The final email instructions we received from Cranston were to assemble outside the baggage area at the Viru-Viru airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Apparently, we were all arriving in the same time window.
Figure 1: Viru-Viru Airport Bolivia
I sure hoped nothing was going on in Bolivia. Washington seemed to think something was brewing. I just wanted to enjoy the birding and some old friends,
I immediately saw Roland and Peggysue.
“Hey Ian!”, Roland called.
Peggysue came over and hugged me and said, “ So nice to see you again. When was the last time. I think it was in Brazil in 2002”
Me. “Thanks for cluing me in on this trip.”
Before I could respond, two other people showed up. We knew they were part of our party because they had binoculars hanging from their neck.
Roland waved them over. “Welcome to birding Bolivia. My name is Roland, this is my wife Peggysue. May we have the pleasure?”
The man stuck out his hand to Roland, “Hi. I’m Larry, and this is my wife Lorraine. We have heard about you from Cranston. You two are the big listers on the trip.”
Roland, “Yes, we keep a list of all the birds we have seen. Peggysue is pretty competitive about it. I keep a list too, but I could care less about where I stand in the world rankings.”
Larry. “ How did you get started? We retired just a few years ago and retired to Panama. We had a mild interest in birds before that, but once in Panama, wow. There are so many birds. This is our first trip to South America.”
Peggysue jumped in, “Wow. Panama. That’s the country I have yet to see, and it is exactly the place I really could add a lot of birds to my North American list. Let’s talk about this during the trip.”
Lorraine, “I would love to do that. But tell us how you got started.”
Roland, “ Well, Peggysue was an airline flight attendant with Delta and flew all over the world. Her dad had been a birdwatcher and got her interested at a young age. When she started traveling , he encouraged her to check out the birds at each new location. What we all know now-different location, different birds.”
Peggysue, “ Yes there are more than 10,000 species worldwide. What a challenge. And then I met Roland in Singapore.”
Roland, “ Yes, my job took me all over the world, too. I am a welder by trade with a specialty in nuclear power plants. I did a lot of casual birding worldwide as well. I was working on a job there, and Peggysue had a layover, and we both booked a day trip with one of the Singapore birding luminaries, Subaraj. We hit it off immediately. That was 20 years ago. Here we are still having a great time together.”
Just then another guy with binoculars showed up.
I said, “You must be Doug, my roommate for this trip”
Doug, “And you must be Ian.”
Me, “I saw from the correspondence that you live in the UK. Cranston is also from the UK. Do you know him? “
Doug, “Oh, yes. We were childhood pals. Been birding together ever since.”
Me, “Can you tell me a bit about him. Roland and Peggysue told me he is a good guy, but that’s all I know.”
Doug, “Cranston is a bird artist He draws the pictures of birds that go into birding field guide books. He supplements that income by being a guide for birding trips. The art income is good but spotty.”
Me, “Cool.”
Doug, “Cranston used to guide for the big British birding tour company Birdquest. He also did a bit of work for the American equivalent Fieldguides. He got tired of the corporate over-the-top management and struck out his own a few years ago.”
Peggysue hollered, “Betty. So nice to see you again. And who is your buddy?”
Betty, “This is Frank. He is my long-time partner. He comes along when he can get away from work.”
Frank extends his hand to Roland and says, “So glad to finally meet you. Have heard so much about you from Betty.”
Betty, “And this is Ian. Remember we traveled together to Madagascar just after 9/11. and I went with Sarah.”
Frank extends his hand, “ Hi, Ian.”
Me, “Hi.”
Cranston arrives and says, “ Get your gear and come. There is a bus waiting to take us to our next flight.”
We comply and are soon on our way.
Cranston, “We have a short flight to Trinidad where we will grab another bus for our accommodation for the next two nights. It is called Hacienda El Cielo, a working cattle range here in the Bolivian pampas.”
Frank, “What are pampas?”
Cranston. “ I guess you would call them prairies.”
Figure 2: Bolivian Pampas
The conversation dropped to almost nothing as we boarded the small plane. I think we were all tired from this all-day travel. I know I was.
Soon we were at the hacienda, offered a light snack and showed to our rooms.
In our room Doug asked, “Didn’t I see that you were on that Ornifolks trip to Ethiopia with all the trouble near the Eritrean border?”
Me, “ Yes. It was pretty hairy. But I have to get some sleep now. Good night.” I really needed to dodge that one.
Doug, “Good night.”
In the hour before sunrise, we began to assemble slowly . One by one my compatriots appeared with trail boots, birding vests having pockets, straps and snaps, birding pants having large side pockets, and loops for hanging bird books, covers, bands around the ankles to defeat crawly insects, broad floppy hats, backpacks containing rain gear, gloves, sunglasses, insect repellant, sunblock, compasses, and more. Some came with recoding gear including microphones, straps, and small recorders. Others came with hiking poles or tripods with telescopes
We all came with binoculars; most of us had the Swarovski brand, Betty and Frank carried Zeiss and Doug had Nikon. Our binoculars had straps of various designs. We all had a copy of “The Birds of Bolivia”.
Ever the boy scout, I also had my first-aid kit with Band-aids, gauze, adhesive tape, tums, aspirin, doxycycline, diarrhea meds, EpiPen for allergic reactions, Ventolin for asthma attacks, Flexeril for back cramps, and more.
Cranston soon showed up and the conversation turned to the avian target birds to be seen in these out-of-the-way Bolivian pampas.
Cranston, “ I can assure you that this is the only place in the world to see the Blue-throated Macaw , a very endangered species.”
Figure 3: Blue-throated Macaw
Peggysue asked, “ Can you explain to us why we are not going to Noel Kaempf National Park in Eastern Bolivia. It has some of my most sought-after birds.”
Cranston calmly responded, “ Most of this trip focuses on the various altitudes on the Eastern side of the Andes, from the lowlands here all the way up to LaPaz on the altiplano. Adding locations in the East just would make the trip too long and too expensive.”
Peggysue, “ Well, I hope you organize another trip going there and including Paraguay. Very few birders have been there. That would give me a bit of an edge.”
Lorraine said, “ One of reasons I came with Larry was to see all the Macaws. We have several in Panama, but here is unbelievable with Red-Bellied, Yellow-Collared, Blue-and-Yellow, Chestnut-Fronted, and Red-and-Green Macaws. I can’t wait.”
The conversation died down when the host announced that breakfast was served.
When we were seated and served, our host came and spoke to us. He said, “ I am sorry to inform you, but there is rioting going on in LaPaz. No news yet of how serious it is. I will keep you informed.”
Shit, I got up, went back to my room and picked up the satellite phone I always carry. I made a few calls and came back to the table.
Roland said, “I saw you go back to your room. Did you go use your satellite phone again?”
Me, “Yes, I like to keep up with my family.”
Roland,” Yeah. In Colombia, every time we had problems because of the FARC guerillas, it seemed like you needed to talk to your family.” God is he annoying.
Cranston interrupted and spoke to us all, “Time to go see some birds. Let’s go. We have two days of great birding here,”
We went and had a great day birding that day and the next.
On the third morning, Cranston stood up and said, “We are taking a bus back to the airport to fly back to Santa Cruz where we will spend 2 more days birding the surrounding cerrado. We have a nice hotel Los Tajibos.”
Doug asked, “ What is cerrado? And Tajibos?”
Cranston, “ Cerrado is another form of pampas, but a bit wetter and closer to the mountains. Frankly I don’t know what Los Tajibos means.”
Figure 4: Bolivian Cerrado
On the ride from the Santa Cruz airport to the hotel, I happened to sit across from Larry and Lorraine.
Me, “How do like Panama? Where did you move from?”
Lorraine, “ We love Panama. Great to get out of the rat-race of metro Washington, DC.”
Me,” Hey, I live in Sterling. How about you?”
Lorraine, “Herndon. 10 miles apart and we meet in Bolivia. How cool.”
Cranston stood at the front of the bus and said, “Here we are. Get your rooms, get a snack and get back here in an hour.”
We got back in an hour and spent the next 2 and a half days in great birding.
At dinner on the last night, Cranston laid out the plans for the next few days, “ I am afraid there is bad news. It looks like a full-blown insurrection is happening in Bogota. We will have to see if the government falls. If so, we will have to curtail our plans and not go to Bogota and Cochabamba. The troubles are in the highlands. But we can still go the foothills like we planned.” God damn it.
Peggysue asked,” Well, since our trip is cut short here in the West, perhaps there is now enough time to go East to Noel Kaempf. Really, we paid for a full trip.”
Cranston, “ I’ll see what I can do. Everybody be ready to leave by 6 after breakfast. We are off to Los Volcanes Refuge next to Amboro National Park. The lodge is actually in the bottom of the crater.”
Figure 5: Los Volcanes Refuge
Larry just had to say, “ Well, we live in Volcan, Panama at the base of the volcano.”
I made some more calls that night.
At 6:00 AM we boarded the bus. This time I was sitting beside Betty and Frank.
I asked Betty, “So how is Sarah doing? Thought I might see her on his trip.”
Betty, “She says Hi. She really enjoyed meeting you in Madagascar. She is my best birding buddy and now has plenty of time as she retired recently.”
Me,” That was a great trip getting to know you two.”
Truth is Betty and I became I bit too friendly on that trip, much to Sarah’s dismay. I was a bit uncomfortable being with Frank.
Betty, “I remember you using that satellite phone in Madagascar. We were having all that hassle with the Muslim population after 9/11. And I remember that you lent it to your tour leader in Ethiopia the year before and that the police put him in jail because he had it and he was from Eritrea. You sure get around Ian.” Shut up Betty.
Me, “What you do for a living Frank?”
Frank,” I am a Physicist . I work for Freemont Aerospace in Palo Alto on their communications satellites.”
Me, “That’s right. You folks live in Frisco. I come to Freemont sometimes. Next time I will look you up.”
We arrived at our destination.
Cranston said,” Go find your rooms and grab the box lunch that is waiting. Be back in an hour.”
We had a great day birding, followed by two more.
At dinner on the third night, Cranston said, “Listen up. The trouble in LaPaz has turned into a coup. There is a new provisional government with heavy military involvement. There continues to be lots of street violence both there and in Cochabamba. We will not be going into the highlands. In the morning, we will head back to Santa Cruz and there board some buses to take us to the East. We will spend the rest of the trip at Noel Kaempf.”
Peggysue, “Hooray.”
Me, “ Count me out. Drop me at the Viru-Viru Airport. I have a family emergency.” I definitely can’t afford to be kidnapped like some birders did in Columbia. International incident in the making.
Cranston, “Really. I won’t be able to reimburse you.”
Me, “No worries. I just need to get home.”
In the morning, my room bordered on the dining area. I was late getting to breakfast as I was making last minute flight arrangements. I could hear them through my door.
Frank said, “I work in the commercial satellite part of Freemont. If there is anything involving Physics, I know about it. He says he comes to Freemont, but I have never heard of him. He must come to the part of the company that does classified work.”
Larry, “Yes, I work at NIH in Bethesda, but I know a lot of folks that work for government contactors around the DC area. Ian told me he works for LABC. I have friends that told me they do a lot of work for the CIA.”
Roland, “Peggysue and I know quite a bit about all the places he has been, supposedly birding. Lots of trouble spots on that list. But I must admit, he is a very good birder with quite an impressive list.”
Frank, “With that satellite phone, I bet he is sending information about where to look to the spy satellites.”
Betty, “ I guess we’ll never know. Let’s just wish his family well.”
Damn, I obviously have not been careful enough. I had heard enough, opened my door and said, “Good morning folks. Ready for the next phase of this avian adventure?”
Soon we were on the way back to Santa Cruz. The chatter was about all the great birds that could be seen at Noel Kaempf”
Peggysue,” I am thrilled that we have had to rearrange the trip. Almost nobody has birded there except the original explorers and the biologists working out the ecosystem there. Lots of people have done LaPaz and Cochabamba.”
Cranston, “Yes, I suggest we come back next year to finish what me missed on this trip but include some time in Paraguay.”
Roland, “ Sign us up. Peggysue will love that. Almost nobody has birded Paraguay. I am sure there must be some special birds there.”
Just before we got to the airport, I said to Larry and Lorraine, “ If you get back to the Washington area, please give me a call. At a minimum we will have you over for dinner.”
Larry, “And if you get back to Panama, give us a call. You can stay at our place, and we can bird Western Panama together.”
With that the bus was pulling into the airport.
Betty asked,.” Can we stop here for a short time while Ian gets off? I need a potty break.”
We all got off. I grabbed my luggage and headed toward check-in. Betty followed me while the others headed toward the restrooms.
When the rest were out of sight, Betty kissed me, grabbed my crotch, and said, “ Maybe on the next trip I won’t be with Frank or Sarah. Arrivederci my spooky friend.”
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