Deborah, I agree wth Charles Vaughan that Belize is a great spot, but I'd
consider Trinidad too. There's a good book, there are more "deep-tropical"
families there than in Belize, and the Asa Wright Nature Center, if you can
stay there, is a wonderful spot to spend time. No snorkeling, but if you
had an extra couple of days, you could go over to Tobago, where the
snorkeling's great. Trinidad has Scarlet Ibises, if that's a temptation. If
you went snorkeling at Belize you should add days too, as the good coastal
areas are not the best areas for tropical birding (but they're full of
eastern North American warblers).

A lot depends on how much you want to be immersed in tropical birds and how
much you want to see some familiar faces (beaks?) among them. Belize has
lots more North American birds than Trinidad among its nevertheless
impressive diversity of tropical species; Costa Rica is inbetween, with a
much greater diversity than either of the others. However, it boggles my
mind to think of going to Costa Rica, with its 800+ species of birds, for
only 5 days! With that length of vacation, I'd choose a simpler avifauna.
Trinidad has 1 toucan, Belize 2 toucans, Costa Rica 6 toucans, just for
example. If you went to the right areas, you'd be guaranteed seeing all of
Trinidad's or Belize's toucans, but you'd need a couple of weeks to see all
of Costa Rica's toucans.

Of course I don't think 5 days is enough in Belize or Trinidad either.
There are so many places to go even in countries of that size, but with
only 5 days I'd recommend going to only a single spot and just enjoying the
birds there. Chan Chich in Belize is such a spot, as are Asa Wright Nature
Center and several tourist spots in Costa Rica (one was discussed on
tweeters earlier). There's some travel time to each of them from the main
airport in each country.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416