Cuba !

This is birdwatching heaven !

A sneaky photo at a police checkpoint

Paulino, Simon and Ray.....just before the car broke down !

We decided to spend our Christmas in Cuba this year and the Melia Hotel on Cayo Coco was a perfect choice. A fabulous hotel and an excellent choice. The grounds were stacked with birds and we had asked for a ground floor room with a garden view. We couldn't have asked for more, perfect! The warblers that flitted through the bushes at the back was endless, catbird, red-legged thrush, waterthrush, woodpeckers, kingbirds and masses of hummingbirds. The sun shone but it was windy each day and by the afternoon, cloud built up. Still, cracking tans all round ! 

We had booked Paulino Delgado as our birdguide. A brilliant birder with eyes like a hawk, not a bird passed his eyes without he called it. But......the first 3 days he had double booked so we didn't get out until day 4. Then, although not anyones fault, on our first morning out with him, the front steering arm snapped and the front wheel came off.......so we walked birding as much as we could but he wasn't a happy chappy so we gave up and a taxi was called to take us back to our hotel. The car was then 2 days being fixed so we were nearly into the second week before we got to the mainland for our target birds. A further double booking followed and on our third trip out with him we had to share with a photographer........read our Zapata Sparrow posting posting !

So, a lovely Christmas was had relaxing on a caribbean beach with the sun shining, blue sky and sea lapping, it was heaven. Can definately recommend the Melia for a perfect holiday. Excellent food with masses of choice, lovely friendly staff (especially the gardeners!), beach, sea, palm trees and coconuts!  Karen added around 50 new birds to her world list, a happy bunny! What more can you ask for xx