Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo and Home

We spent the last few days exploring the colonial heart of the city, getting food poisoning from the only vegan restaurant (has to have been personal hygiene by someone preparing the food)

DR has a long and bloody history thanks to Europeans and slavery, both sides of which are preserved in Santo Domingo:

There are various national museums, embassies and other buildings in the colonial centre of the city too:

So in a final tally we had seen 90 species fully half of which were lifers however we saw the majority of these on the first morning in the botanic gardens.   It was worth the drive up the mountain though everything could have been done better and with more care and consideration.

Time then for home, and a very scenic flight from Santo Domingo to Miami:

I think this is part of an enormous and submerged volcanic caldera, the sight from the cockpit must be amazing:

We left DR in 35c heat, we landed in London at a chilly 3c to find we missed out flights connecting to Glasgow by a day.   The trip back on a BA 747 had been very bumpy almost the whole way as they took advantage of the unusually strong jetstream.  So after no sleep we then had to deal with sorting out a flight, which we eventually did, paying a lot as captive customers.   Oh and they'd broken an 'unbreakable' hard case bag too, but we couldn't report that until Glasgow and they were only an agent and couldn't help.   Thanks BA, we won't forget that trip in a hurry - we pay for premium flights as it's an important component of the holiday we choose and it's not the first time we feel BA have really dropped the ball, there's no point complaining though, we've tried. 

Anyway enough grumbling, Panama was fantasic we saw more than we anticipated and really enjoyed our visit to the country.   We're now on over 2,650 species of bird, so over 26% and counting!   Time for a pause on the long-haul stuff and to explore our new surroundings in Scotland...