Guatemala...Los Tarrales

It’s about a five-hour drive from the volcanoes of Sibinal to the lakeside town of Panajahel. We have to get there before the last passenger ferry boat of the day sails to Santiago Atitlan, so there’s little time to stop for breaks. As we drive we pass through any number of small towns and villages, all of whom seem to have their farmer’s market in full flow. The streets are lined with Maya faces, men and women in colourful traditional dress, it's a magical sight.

We arrive in Panajahel in good time, load the boat with equipment and head out onto the lake. Described as ‘the most beautiful lake in the world’, I cannot disagree...Lake Atitlan is stunningly beautiful and not somewhere I ever expected to see. Most famous for the now extinct Atitlan Grebe, Lake Atitlan is around 240 m deep and ringed by volcanoes. We stop for lunch at the Restaurante Bambu.

Lake Atitlan once held its own endemic grebebut sadly
no longer. The last Atitlan Grebe vanished in 1989

Santiago Atitlan

Lake Atitlan

We leave after lunch for the final leg of our journey to Los Tarrales Nature Reserve, stopping off only for a new hummer, the Slender Sheartail, before reaching our final destination of the day.

Early the next morning we are up and filming at Los Tarrales. This incredible 1300 hectare reserve is also a working coffee farm and the number of species found here is staggering. The garden and bird feeders are heaving with activity.

Baltimore Oriole, male

Baltimore Oriole, female

Black and White Owl

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Lesson's Motmot

Melodious Blackbird

Orchard Oriole, immature male

Cinnamon Hummingbird

Spot-breasted Oriole

White-bellied Chachalaca

Yellow-throated Euphonia

Yellow-winged Tanager

It wasn't all about the birds though. Agoutis were running around the garden along with White-tailed deer and we found a Bull Snake and a beautiful Middle-American Indigo Snake, Drymarchon melanurus around the old farm buildings too. This is a very widespread species that will feed on rodents and other snakes, including the highly venomous Terciopelo!  It is completely immune to the venom.

Bull Snake, Pituophis catenenfer sayi

Bull Snake, Pituophis catenenfer sayi

Indigo Snake, Drymarchon melanurus

Having finished the filming here it was time to head back to our original schedule and retrace our steps back to Antigua for hummingbirds and volcanoes...