Guatemala Postcard

Volcan San Pedro, at dawn on 3/3/06, viewed from across Lake Atitlan. This is how I started my birthday!

We arrived back in Guatemala City this afternoon just before 5 pm. And we rushed upstairs to get into our room and get online because Julie and I are both such blogheads now, that we were anxious to see if our online lives were still extant.
So far, so good.

We have the closing dinner tonight for The Second International Bird Watching Encounter here in Guatemala, so a brief postcard post is all I can send for now.

Guatemala has been beyond fabulous. I an unsure of how many life birds I've gotten, but it's about half a ton. Including my most-sought-after bird, the resplendent quetzal, the national bird of this beautiful country.

We have also walked up a couple of volcanoes, boated across Lake Atitlan, and wandered the streets of tiny Guatemalan villages where the people still speak in Mayan dialects.

Here are a few images (I've taken nearly 800 pictures!) from the past week. Tomorrow we fly to Tikal for two more days of birding with our pals Marco and Hector. Then we head home to the good old USA on Monday.

Much more to come on our Guatemala adventure!

I have been digiscoping my huipil off here in Guatemala. This is my favorite tanager, the blue-gray tanager.

Our group along the trail at Los Andes, a coffee farm on the edge of the cloud forest. This is where I saw one of my dream birds.

Houghton Mifflin donated Spanish-language Kaufman Bird Guides for me to give to birding guides and kids in Guatemala. I gave two to the school at Los Andes.

Although we don't all look happy, we have just all gotten highland guan for a life bird.