My first "real" birding tour and my first time in Colombia was December 2021. How perfect! To say I am addicted to Colombia and Birding By Bus is an understatement. Eliana shared LOADS of great info, but what about tipping? Yes there is tipping etiquette, but it can also be a subjective, even personal decision. So, how much?

One Sunday morning, 7 or 8 years ago, I was leaving my local Farmer's Market, walking to where my old Volkswagen camper was parked. As I put my purchases in the passenger's side door, I noticed that someone had stuck a business card under the wiper blade of the windshield. "Marc Kramer and Eliana Ardila" were the two names on the card, and there was a photograph of a man and woman standing on either side of a beige Volkswagen camper, pretty much like the Westfalia that I was getting into.

I have been transformed
It does not take long
And it is surprising
Upon my return to the comforts of home
To feel disquieted—my spot on the sofa
Is not the Goldilocks spot anymore
“Just right” is not indoors
For a while after travel

What the hell am I doing on this plane? I’ve never been south of Texas. My language skills would make a 4-year old Spanish speaker feel highly superior. I know next to nothing about Colombia. To say my birding skills are weak is an affront to the word “weak”. Every fiber of my carefully hidden introvert self is screaming that it will take the waiting group of complete strangers approximately 30 seconds to stick a fraud tag on me. My only qualification for being here is the ability to meet the cost of admission.

When I first began birding as a young, poor, college student, I did what most people do: I went out and bought the only pair of binoculars I could afford. Even the $200 price tag was terrifying and meant many meals of ramen noodles were in my future.  Although they served my purpose well enough, there were times I found myself frustrated when other people were calling out field marks and better able to identify species, especially in bad light or atmospheric conditions.

As we’ve been birding and cruising all over the North American continent this year, our journey has not been about the numbers. We’ve taken our time to savor each and every bird we encounter, appreciating its behavior and natural habitat, and relishing the one-on-one experience between man and nature.

Sunday evening, after almost a full month of driving through Canada, we finally arrived at the Canada-U.S. border in Warroad, Minnesota. It was an hour before sunset, and I (Marc) thought we would find a good camping spot near the border crossing.

A term that has taken on new meaning to us after surgically harvesting the vital components from this abandoned VW Bus for an organ transplant. So, the story goes that this beautiful blue ’77 Bus was sadly left behind several years ago on a private property in Cordova, Alaska.