I always believe in saying thank you when it is due, so please excuse this long post as I thank everyone who made my trip to Peru so memorable... Firstly, to Chris Lotz and the team at Birding Ecotours, thank you for having faith in me to be part of the team and representing you at the World Birding Rally in Peru. To all of you reading this, why not pop across and like their Facebook page and follow what the team is up to. And, if you are thinking of doing a trip to Peru, you would do very well to contact them and get them to arrange your trip for you – I can assure you that you would be in for a great birding trip there! To my team mates, Eduardo Ormaeche, Niall Perrins, Duan Biggs and Mike Nelson, thanks for a great time! Apart from all the jokes along the way, it was great to spend time with all of you in the field and enjoy some incredible birds along the way too! Sorry that I had to leave you all in the lurch when I was sick for a day and a half, but we still saw a shedload of birds and can be proud of what we achieved! It was a privilege to spend time birding with all of you and you certainly made the whole experience a lot better for me. To the rest of the teams, some of whom I knew previously and some of whom I met for the first time on this rally – Rich C. Hoyer, Steve Howell, Jake Mohlmann, Paul French, Gustavo Bautista M, Rose Ann Rowlett, Richard Webster, Terry Stevenson, Marcelo Padua, Fernando Angulo Pratolongo, Alfredo Begazo, Adam Kent, Tim Towles, David Simpson and Diego García Olaechea. It was great to meet all of you and to spend some time birding against you, although it felt more like we were birding with some of you most of the time rather than against you... Thanks for all the laughs in the field during the day and around the dinner tables at night! It’s amazing that this shared passion of ours can unite all of us so easily and, sitting down around a table with people that you have never met before can result in long conversations about birds and birding experiences as if we have all been friends for a lot longer than just a few minutes... To the judges, Barry Walker, Thomas Valqui and Tom Schulenberg, thanks for being kind to us and not removing too many birds from our list… you made sure that the string was kept to a minimum…:) To the organizers and, in particular, Manuel Bryce, for always making sure that everything ran… well, there is really only one way to put this… “sharply”!! Apart from the odd issues that were outside your control like mudslides cutting off roads, etc, everything ran exceptionally well and I don’t think anyone could really find any fault in the organization of the rally. Well done and thank you! I should also mention a special thanks to Dennis Osorio, who played an important role as translator when the medics were attending to me when I was down and out. You went out of your way to help me and make sure that I was taken care of and I really appreciated that! Then to all of the other people that I met along the way that were involved in some or other way in the rally, people from the travel agencies, transport providers, journalists, photographers, cameramen, etc. (Hugh Powell, Julio Nunura Lozada, Miguel Angel Arellano Briceño, Cervera Saldaña Viviann Lisseth, Alfredo Fernandez, Tomás Abdala and many others). Thanks to all of you for your input into the rally and for the general camaraderie that you all provided there – it was great to meet all of you and get to spend some time with you. Outside of the rally, I should also mention a special thanks to Cesar Donato Zevallos Bashualdo for showing us around the Lake Junin area after the rally and getting us to see some great birds – it’s a wonderful area with some awesome birding available! And lastly, to all the people of Peru that we met along the way who were always friendly and welcoming to this bunch of foreigners birding in their land, thanks very much for accepting us in your country and letting us enjoy the fantastic birding available! You really do live in an amazing birding destination…:D Have I left anyone out…? Oh yes, I have… A very special thank you to my better half, Margaret Hardaker, for, firstly, being supportive of my birding addiction and letting me go to Peru and then, for being there at the airport with a big smile on her face to fetch me when I got home. ESSA!
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 17:17:19 +0000