Birding Chiapas (1 Viewer)

[cassowary]

Greetings,

I have some unexpected free time over the next couple of weeks and am seriously thinking about birding southern mexico -Yucatan/Chiapas. I haven't had a chance to read about Chiapas- hopefully I can find a book on the area today/tomorrow. Is Chiapas a safe place to bird? Any nice accomodation?
Feedback greatly appreciated.

Edit:I bought the new (Nov 2009) Moon handbook on Chiapas today and just finished reading it. Apparently it's been 15 years since the zapatista uprising (time flys). Infrastructure, accomodation and safety sound better than I expected. The diseases noted were far less than I would expect for an area well within the tropics.

As I intend to travel throughout much of Chiapas, I guess the route I am thinking of taking is Palenque - Frontera Corozal - Las Guacamayas - Comitan - Tapachula - Arriaga - San Cristobal then up to Merida in the Yucatan.

Anyway I have only a couple of days to plan this trip so I welcome any feedback on nice accomodation; places not to visit or places to miss etc.

 

[stephennj]

Hello Mike,
My father and I have booked a trip for 4 days in Chiapas , with a guide from Oaxaca by the name of Roque Antonio Santiago in a couple of weeks . We have hired Roque before for the Oaxaca area and is a wonderful guide. We are flying in and leaving from Tuxtla Gutterez . Our birding locations will be all along the rt. 190 sites:
Jan 25 - El Sumidero Canyon
Jan 26 - Puerto Arista/ Boca del Cielo
Jan 27 - Septula Reserve / Arraiga foothills
Jan 28- San Cristobal / Cerro Huitepec

Roque has guided the area before and the locations we are hitting are supposed to be safe. I have never been to Chiapas before so I cannot comment on the other locations. Roque's email is : [email protected]
There is still a good chance you can tag along as he has a vehicle that can handle all of us , his prices are reasonable. The locations we are hitting hold many exciting endemics (Rosita's Bunting, Giant Wren,Garnet-throated Hummingbird,Blue-throated Motmot, Pink-headed Warbler) and I am predicting an exciting trip !
-Stephen Bahr

 

[mctate65]

Roque Antonio Santiago's new email is [email protected] website: http://[URL="http://oaxacabirdingtours.webs.com/"]oaxacabirdingtours.webs.com/
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[njlarsen]

I did not respond to this earlier, but let me do so now: the closer you are to the US border, the worse the security situation is. The presence of police in the Yucatan peninsula is such that the worst you likely will experience is a fine for running a security stop too fast. I have not been to Chiapas since 2000 so no recent info. At that time, things were a lot better than announced.

This sounds a bit like I am a happy-go-lucky person, but: I would be very reluctant to go closer to the US border than Mexico City, and I would need convincing that the security situation is improved to go to Oaxaca.

Niels