Pelican Yoga

Aspects of Colombia (#18 in teaser series: foothills & bamboo)

Published July 30, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#18 in teaser series: foothills & bamboo)

This post’s photo was taken on the morning of 12 March 2026, en route to our coffee experience.

Rainforest still clothes a deal of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta’s foothills.

I have no idea of the pictured, obviously-large bamboo’s particular species.

Very probably, it is not one introduced from Asia.

Whilst Asia is bamboos’ global “hotspot”, all other inhabited continents – except Europe – also have bamboo species,

The strongest of them all – Guadua angustifolia – is native to northern South America & Central America.

Guadua angustifolia is also the world’s second largest bamboo; right now, you just might be looking at an example thereof!

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#17 in teaser series: coffee)

Published July 26, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#17 in teaser series: coffee)

The coffee (brewed from the estate’s own beans) at the pictured location is excellent.

Hacienda La Victoria has been producing premium coffee since 1892.

Coffee has been grown in Colombia for at least 236 years.

In overall volume, Colombia is the world’s third-largest coffee producer.

For arabica beans – generally regarded as the best variety – it is definitely the biggest producer.

Colombia is probably also #1, quality-wise.

Hacienda La Victoria is in a region especially noted for its excellent coffee beans – the foothills of northern Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, near the Caribbean coast.

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#16 in teaser series: seeing red)

Published July 23, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#16 in teaser series: seeing red)

“Our” planet has only one “simply red” wading bird species.

Outside of zoos, Eudocimus ruber – the scarlet ibis/ red ibis – can only be seen in warm, wet parts of the Caribbean & tropical South America.

The pictured scarlet ibis were part of a large group of these highly-sociable birds, gathered in & around a river near Villavicencio on the first afternoon of March, this year.

We could scarcely believe our eyes!

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#15 in teaser series: butterfly)

Published July 21, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#15 in teaser series: butterfly)

Colombia is “our” planet’s butterfly capital.

20% of the world’s known species have been seen there.

To put Colombia’s rich biodiversity into perspective, the 3,642 butterfly species found in Colombia can be compared to the 496 butterfly species found in Europe or the 4,000 butterfly species found in the entire African continent.

‘More than 200 species of the butterflies in the checklist are unique to Colombia.

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#14 in teaser series: strange fruits)

Published July 19, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#14 in teaser series: strange fruits)

I have absolutely no idea what exactly are the pictured, profuse, substantial fruits.

Any Australians on their first visit to northern South America are almost guaranteed to be amazed by the plants, especially in humid, tropical locations.

I took the photo in a rainforest “pocket” near Villavicencio.

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#13 in teaser series: Sunbittern)

Published July 17, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#13 in teaser series: Sunbittern)

Just about everything about the sunbittern is misleading, including its name.

It is not a bittern.

Being wary/ “shy” – & predatory – this elusive bird generally favours shaded rather than sunny places – usually, near riverbanks in warm, humid South & Central American forests.

Eurypyga helias is the only member of its genus & of its family.

It is neither a heron nor a rail, but looks as if it just might be closely-related; it is not.

When undisturbed & engaged in hunting, or tending to its young, a sunbittern has a “well-camouflaged” appearance.

Its interesting but subdued plumage does bear a vague resemblance to a bittern’s.

However, when alarmed/threatened – or when basking in sunlight – this species spreads its wings…& suddenly reveals some of the most spectacular plumage of any bird species!

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#12 in teaser series: very leggy)

Published July 15, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#12 in teaser series: very leggy)

Colombia is a global “hotspot” for spider species.

More than 580 of those identified there are believed to be endemic; they have only been seen in Colombia…knowingly, at least, by human eyes.

I do not know the pictured spider’s species, nor its particular specialty/niche.

My hunch is that it is semi-aquatic; I suspect that it actively hunts its prey, rather than “trapping” them in a web or pit.

I can confirm that its legs were very long; they spanned a considerable portion of the relevant rock, which was not merely a pebble

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#11 in teaser series: one of many monkeys)

Published July 12, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#11 in teaser series: one of many monkeys)

With circa 150 living species, Brazil is – hands-down – the world’s most primate-diverse nation.

Colombia is also unusually primate-diverse.

You are looking at a small, arboreal, diurnal, monogamous monkey.

It eats fruits (& thereby distributes their seeds) & leaves (thereby, helping to “open up” the rainforest’s canopy, thus increasing the amount of light that reaches the forest floor) and insects. (it probably eats arachnids too)

Plecturocebus discolor has a number of “common” names; it is most commonly known as the white-tailed titi.

It is one of 41 New World monkey species that currently survive in Colombia.

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#10 in teaser series: wet)

Published July 10, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#10 in teaser series: wet)

A portion – a very small portion – of Colombia is desert.

More generally, as measured by annual rainfall statistics, Colombia is the world’s wettest nation.

From #6 on – & for the next several posts in this series – all locations are within “cattle country” near the city of Villavicencio.

Here, one is only circa 100 kilometres from Bogotá, but in an utterly different “world”.

Having headed southeast of the national capital – & crossed the easternmost of the Andes’ three Colombian cordilleras – one reaches a locale which is very much lower, hotter & wetter.

Average annual rainfall in Villavicencio: 4,450 mm.

Darwin is (by far) Australia’s wettest capital city; its annual average is 1,723 mm.

Leave a Comment

Aspects of Colombia (#9 in teaser series: an atypical owl)

Published July 7, 2026 by Pelidoug

Aspects of Colombia (#9 in teaser series: an atypical owl)

This petite owl is mostly-terrestrial; it can fly, but rarely does so.

It is diurnal, not nocturnal.

Its “home sweet home” is not high up in a tree, cave, cliff-face or barn.

Burrowing owls dwell underground.

Their common name, however, is misleading; so-called “burrowing” owls prefer to take advantage of actually-burrowing animals.

They move into those other animals’ “abandoned” burrows.

I suspect that some owner-excavators’ “abandonment” of their homes would have been lethally “assisted” by members of the pictured species, Athene cunicularia.

Leave a Comment

Pelican Yoga Posts