Our trip with Simon Thomson and Venture Birding to Tranquilo Bay in Panama was just fantastic. Simon knows every bird by sound and sight. Our local guides based out of Tranquilo Bay Ecolodge were wonderful. They worked so hard to make sure we will able to see and experience birds in their natural habitat. We would highly recommend tours with Venture Birding and specifically at Tranquilo Bay.

Our Ventures guide, Clifton with assistance from local guide Chris offered a great birding opportunity and were knowledgeable in what and where we could see different species and we were quite successful with often excellent views. We did encounter sporadic rain but that was not inhibiting although some roads, like the road to Montezuma National Reserve required switches to 4-wheel drive vehicles due to road condition. So glad that was planned as our comfortable van would have not made that trek. All guides were helpful in ensuring we could all see the birds being viewed which was so important. Hotel accommodations varied with one or two rather simple as anticipated but a couple quite interesting and commendable. Enjoyed the trip and the opportunity to see a significant portion of rural Colombia and witness several colorful Christmas preparations.

Tranquilo Bay was a really unique experience. It was a lovely and exotic setting and just learning about it's history and infrastructure was fascinating. The accommodations were comfortable and the free laundry was extra nice. All of the guides were terrific, and all the staff were very friendly and welcoming. The food was superb!

This was a great trip and we saw some amazing birds, especially large flocks coming in to settle for the night and dozens of birds (red winged and brewers black birds) seemingly popping out of the fields that had been harvested. The days were long, leaving early (6-6:30 am), returning to hotel for the night (7-8pm), lots of time in the van to cover the distances, changing hotels every other night and dealing with dicey weather was somewhat tiring. Not much downtime except during drives and we were birding from the van even then! As a friend said to me, this was an experience not a vacation!! Our fellow birdiers, only 4 ofus on the trip, were terrific, very sharing of their much better birding knowledge. Mike, our leader was tireless, handling all the driving, posting ebird lists, managing logistics for lunches and dinners, always upbeat. Would consider another Ventures trip, but would look for a bit more flexibility in use of time with options for downtime.

What a wonderful birding trip. Our guide Mike Werndly was knowledgeable, experienced and a great guy to hang out with. Although the pace is easy, the days are long. I plan to take other birding trips with Ventures.