Well this may seem unprofessional to some but I have always been honest in what I offer so I think it is important to tell you my story about how I became involved in birding in El Salvador. Late in 2010 I was invited to a beginners birding course here in little Suchitoto, this was an effort sponsored by the Millennium Challenge Corporation a US fund invested to alleviate poverty in developing countries. El Salvador received in 2008 from the fund money to build a new northern highway connecting Guatemala with the Gulf of Fonseco, the majority of the money was used for the construction of this new highway, but some money was invested in efforts to improve production, quality of services (including tourism) and other infrastructure. After the first session and after realizing that I literally have Collared Aracari’s, Motmot’s and flocks of Orange-fronted parakeets right in my back yard, well as you can imagine I was hooked, not only on birding but looking into birding tours as a new component for El Salvador’s budding tourism industry. Since that first 3 day course on birding, I as well as some other local guides have participated in two more advanced birding courses and we now offer some birding options in and around Suchitoto and El Salvador. We do not consider ourselves in any means expert bird guides although now after 10 plus years our skills are more honed and we have been able to provide what I would consider professional birding tours. The first two birding courses were financed by the MCC Fund but enthusiasm motivated many of the initial participants to locally sponsor the third course and we have worked as a group in an effort to continued to train ourselves as well as other local and communal guides in Suchitoto as well as in other parts of the country. We also have been tapping into the knowledge of two ex pats birders that live here and go out birding with them when ever possible. The Salvadorian that taught the initial courses has been working with us in other parts of the country in our group effort to train local bird guides as well in an effort to insure income to local guides in areas of the country that offer very few other opportunities. Here at Gringo tours we are in complete agreement that local guides should always be used, independently of where in El Salvador we work. This in most cases increases our costs but we have found that the overall experience is much more rewarding to all involved.