Introduction

It’s not often that you find a wildlife hotspot in the middle of the big city, but Parque Del Centenario is an exception. The park can be found in downtown Cartagena, right across the street from the walled city.

Wildlife Highlights

Believe it or not, you can find some incredible wildlife here. The key to finding most of it is keep your eyes in the trees, you may have to look at the same tree from three or four different angles before you find what’s hiding there. The park isn’t gigantic (about one square city block), but you can easily spend one or two hours wandering around and finding interesting species.

Our favorite find was the three-toed sloths which hang around in the trees. Often the easiest way to find them is to look for groups of people who are staring. If there aren’t any groups, again just walk slowly around the park and check the treetops carefully. The sloths hide particularly well.

It isn’t too difficult to find brown-throated parakeets, they fill the treetops (especially around sunset) and their screeches carry across the park. Bring binoculars to get a good look at them. There are also larger, yellow-crowned parrots that sit in the branches and eat seeds.

The great sapphire wing is one of the largest hummingbirds, it dwarfs the rest of them at the garden. It’s huge wings beat slower than the rest, making it look as if it were moving in slow motion.

There’s plenty more to see here, the black-tailed trainbearer looks like a fairy with it’s two long tail feathers that dangle as it flies, there’s the coppery-bellied puffleg which (in addition to some beautiful iridescence) has little pom-poms attached to its legs, and the white-bellied woodstar which sounds like a bumblebee and is one of the smallest hummingbirds.

Logistics

You will need reservations before visiting the observatory, you can book your reservation through the observatory’s website here.

Costs (for a 3-hour visit):

$25,000 COP per adult (around $7 USD)

$10,000 COP (around $3 USD)for children 2 to 10 years

If you want to stay longer than 3-hours it’ll cost $65,000 COP ($18 USD) for a day pass, however we found that 3-hours felt like plenty of time to watch and photograph all there was to see.

Hours:

Monday - Saturday: 9am to 4pm

Sunday & Holidays : 10am to 4pm

The easiest way to get there is a taxi or uber - you can type “Hummingbirds Observatory” into Google Maps to get the exact location.  The host will also email you turn-by-turn directions after you’ve made your reservation. Upon arrival you may want to pay the taxi/uber to wait for you, because the location is a bit off-the-beaten path. Otherwise, the staff at the observatory can call a taxi when you’re finished.

If you’re renting a car, please note the observatory is at the end of a very bumpy dirt road. You don’t need 4-wheel drive, but you will need to take it slow.

Because of the hummingbirds there are no pets allowed, also you are not allowed to use a flash while photographing on the property.

If you’d like to spend the night at the B&B, the average room runs around $300,000 COP (or $80 USD) which also saves you visitation costs.

Additional info can be found at the Hummingbird Observatory’s Website. If you have any specific questions, they can be directed to the property’s email, which is: observatoriodecolibries@gmail.com.

Wildlife Photos from Hummingbird Observatory: