Jorge Garzon

Born in 1965, Jorge was brought up in Burgos and Granada, where he mixed his university degree in Tourism with natural history and bird watching activities. He started guiding in the early 1980s, becoming one of the first professional natural history tour leaders in southern Spain. His passion for mountains and the Sierra Nevada led him to found the first mountain guiding company, and he wrote his first two books on nature and walks in the Sierra Nevada range. He led the first petition to declare the Sierra Nevada as a National Park, worked to achieve effective protection for the richest botanical areas in the Mediterranean cliffs of Malaga and Granada provinces, and also spent long periods of time in France and the Alps. After successfully completing his degree, he moved to Australia and travelled around the Pacific area and South Asia. He founded the first nature and outdoor travel company in Andalusia in 1991 and started to lead specialised nature and bird watching tours at that time. Jorge's birding travels have taken him to the Orkneys, Scotland, The Netherlands, France, Austria, the Alps, Italy, Portugal, Madeira and North Africa. His extensive guiding knowledge in Andalucia and Extremadura, southern Portugal and Morocco led to him being elected the 'Swarovski Recommended Guide - SRG' in 2003. A member of SEO/BirdLife, he has worked as the BirdLife Regional Officer in Andalucia for years, leading its birding conservation projects and actions, giving lectures and being a nature and bird watching tourist adviser for institutions and companies. He has written many articles and published several books, the latest one being the much praised 'Where to watch Birds in Donana' for Lynx Edicions. Jorge lives beside a nature reserve near Granada and has two children who have not yet flown the nest. All three of them enjoy being outdoors and hill-walking.