Actually we got back a week ago and I still haven’t really recovered.  This has been a very full-on trip covering a lot of ground throughout Ecuador, Colombia & some Caribbean Islands that have good birding – Trinidad, St Lucia, St Vincent, Dominica & Puerto Rico.  We then spent time in the USA visiting family.  While I usually try to build some down time into a trip, this time it wasn’t possible.  It’s getting so much harder to earn miles from credit cards and my stockpiles are dwindling so I was mindful that we may not get back to these parts of the world again so we had to cover everything possible.

During this trip we experienced the big earthquake in Ecuador on 16 April.  Luckily we were far from the epicenter and in no real danger but the internet and tv reception were out in the lodge we were staying at and we had no way of knowing just how bad the earthquake was until we got to the Quito airport the next day.

Flights weren’t affected and we got to Colombia on schedule only to have our bank shut down our ATM card!  I had done everything right – notified all banks and credit cards of our itinerary and the bank should have known we were in Colombia but they still shut down that one ATM card.  Thankfully they didn’t shut down our credit cards and I was still able to access cash by doing cash advances but I had a mess to sort out when we got home.  They wouldn’t accept my secure message to unblock the ATM card and insisted we call but between lack of phone coverage, quickie one-night layovers and time zone differences between Australia and the Americas we weren’t able to connect until we got home.  The bank finally did reverse the cash advance fees because they had unjustly blocked my card but it took numerous phone calls and a lot of stress.

Other things piled up and I am still trying to sort out some personal stuff but once I do, I can start blogging this trip and trust me, it will be worth the wait!