We leave from the Macaw Sanctuary quite late and we have less than one hour to spend in the Botanical Garden according to the official schedule. However fortuitously our guide finds out that another bus has broken down and has to go help so we are left inside the garden until he returns. The decision of the group is to eat some lunch which is great for us as we have another trip booked in the afternoon.
On the way to the restaurant we stop to take a look at the flowers along the way and to search for butterflies with no luck.
We see at least a few birds but most of them are domestic and the only wild one is an Eurasian collared dove, they are getting quite far from their original range.
The food is ok, not that good but given that the choice was to not eat anything till the evening it is good enough. And it looks quite good too…
After lunch there is still time left so we decide to explore the longest trail in the gardens, the jaguar trail. What we didn’t know is that even though the trail is relatively short it is all downhill somehow and soon we are getting scared that we might not make it back in time if we walk the full loop.
There are not a lot of people on the trail and the ones that we meet seem to be quite tired. But we persist as we hope to see at least a few birds but none are visible. It is surprising how we walk through the jungle and everything is quiet and nothing is moving.
When we arrive at the bottom we have spent more than half the time we allocated to the hike and given that we have to be at a specific time back we decide to return on the way we already know than exploring the other side of the loop. At least time way we catch a glimpse of a cocoa tree, quite interesting.
The guide has returned at this point but we still have a bit of time to look at the feeders. In fact the garden is the heart of the festival with an exhibit and a few organizers round the tables. And the feeders are quite good also even though the first interesting birds we see are the ani chicks that are hidden in the botanical garden bushes.
In just a few minutes at the feeders we see multiple special birds, the most interesting one being the yellow-winged caciques that always seem to have a bad hairday.
However the rarest bird likely is the San Blas Jay that our guide explains doesn’t occur in San Blas proper. It is relatively rare and endemic but here it is coming to the feeders which makes the feeders a big attraction for birders. And then the guide asks everyone to get to the truck which we have to do as we are getting awfully close to missing the next tour. In fact at the hotel we have only 15 minutes to change and freshen ourselves before going outside to wait for the next festival shuttle taking us to our sunset cruise.
