We awoke to another humid morning and after breakfast at the lodge it was time to get moving - we had a busy day of travelling ahead and our boat was already waiting. With luggage packed in bin bags again we made our way out along the large inlet but instead of heading back to Bahia Solano we were flying out of the Choco region from the even smaller airport at the village of Nuqui. The boat trip to Nuqui wasn't without its seabird highlights. We had loads of Brown Boobies, a handful of Blue-footed Boobies and several menacing Magnificent Frigatebirds en-route and as we reached the land near Nuqui Brown Pelican, Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Great White Egret, Striated Heron and a Yellow Warbler. Nuqui village proved to be a real grubby one-horse town which we had the misfortune to have to stay in for several hours due to flight cancellations. In between visits to 2 cafes and the airport waiting area we did manage to winkle out a few birds. Variable Seedeaters, Bananaquits, Lemon-rumped Tanagers and Tropical Kingbirds were common and we also added new birds in the form of Rusty-margined Flycatcher and Grey-breasted Martin plus Barn Swallow, a Yellow-faced Tyrannulet and a distant King Vulture.
Lemon-rumped Tanager
Nuqui airport!
Nuqui village
Rusty-margined Flycatcher
Variable Seedeater
Our plane out of Nuqui
The remainder of the day was spent flying from Nuqui to Medellin, then a dash in Diana's minibus from one Medellin airport to the other and then a panic that we were going to miss our final flight of the day onto Bogata. Happliy it was delayed due to the same weather that had delayed our flight from Nuqui so we were able to make it back to the capital where we transferred to a rather luxurious hotel for our final night.
The following day we 'enjoyed' flights back to the UK via Newark, New York. Despite an overnight flight and a therefore missed nights sleep I just about managed to stay awake on the drive back from Heathrow to Norfolk!
