North West Coastline thanks for nuthin

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I know I have been giving alot of transportation play by plays but this one needs to be told

Medellin to Turbo - 9 hours : We took a night bus that left at 9 pm actually not so bad, the seats reclined pretty far back, we read a bit and then slept most of the way

Turbo to Sapzurro - 4 hrs, plus 3 hours of waiting : arrived in Turbo at 6 am, sat in a dirty, stinky, sketchy and rainy port waiting for the boat to take us to our destination, projected time 2 hours, actual time 4. The boat was crowded, the ocean was incredibly choppy, it was pouring, we were absolutely sopping wet, water splashing on us constantly and the boat was swelling up and slamming down on the water..our poor bottoms barely survived

This journey albeit long and hard, kinda fun and crazy and all worth it for Crystalline waters with sugary white sand beaches. The guide sang its praises as well as people we know who have personally been there raved about what a hidden gem this/these beaches were. Sure shot right ? Wrong - o !! Apparantly these beaches are like that throughout the year except Jan to March.......whoops. We arrived to low season ( should have been the tip off ) prices with low season beaches. The water was muddy and churny, no possibility of snorkelling, it rained relentlessly except for a few hours in the afternoon, and no one bothered to clean up the HORRIFYING amounts of garbadge strewn all along the beach. Most of the bits were all plastic, caps, bottles, broken plastic bits, bags ect. it was tragic and depressing. The amount of plastic garbadge was alarming and shocking, actually more shaming. Every bit was something I have participated it and one time or another, ignorantly assuming it would end up in a happy recycling plant and not on these beaches.

We tried to make the best of it, but it just sucked. The locals seemed closed off and unfriendly, there wasn´t really anywhere to eat, and to top it off the hostel we stayed at, was a little addition to some ladies house named Chilla and she was annoying as hell. Just really pushy, she kept telling us where to get a drink and where to buy stuff and who to get food from, it was a really small town and everyone knew eachother so I think that she felt obligated to get her little tourists to support her friends, which would be fine, but it was a little over the top !! BUt she did make killer coconut ice cream

One of the other claims to fame this stretch of beach / coastline was that it bordered Panama. You can do a hour hike into Panama and go to this Amazing beach called La Miel. Again.......ghost town, just absolutely covered in garbage. But the hike was really cool, hiking over the hill into Panama, with the Darien Gap in the background was pretty neat!

We stayed two nights and got outta dodge......ready to see more

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Photos

a river runs through it
a river of mud water created on a path from the relentless tropical rain

end of pier
6 am and ready to go

Capurgana
next beach over

same
our backpacks in garbadge bags to stay dry

Comments

[myk79]

hey thats my house!

[dickenns]

hi
looks like you are having a blast love, dad