Blogs from Choco, Colombia, South America

No cars. Only electricity in the evening. A small fishing village turned into low profile holiday village. Island feeling because there is no road access, only ultra small planes depart from the small strip in the middle of the village, and of course if the weather allows a lot of small boat activities.From Baranquilla to Capurgana took us two days by bus, van and speedboat. In Capurgana we just wanted to spend a few days on the beach and get our exit stamp to make our move to Panama. But a storm somewhere far away above the ocean pushed huge waves our way and made all water transport impossible. For us that was absolutely no problem ... read more

It has been many months since we left the shores of the most beautiful Carib-Colombian village Capurgana, our bottoms bouncing from our hard plastic seats as the speedboat surged out across the Gulf of Uraba back to Turbo. With every thwack of the hull on water, shock jarred up our spines. We’d taken this journey two weeks previously but that time the boat captain had put enough diesel in the tanks…this time, after nearly two hours of bouncing, we were marooned just 10 minutes from the coastline as we waited for another boat to deliver us our fuel. Fortunately reinforcements came just as the disgruntled murmurings of the tightly packed passengers rose to fever pitch. We were then thrust back suddenly into the chaos of mainland Colombian city life, but none of this could deprive our ... read more

I spent the last six days in the Pacific coastal region known as El Choco. The coastline there is wild rainforest, distinct from the Amazon. It´s one of the wettest places on earth, averaging about 40 feet of rain per year. My experience in El Choco, despite being shorter than I would have liked, was amazing. I flew into the town of Nuqui on a 15 passenger plane. There are no roads into El Choco. Virtually all of the people are Afro-Colombians, descendants of slaves from the colonial period. I had read that there was a bank in Nuqui but it turns out there is not. I would have to make the cash that I brought last and/or take a 2.5 hour boat north to a larger town with the only bank in the region. I ... read more

A couple of weeks ago, I left Medellin with the intention of stopping in Sante Fe de Antioquia for the night. This was a Friday. I decided on the bus ride to SFdA that I would, instead, spend a few hours in this colonial town continuing on to Turbo on a night bus. I felt short on time and still had 8 hours to driving after Sante Fe before arriving in Turbo, from where I was to catch a boat to Capurganá. Turns out, this was a good decision. There wasn’t much to see in Sante Fe. It is interesting in that was once the capital of Antioquia but as far as colonial towns go, it wasn’t as pretty as Popayan, for example. I chatted with a 17-year-old girl for a while. She looked 15, ... read more