Getting to El Pilar ....
El Pilar is 7 miles beyond the village of Bullet
Tree Falls. Take the Bullet Tree Road from San Ignacio,
cross the Mopan River bridge in Bullet Tree, then look
for signs directing you to the scenic, all-weather
El
Pilar Road.
Visit and enjoy El Pilar as part of a Birding Package
or as part
of a personalized "Create Your Own" CAYO Vacation Package.
See Vacation Packages for a complete listing of our
Create Your Own, All-Inclusive and Fixed-Rate packages.
My Birding experience at El Pilar
Comments & Photos by Edwin Salas
I never thought that Bird Watching would be such an adventurous activity that I would enjoy so much. I went along with a very nice couple "Mary & John" and our guide "Fermin". As an amateur birder myself, I depended a lot on Fermin's experience on spotting the different birds.
On our way to El Pilar, we stopped at a number of times along the road-side, where Fermin would show us his "hotspots" for birding. My plan was to take as many pictures, of as many birds as possible, for future reference and Fermin even helped me in taking some close up pictures with his scope, as my normal camera's zoom wasn't strong enough most of the time for the ones far away.
When we reached the entrance of El Pilar, we took a Birding path "Bird's without Borders", which offered us right off the bat with a beautiful bird (male) called "Slaty-Tailed Trogon" and I got to take some nice pictures of it.
Once we entered the site, it was a bit of a challenge spotting the birds as we were right underneath the jungle canopy... NOT a challenge for Fermin, as he had no problem finding them for us; I started to get a little neck pain from looking up the trees trying to spot a rare bird (Name), and then what do you know? I single-handedly spotted a "Red-Lored Parrot" and had Mary and John's gratitude for it.
After having the opportunity for some good picture taking of the beautiful birds and of the ruin, we decided to head on back to our vehicle, as we were all very hungry. We headed back to Cayo "San Ignacio" where we had a nice lunch at Hannah's Kitchen, where I ordered a Pork Quesadilla and Mary and John decided to share one as it was a huge quesadilla but nonetheless, very delicious.
We then headed back to our Jungle Lodge at duPlooy's for a well earned rest at the Bird Deck by the bar for an ice cold Belikin beer.
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