Venture to Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge
December 5-14, 2024
Your place on this Venture is reserved with your completed registration and deposit of $700/person are submitted. Deposit may be made via the ‘book now’ button above, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer via our website. If paying by cash, check, or money order (payable to ‘VENTURES BIRDING’), please mail in your payment with a paper registration form to PO Box 1095, Skyland, NC 28776, or contact our office. This Venture is limited to 9 participants.
Cost of Tranquilo Bay Venture $3,950 per person, based on double occupancy. Single supplement - $950. Price includes: All ground transportation including taxi from Tocumen Airport (PTY) to downtown hotel; all accommodation during tour dates, including 2 nights in Panama City and nights in Bocas del Toro; flights to/from Albrook Airport (PAC) and Bocas del Toro; all meals, taxes, entrance fees, trip information packet, bird list, and guide/leader service throughout. Not included: Flights to and from Panama City (PTY), alcoholic beverages, laundry, gratuities, and items of a personal nature.
Panama forms the geographical crossroads of two continents, where the flora and fauna of the Americas intermingle to produce a spectacular variety of life. Though Panama is an isthmus and comprises an area that is roughly equal to that of South Carolina, nearly 1,000 species of birds have been recorded within its borders. Our 8-day Venture serves as an excellent birding introduction to the country and explores several distinct areas – the islands of Bocas Del Toro and both lowland and higher elevation forests on the mainland.
Our tour begins in Panama City, where we will meet and take transportation across the city in the afternoon. Our hotel will be adjacent to Albrook Airport for our morning flight the following morning to Bocas Del Toro.
Our week will be spent at the comfortable Tranquilo Bay Ecolodge. From this lodge we will have the opportunity to do a variety of things. We will have a full-planned birding itinerary, but if you wish, you can take out kayaks, go swimming and enjoy the beach activities. We may be awoken by Montezuma Oropendolas and Green Ibis flying overhead or a whole bevy of hummingbirds feeding on the abundant tropical flowers. At the lodge’s fruit feeders, the warblers vie for food with the local Bananaquits. We will spend several days on the mainland exploring and climbing higher in the Talamanca Mountains, looking for Bellbirds, Antbirds, Woodcreepers, Trogons and many more species. We will watch Red-billed Tropicbirds circling their nesting island and hundreds of Red-lored Parrots flying across the sky on the way to their evening roost. There are familiar birds, like the over-wintering warblers spending the colder months down here and we could see over 15 species during our stay here. Then there are the uniquely tropical families such as Tityras, Chlorophonias, and Euphonias that we will see on a daily basis. Tranquilo Bay gives us air-conditioned rooms, delicious food, great birding right outside our cabin doors and we only have to unpack on the first day.
Join us and see for yourself why Panama is one of our favorite places for birding in the world!
Some of the local birds we hope to see around Bocas Del Toro:
Gray-headed Chachalaca, Greater Ani, Short-tailed Nighthawk, Bronzy Hermit, Green-fronted Lancebill, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, White-throated Crake, Wilson’s and Collared Plover, Green Ibis, Red-lored Parrot, Red-billed Tropicbird, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Boat-billed Heron, Magnificent Frigatebird, Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers, Bat Falcon, many Tanagers and more.