reserva ecologica rio blanco

We missed out on the Pittas birds because I didn't realise that there was a 5.30 tour. The walk up through the primary is very good but at 10.00 am we were too late for the birds.Spectacle bear was an easy win, Tanagers and Humming birds.Pleasant English speaking guide.

You should ask at the Tourism Center (Gobernación de Caldas) for guided schedules and permissions. The excursion is carried out by walking.

If you like birds then they have plenty. The feeders at the house attract the hummingbirds. We had a local guide as well as our own and he knows where he has habituated Antpittas to come for the worms he feeds.It is pot luck how many people there are to go with the guide. At first we were with a largish American group of bird watchers but they went so slow that we broke away with our own guide and saw much more being in a small group.Tucked away on the water company site but well worth the visit and a lovely mornings hike over the varied terrain, yes some parts are steepish but nothing too strenuous.

The Reserva is a real rain-forest, and the walk to the top is difficult, not easy, with many muddy areas, and walking along large old drains. Bring good shoes. The altitude is high to begin with, and the 800 meter hike to the top is not for the faint of heart or those out of shape. However, when you get to the top, you will get some coffee, and crackers, but the real treat is to see the Andes Bear that has been there for 17 years, i.e., after he was saved as an infant after the death of his mother.

This is a place for seeing some of Colombias special birds - Antpittas. The warden of the guest house and park, together his charming wife give warm but simple hospitality and he can show up to 5 species of antpitta at close range. Amazingly hard place to find - thank goodness we had a guide who knew the way through the back streets.

We visited this lodge with our bird tour company Ecoturs. We were on a specialist birding holiday and were visiting here to see the Antpittas being fed with worms. Our room was in a block away from the main building. It was a triple ensuite room, which was fairly basic but clean and with plenty of blankets. The staff were friendly and helpful. Dinner was in the main block and was very tasty, but not lots of it. They were able to cater well for our vegetarian diet and our fussy 11 year old daughter. There were lots of hummingbird feeds around the main building, which brought in a good selection of birds including Swordbilled Hummingbird. The next morning, we went to see 2 Antpitta species (Chestnut -crowned and Brown-banded Antpittas)at 2 separate feeding sites as well as Slaty-backed Nightingale-thrush. We then walked up the road for more birding. There was virtually no traffic on the road and was perfect for birding from. We saw a good variety of new birds in the area above the lodge. The experience at this lodge was fantastic for the Antpittas but also for the birding. if you are not interested in birds, then there is little in point in coming to this lodge and reserve as the landscape is not that beautiful and the reserve is not big enough for hiking.

We requested a hiking and birdwatching trip and were charged for this but only did a short walk up a road. Our female guide was more interested in talking to they guy with the worms for the ant pittas and other staff she bumped into along the way and wasn't interested in doing any other bird watching. The guy with the worms was almost an hour late and we were just sat at the hummingbird feeders waiting during that time. Overall, way overpriced and not the great birding experience we were expecting. I get the impression that rich birders simply come here and pay the money to see the four species of ant pitta and go again. A total shame because it could be a great little birdwatching place but it is currently falling way short.

I am a casual birder and the ability to see ant pitas (including an endemic) was nice but...Good for a day trip. Nice guide (English spoken - very good bird guide) and host living on site. Make a reservation with the owner of the reserve (Manizales Water Department). An aqueduct flows through the reserve and is the main trail other than the road. Captive Spectacled Bear (sad but enclosure is around a 1/4 acre). Foreigners are charged double for room and higher rates for food. Stay in town as Manizales borders the reserve and the reserve charges for each guest regardless of how many are in a room. You drive past a trash strewn river on poorly signed road to get to the entrance. It looks not at all promising until you get past the gravel mining (by hand) operations.

I had heard a lot about this sanctuary before visiting. It was clearly hyped and I was disappointed with my experience, compared to other lodges and parks in Colombia, like Rio Claro Refuge. Rio Blanco is certainly not one of the top spots for birds and nature in Colombia. Rather it felt more like a forestry plantation. Overall to much expense and pre-trip hassle to be worth a visit.

Short walk, nothing special in the Reserva. Does not worth money and time. A bit overpriced - it is necessary to take taxi and pay entrance/guide.

We visited this site wanting to walk in a real colombian forest, and were delighted by it. We booked everything from our hotel and a taxi picked us up. The reserve is managed by an eco organisation, which hires local young guides who lives nearby, and giving them an opportunity to work and share their knowledge of the forest. Our guide, David, was a university student in biology, which was wonderful as he answered enthusiastically all our questions about plants, insects, birds... We saw another group with a younger (teenager) guide, who probably knew less about the forest, so if you are interested in learning more (and speak a little spanish), its probably a good idea to say so when booking the visit.Of course this is a forest and not a zoo, so to see birds it is much better to come quite early in the morning, be silent when walking and hope to be lucky. We saw many, heard many, from tangaras to woodpeckers, as well as countless butterflies, wild orchids and so on. But the walk in the forest by itself is a very rewarding experience.The path was a little difficult at some times (early morning dew made some parts quite slippery, and some trees were down in one part due to a recent thunderstorm), but in most part, very pleasant, even for our 3-year-old who walked some of it and spent the other part in our baby carrier. Bring good shoes, and if possible a small bag of sugar for the hummingbird feeders at the top of the mountain, as the people there do their best to make your stay pleasant with very little money available and appreciate such a gift.The family taking care of the small house at the end of the walk is welcoming and friendly, and we enjoyed sipping a tea there, admiring and taking pictures of the hundreds of hummingbirds and other birds in their feeders and garden.The walk down is easy - 20 min on a dirt path made for vehicles - and some taxis accept to go up if you are unlucky and catch some rain...

Rio Blanco Reserve is a few kilometers outside Manizales. Mountain House Hostel in Manizales gives an information sheet to its guests which states "Rio Blanco Reserve is one of the best places in Colombia for birdwatchers". Accordingly, I organised a visit here through Mountain House, my main purpose being to see birds. Two Australians also joined the trip. As soon as we arrived, the (mandatory) guide told us that there were trees down on the forest path, so we would only be walking up a vehicular road, and that we would probably not see any birds, as it was the wrong time of day (8am - already too late) and that if we wanted to see birds we should have taken a different tour. (Which I was not aware existed because nobody gave me any information about it.)The morons from Melbourne started walking very quickly up the road, talking loudly to themselves, totally unaware of their surroundings, and frightening away any birds that may have been nearby. Although the guide observed to me that they were too fast and too loud, she was too young and inexperienced to do anything about it (like ask them to slow down and be quieter). We walked up a dirt road to a house with a room with some dead butterflies mounted on the walls and hummingbird sweet water feeders on the verandah, and then walked back down again. The tour / walk / visit was supposed to last three hours, but due to the pace of the others, it was over in two hours, and we saw next to nothing. The next day I saw more birds by simply sitting in the garden of a coffee finca. This trip to Rio Blanco was a complete waste of my time and money. You do not need to pay 20000 pesos to have a guide walk you up and down a dirt road in Colombia and see nothing along the way! To add insult to injury, I was informed that it was necessary to pay 50000 pesos to a driver to take us the short distance there and back from Manizales, and that the price is high because the road is unsealed (and that a normal taxi would cost more.)The driver was an extremely unpleasant man who sniffed, snorted, coughed all over me, ground his teeth and made other disgusting pharyngeal noises the entire way and the price is a total rip off.My recommendations therefore are:1. Organise the trip and transport yourself - ie not through Mountain House.2. Check that bird watching trails are open and that you are going at the right time of day to see birds.3. Don't go with clueless people who will ruin any chance you have of seeing birds. 4. Consider staying on a coffee finca instead and go for independent walks around the finca looking for birds.

Que gusto es encontrar sitios tan hermosos cerca a una gran ciudad como Manizales. Su acceso, aunque poco señalizado, se convierte en una aventura hacia esta montaña rodeada de bosques de niebla. Un magnífico lugar para encontrar especies endémicas como chestnut Wood-quail, Rusty-faces parrot, Long-tailed Sylph y uno de mis favoritos, Black-billed Mountain-toucan. Es un precioso lugar donde conservan una gran muestra de aves, con un sitio cómodo para estar y encantador para intentar fotografiar sus cientos de colibríes.

La visite du parc ne correspond pas à la publicité qui en est faite. Il s agit tout simplement d un chemin qui monte sur une montagne a travers la forêt tropical mais contrairement à la publicité nous n avons vu aucun oiseau ni papillon nii animal cité dans le guide du petit futé . Cependant c était un bon exercice de marche accompagné d un guide payant.

Como en todo Colombia, la naturaleza, el senderismo y el avistamiento de aves se unen para dejarnos pasar un momento único.