face of a UK air traffic control implosion I made the difficult decision to skip returning to London from Switzerland (where I had been at the time), and instead go straight to Madrid where my flight to Bogota was leaving from. Although this gave me a day in Madrid, it also meant leaving my birding camera behind in London. Ah-hah! No photos to edit! Well, fewer photos to edit - I did have a camera, but it is very small and not conducive to blasting out thousands of images. Maybe this is the ideal place to start? Should I? The post will be read by fewer than 100 people, not a good use of my time - I should go and hunt down that mosquito instead which will be very satifiying although perhaps rather messy...

And so picking up from exactly where I left off....