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Published: July 18th 2011
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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 came with a decent amount of cash so I decided to take the afternoon lancha to Guachalito (30 mins southwest).
The lonely planet guidebook claims Guachilito is the most idyllic beach on the Pacific coast. I didn´t end up traveling to any other beaches but I trust that this is accurate. I didn´t want to leave. I´ve been to my fair share of
tropical beaches and I´d definitely have to rank this place in the top 3. The catch is that it´s expensive. A number of ¨hotels¨ are scattered along the 4 mile long beach. They generally consist of wooden cabañas with solar powered lights surounded by gardens. I believe everything I ate except the rice was grown or caught on site. These hotels cater primarily to upper class Colombians who fly in from the cities for weekend trips. I ended up paying about $75 per night (meals included). This seems steep considering the pvc pipe shower and the lack of electrical outlets for charging my iPod. However, there was something magical about the virgin jungle/beach feel that made it seem well worth the price.
The beach faces west here and is semi-protected from south swells. Elizabeth, the owner of my hotel, told me that there is a surfable wave about 15 minutes down the beach and there are 2 locals who surf. So I went for a walk on my first afternoon and found the spot. The surf looked unimpressive but I could see how fun waves could break here with a little more swell. I paddled out anyway and sure
enough some fun little rights started coming in as the tide pushed. The spot was a beachbreak but a sandbar formed off of a little rocky point. These were far from the best waves I´ve ever surfed (think waist to chest high OB jetty) but it was probably one of the more memorable sessions I´ve ever had. You just don´t get to surf in 80 degree water in complete isolation on the edge of the rainforest often. After about 45 minutes I had my first sighting of other humans: 3 Colombian soldiers manning automatic rifles walking along the beach. They stopped and watched me for 10 minutes or so, we waved, and they moved on. There is a heavy military presence in this region since La Violencia (FARC/ paramilitaries) came here for a bit around 2001-2002 I believe.
The next day I shared some waves with the 2 local surfers, Beto and Jayo. They´re both originally from Medellin and live here and rent rooms. They were adament about making me feel welcome, ¨No es como Hawaii...aqui todo tranquilo...no hay gente...hay bastante olas.¨ The swell picked up and there were some chest to head high waves for a couple days.
This spot doesn´t break consistently, I was really lucky to be able to surf it for 5 straight days. There are a couple of south facing reefs further down the coast but locals charge $150 for boat trips.
Aside from the surf, I´ve continued to meet amazing people. On my first night, after the surf, I walked by a nearby hotel that had a beach volleball net set-up. This was the largest hotel on the beach and they were completely full at the moment (about 20 guests). One of the girls playing says ¨hola¨ and asks me to join. I point out the fact that the teams are an even 4 against 4, ¨no importa¨she says. I haven´t played volleyball since 8th grade but I figure why not. I played 2 games before the sun went down and managed to not hurt my team´s effort. The girl offers me a beer and introduces herself as July, she works at the hotel. After the beer I say I need to get back to my hotel for dinner and she invites me to come back after dinner and play cards with her and the guests. Upon return, July introduces me to
a group of 6 travelling from Medellin, they´re all in there mid-20´s. The night is filled with rousing games of cucharas (spoons), Jenga, and Uno.
The following night the group invites me to go next door to Pedro´s ¨para rumba¨ (rumba, by the way, is the word all Colombians seem to use for going out dancing). Pedro has the only bar on the beach; it´s a nice setup consisting of plastic chairs, a wooden table, a generator-powered-soundsystem, and a small concrete dancefloor. It takes a few beers and a ¨coco-loco¨ (whole coconut with vodka added) to loosen up but I end up joing in on the dancing and it lasts for hours. I realize a few family members reading this are probably having a really difficult time picturing me dancing but those with whom I´ve travelled know I can get down under the right circumstances. I feel like I can get by on any reggaeton song and even merengue, but salsa has always been a challenge. The girls were really helpful with teaching me though and I think I now have the basic steps down (still need to work on all the twisting and twirling). At one point during
the night, Pedro demostrated with grace and agility a local move known as ¨el camaron.¨ This involves gyrating with both hands and one foot on the dancefloor. This was a very memorable night and I´m bummed I didn´t have my camera.
That group returned to Medellin the next day and a new crew came in. They were a bit older but liked to party just as hard (partying hard is a common theme in Colombia I´m finding). One great thing about this solo journey was that not a single person spoke English in my time on the Pacific coast; I was finally forced to speak Spanish exclusively for almost a week. On Saturday, July invited me to join them on the hike 2 hours down the beach to Termales (thermal springs). The hike was full of amazing coastal jungle scenery and the tropical sun was out in full force (making hot springs not sound all that appealing). It was a good time and the water turned out to be tepid at best. At the bottom of the spring, people were fetching up these rocks that produced a clay-like substance when ground into other rocks. Everyone was then applying this
clay to their faces. Apparently it´s some kind of natural anti-aging treatment. So I went ahead and joined in. I could feel my face tighten up as the stuff dried, maybe I lost some wrinkles...
Because I was having such an amazing time surfing and hanging out, I decided to just stay in Guachilito until my cash ran out. I was over the mission of going up the coast to find the only bank. July said she could call and change my return flight without a problem.
Yesterday it rained all day. I spent a lot of time on my porch in the hammock. I really lucked out with all the sun the previous 4 days. Last night I drank ¨biche¨ (cheap liquor made from caña) with some of the locals and did a little more rumba... So after an expensive little surf trip I´m back in the city but excited to visit the Caribbean coast tomorrow. I´m not expecting waves up there but we´ll see.
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