The Purple-throated Carib (Eulampis jugularis) is a beautiful species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae found in the Caribbean islands.
They have a wide distribution in the Caribbean. I personally saw them in St Lucia & St Vincent. They are very striking when the sun highlights their purple throats!
Se what a beauty he is, they even put a slo-mo sequence at the end!
A little privacy please, can’t you see I am taking a shower?
After hiking the Vermont Trail and visiting the Parrot Breeding aviary in the botanical garden, I was hoping to find some kind of knickknack with a Vincie Parrot on it as a souvenir. This was on a Saturday afternoon and I had trouble finding minibuses to get around, wasted a lot of time waiting. The scenery was really nice as we drove from the Vermont Trail to town. I was lucky and got a front seat.
Upon arrival at the market, everyone had pretty much packed and gone home. They close early on a Saturday afternoon.
I grabbed a taxi to the wharf (where cruise ships dock) as someone told me they had souvenir shops there but unfortunately they were also closed.
There was nothing to do but get a taxi back to the hotel as I couldn’t even find a minibus by then! Lesson learned, find out what time the shops close in advance!
After an exhausting hike up the Vermont Trail, I was still keen to see the St Vincent Parrot close up as they are really stunning birds. I knew that the St Vincent Botanical Gardens has a Vincie Breeding Facility so headed there hoping to see them up close and personal.
The gardens themselves are lush and beautiful.
The aviaries for the breeding facility are in the rear of the garden.
Here you can get fairly close to the parrots, especially if they like you and come to the cage wire. Getting photos is a lot harder as there is a barrier preventing you from going right up to the wire (they don’t want people to touch the birds). While I did SEE the birds very well, I had trouble getting past the wire to get a photo.
This was the best I could do and it doesn’t come close to doing this amazing bird justice.
This shows the set up of the aviaries, see the barrier that keeps you away from the wire.
The Saint Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii) also known as Saint Vincent Parrot, is a large, approximately 40 cm long, multi-colored amazon parrot with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts plumage, and violet blue-green wings.
This bird is from the St Vincent Botanical Gardens breeding centre.
Artistic rendition
And if you are at the Parrot Lookout, this is what they look like! Snap fast!
The Saint Vincent Amazon is endemic to the heavily forested mountains of the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. Most birders find them (with patience) at the Vermont Trail Parrot Lookout.
No one seems to have filmed them in the wild but there are a couple clips from the breeding centre.
The highlight of a birding trip to St Vincent is undoubtably the lush tropical Vermont Trail. Most people of good fitness seem to make it up to the Parrot Lookout in an hour of steady hiking. Being of poor fitness, it took me about 2.5 hours!
From the Beachcomber’s Hotel, I took a minibus to the market. It was a Saturday morning so they weren’t as frequent and despite my early start, it was 7:30 by the time I arrived at the market. I was alone, my husband needed a rest day by the pool. I waited another half hour for the minibus to the start of the Vermont Trail. I would have had to walk up another hill from the main road so I paid the driver to take me all the way to the entrance.
It costs $5 to enter but there weren’t any staff on hand so I just walked in. I did pay on the way out. They seem used to birders doing this.
It starts out as a pretty well-marked trail with a gradual ascent.
The trail gets more challenging as you keep going up. They do have signs to point the way. 
There were some parts where I could barely tell which way to go. 
Rest area about halfway up.
Finally you reach the parrot lookout. This is the best place to stop and just listen and wait. They fly back and forth the valley. You will hear them first, then try to find them!
Along the trail, I saw both Purple & Green-throated Carib Hummingbirds. Unfortunately I couldn’t get them in decent light.
I was at the Parrot Lookout by around 10am. They kept me waiting almost 2 hours and I was getting worried I hiked all the way up there for nothing. Thankfully they appeared and started swooping the valley before noon. It is really hard to get a good shot unless you are lucky enough to have them perch near you (which I wasn’t). When they flew against the sky all I got were silhouettes, when they flew against the trees I couldn’t get them in focus – green bird against green tree background and I don’t have that good aim!
They stopped swooping after around half an hour so I walked back down to the office, paid the $5 fee and looked around their displays.
I wish they would have had smaller ones like this for sale! 
Of course there were no taxis or buses to take me back down. Many people will pre-book one but I had no idea what time I would finish as I wasn’t going to leave until I saw the parrots even if it took all day! Finally a car came and dropped off a staff member and I got a ride back to the main road. From there I got a minibus back to town.
The Beachcomber’s Hotel in St Vincent ticks all the boxes for the traveling birder in the Caibbean who also wants a bit of R&R on the side. It’s conveniently located near the airport and you can get minibuses just outside the property into town.
We arrived at night, walked across the street to the bus stop and got a minibus which let us out at the gate.
Night time view of Beachcomber’s.
Daylight reveals an attractive garden full of flowers.
Our room was on the end with a small table & chairs for our use on the patio.
A comfortable king bed with attractive artwork in our comfortable room.
This is the entrance to the restaurant with the pool area just beyond.
The pool area overlooks the beach.
Always time for a bit of birdwatching while sunbathing! 
Random lizard
Our stay was over a Saturday so we got to enjoy their weekly BBQ. They had some traditional Caribbean music………….
…………..a salad bar (sorry for blurry pic)……………
……..and a choice of meats from the menu. I had the ribs and my husband had the fish.
We had a great albeit short stay here and found that the Beachcomber’s was a nice all-rounder at a very reasonable price. They average 4 stars on Trip Advisor although I gave them 5 as we were very happy with our stay. You can book direct on their website or use online booking portals such as Rocketmiles, Pointshound or similar to maximise your benefits.
If you’ve been researching the Caribbean, you’ll have heard it before.
Leave
Island
Any
Time
or
Luggage
In
Another
Terminal
But if you want to visit some of the smaller islands like St Vincent, St Lucia & Dominca and travel between one or more island you won’t be able to avoid Liat. Believe me, I tried! These are the routes we ended up taking:
St Lucia – St Vincent
St Vincent – Dominica
Dominica – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Liat does not have a loyalty program nor does it partner with any other airline so your only option is to pay cash. This is fairly easy to do on their website. Try to book a few months in advance so you can get the “web promo” deal which is good value, otherwise flights can be expensive for the short hops. Also check out their Facebook page for the occasional promo code.
Boarding is generally via stairs on the tarmac through both front & rear doors. Therefore you don’t want a seat in the middle of the plane. Passport control lines are long and move slowly at most islands.
If you are traveling directly from the USA, UK or Europe to your chosen island and returning directly, you probably won’t have to fly Liat. But if you want to island hop around, especially the smaller islands (where all the cool birds are) then you can’t avoid Liat. Hopefully these tips will help you make the best of it.
I’ve seen a lot of other travel/miles/points bloggers making predictions or wishlists for 2017 so why not? Mine is from the point of view of a birder/eco-traveler so mine are pretty different.
It’s pretty hard to top our 2016 travels………………but if anything can, it would be another African adventure. Last year, I made plans and pretty much nailed it, but no time to rest on my laurels! 2017 will see what will probably be our last trip to Africa (unless we win Lotto) so we are going to make the most of it while we can! Bring on the Godmother of All African Adventures!
After most airline miles programs devalued last year, I was worried that if we put off our long haul travel, we may not be able to make them happen. Turns out I was right, Velocity devalued their partner awards on Etihad both in terms of mileage required and a shocking new surcharge. United did away with their traditional stopovers and made their new Excursionist Perk program more restrictive in terms of regions and routings. If I hadn’t booked when I did, we would have had to cough up more money, more points and travel in economy on Etihad instead of business class. The itinerary targets all (except Niam-Niam) parrots in Africa that we haven’t seen yet and a few old friends like the African Grey (hopefully closer up), the Red-bellied Parrot and more! So Africa here we come……………..and not a moment too soon!
Trip #1
Brisbane – Perth – Abu Dhabi, car to Dubai for a couple days. Used AAdvantage on QF in Y and Velocity on Etihad J before devaluations happened.
Dubai – Nairobi – Entebbe. Used Flying Blue on KQ in Y.
UGANDA: Will be visiting birding hotspots like Entebbe Botanical Gardens, Mabamba Swamp, Mabira Forest & possibly Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary where African Grey Parrots rescued from poachers were released into the wild. (FYI: This will be my 2nd trip to Uganda and I have already visited the mountain gorillas in Bwindi and chimps in Kibale). My main goal is to get African Grey Parrots closer up and possibly Meyers Parrots and some other cool birds like Shoebills and Turacos.
Entebbe – Addis Ababa – Lusaka – Windhoek. Used United miles on Ethiopian & South African airlines in Y class. This is a one region with a stop-over that technically wasn’t allowed before but sometimes slipped through. It’s no longer possible with Excursionist Perks.
ETHIOPIA: Will visit either or both of Wondo Genet & Lake Langano. Originally we were going to stay at Bishangari Lodge but it was burned down by protesters in Oct 2016. The new plan is to fly to Awassa, then make day trips from there. Once back in Addis Ababa, we will stay at the Ghion Hotel (their grounds are a birding hotspot) and a day trip to Menagesha Forest. I’m targeting 2 endemic parrots – Yellow-fronted Parrot & Black-winged Lovebird plus other species.
ZAMBIA: Will hightail it out of Lusaka to Livingstone for Victoria Falls/Mosi-o-tunya NP and the Machile IBA for Black-cheeked Lovebirds. Then it’s on to Mfuwe and South Luangwa NP which is a hotspot for Lillian’s Lovebirds.
NAMIBIA: We’ll pick up a rental car and drive around Namibia chasing Ruppell’s Parrots & Peach (Rosy)-faced Lovebirds near Etosha NP, Kunene River, Huab Lodge area and around Omaruru.
Windhoek – Doha – Adelaide – Brisbane Used AAdvantage miles on Qatar Airways & Qantas in J. This was one devaluation I couldn’t avoid but at least we are getting our miles worth!
TRIP #2
Next year’s trip will be expensive both in miles & money so we will keep costs down on our road trip. I’m thinking maybe a return visit to Bowra Station for “glamping” in the shearers’ quarters.
Much to my surprise, I am tracking pretty well. 2017 is booked. I have enough miles for both a 2018 trip to South America & my solo trip to the World Parrot Conference at Loro Parque. 2019 is looking pretty good as both Qantas (Woolworths) and Virgin Velocity (Coles) are partnered with supermarkets and as long as they keep dishing out the bonus points, we are going to have enough for the South Pacific trip to Cook Islands, Samoa & Fiji from buying groceries & petrol.
But after that we will be miles-broke. Who knows that the mileage programs will be doing by then or if they will devalue even worse so my goal for this year is to stockpile miles in flexible programs. I have USA cards from Chase (Ultimate Rewards), Citibank (Thank You Points) and the Barclay’s AAviator card which gives an annual bonus of 10,000 miles plus 10% rebate on miles redeemed so virtually 20,000 effortless miles a year. They often give spending challenges where you get bonus miles after achieving a goal to spend (for example) $1000 in 3 months. I also have my Aussie Amex Platinum Edge to stockpile points that can be transfered to SPG (for now), VA, SQ, CX and a few others that I probably wouldn’t use.
In this I not only have to consider our finances & mileage accounts but also that we are not spring chickens and it is getting harder and harder to go on long walks and deal with the increasingly smaller seats in economy. I’ve also had to do some re-shuffling of travel plans due to Venezuela’s ever-worsening situation and the Aussie dollar getting weaker making it harder to afford lodge packages in places like Tambopata which are sold in USD. I haven’t really changed much from last year, just tweaked it a bit.
Prioritize trips to places that would otherwise be very expensive without miles such as South America. These trips should be done as soon as the miles can be saved as they are vulnerable to devaluations. Meanwhile, slot in a short haul trip during years we don’t have enough miles.
Have a list of birding trips we can do using easy-to-get Velocity points or low-cost carriers. These are completely flexible as to order and wouldn’t have to be booked 11 months in advance as the others would be.
Continue doing domestic Australian trips every year using “happy hour” deals, miles we don’t need for long hauls or road trips.
Not sure if there are any USA cards I can still get but I will be maximizing category bonuses with all cards. I’ll also be on the lookout for any Aussie cards that I can qualify for although the best cards tend to be for high income earners only which lets me out.
There are a couple Aussie based survey sites that let you earn shopping vouchers with Coles, Woolies and other shops so I’ve been doing those. Any money I can save on shopping goes into the travel budget!
I’ve already made one improvement by installing Disqus for comments. I got side-tracked with personal/family things so didn’t get my Feathered and Free stuff migrated over although the archive on the forum will be going offline when the contract expires in a few days. I’ve had it going in one form or another for the last 10 years but just can’t keep paying for the hosting on top of this blog.
I’d like to promote myself as a guest speaker for bird clubs and travel conventions a bit more and maybe start a travel planning service for people wanting to use miles and points for eco-tourism.
Coming up, I’ll be finishing my series on the Caribbean with St Vincent, Dominica & Puerto Rico, then doing a series about Australia’s Northern Territory (Top End). Then I still have some historical trips I can blog about with updated how-to-get-there info, maybe I’ll start with the Philippines!
Join me tomorrow as we visit St Vincent and the beautiful Vincie Parrot!
