Island Hopping From Tolu

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It was another early morning to catch a bus. We were advised by the guesthouse we had booked in Tolu to catch the first bus, since it's high season and it might get crowded during the day. We got up at 5:30am and quietly left hostel. We were surprised to see many people sleeping in the common area on mattresses. We didn't even hear them come in.

A taxi came to get us and took us through the30 minute ride to bus terminal way on outskirts of Cartagena. We bought our bus tickets to Tolu and then ate some breakfast Buñuelos, as has now become tradition. Then we boarded our nice air conditioned bus for a three and a half hour ride west of Cartagena. Some of the scenery looked like safari country.

We we got to Tolu, we didn't even know we were there until someone else got on the bus and told us we were in their seats. The bus stop is just at a gas station on the edge of town, and it wasn't that obvious. To us anyway. We took bicycle taxi to the hotel, and kind of felt bad for the guy doing all that work. At least there were no hills, or he wouldn't have made it. His beach umbrella kept us out of the sun, so we were comfortable.

At our hotel/guesthouse, we met Alejandra the owner, and she was really nice. Our room wasn't ready yet so we read and used the internet for a bit while laying out in hammocks.

When the room was ready, we dropped our stuff off and went to the malecon to book our tour at the company that Alexandra recommended, and then got ourselves some lunch. We picked up some water and caught the bus to the mangroves.

The mangroves are just outside of Tolu, about 10km down the road. The attraction is that you can take boat tours through the mangroves, so that sounded like something to do. Road construction really slowed things down, and the highway was down to one lane. They were alternating directions, but we waited a long time. It took way longer than expected to travel the short distance.

At the stop at the mangroves, we were greeted by a tour operator that led us to a boat right away and off we went. It was a lovely and quiet paddle. You could rent sombreros, and everyone in our boat did except for us. I kind of wish we did, not because it was too sunny (it was pretty late in the day at this point) but because we would have looked pretty silly. And we would have fit in with all the old ladies on our boat.

The tour took us through the mangroves, and pointed out wildlife (mostly birds) and we stopped at a floating platform for a break. Some people bought drinks or ice cream, but we held out.

We paddled on (well, our guide paddled on while we sat an floated) and took us along the river to another stop where they had a conservation park. We initially decided not to pay the extra amount to see the conservation park and bought a couple of beers instead while we waited for the group to return. But after talking to one of the ladies at the platform for a while who spoke English, she offered to give us an English tour, and she was a really lovely person, so we went for it.

She showed us all the alligators, caimans, and turtles the had, including a turtle that will probably be extinct soon. conservation park, alligators, Cayman, and turtle that will probably be extinct soon. This conservation park exists to rehabilitate animals that are mainly seized by the police in traffic stops, or people that have second thoughts about having such exotic (and illegal) pets. They tend to release them elsewhere in Colombia, closer to where their natural habitat would be. But it's a pretty small and low-budget operation, so I think they just do the best they can with what they have.

We spent so much time with the lady at the conservation park that our boat operator got impatient and left without us. But it didn't matter since the conservation park was right on the highway, so we caught the bus there instead.

And the buses are small. I counted 18 seats. So it's a mini bus. The reason I counted how many seats there were and noted how small it was is because it was absolutely packed. On this 18 seat bus, there were nine extra people who had to jam themselves on board and as many were stuffed in the doorway as would fit. We were among the extra nine who had to stand. The roof of the mini bus was lower than a normal bus, so I was too tall and had to stand folded over. It was pretty uncomfortable.

Mercifully, a guy got off at his stop and I stole his seat and Vanessa sat on my lap. But we got held up at the road construction again and waited for what seemed like half an hour for our turn to go. It took forever.

By the time we got back to town it was dark, but we were just happy to finally be off that bus. We bought some groceries and made a pasta dinner. Back at the guesthouse we had some showers while we waited for others to finish cooking and clear out of the kitchen.

While we cooked and ate, we shared the kitchen with a Colombian family from Medellin. They were really nice. We had our best conversation in Spanish that we could, and I've got to say, I did not too bad.

We made it an early night though, because we had to get up early yet again to catch our boat tour the next morning at 7am.

The boat tour to the San Bernardo islands was our main reason for coming to Tolu. And Tolu actually happens to be one of Colombia's most popular tourist destinations for Colombians, but not so much for foreigners. The town itself isn't much to look at, and we were warned to keep our valuables hidden while walking around town, or someone might try to snatch our camera or something. So it's not the best town in the world (not that we had any issues). The draw card is the island hopping boat tour we'd signed up for. We could have done a boat tour from Cartagena that went to a few islands near there, but this boat tour sounded like it was a bit nicer, less crowded, and the islands were more interesting.

So there we sat on the steps of the boat tour operators office on the malecon, eating our breakfast yogurt and pastries we'd bought the night before, and Vanessa bought a coffee.

When they were ready to board the boat, we walked with our big group to the beach. The boat was anchored about 80 feet offshore, and we had to wade through the water to get to it, and climb a ladder to get in. It was kind of fun, but there are definitely boat docks in town...

We chatted with a German couple that was going to stay on the island before we set off. That sounded kind of fun too. All the things you hear about... It's too bad we don't have unlimited time...

It was an hour by boat to first island. They showed us to a beach and told us to be back by noon for lunch. We decided to go for a walk away from the crowd, and found beach on other side of island near hotel type place. It was very quiet by comparison. We went swimming a bunch of times and sat in shade and read our books. It was nice.

When we were getting out of the water once, I'm pretty sure I saw a stingray... It was lying in the sand and moved when we got near. Vanessa thought she saw it too, but just thought it was something else. But it definitely moved and looked like a small stingray. So I can't say for sure, but I think we almost stepped on a stingray...

We walked back for lunch, and ate tasty fresh fish. It was almost time for the boat to leave, so we went over to the dock to wait, and we ran into a Belgian couple that we'd met in San Gil. They had stayed on the island and were on their way back to the mainland.

The boat took us past Santa Cruz Del Islote, which is the most densely populated island on earth. It's 0.012 square kilometers, and has 1200 people on it. It's solid houses from coast to coast... to coast to coast. It's really neat. We didn't dock there, but I kind of wish we had.

Instead we went to another island. This island had an aquarium we didn't want to go to, so went looking for another beach with the Belgian couple. Instead of going around the zoo to the beach, we ended up walking backwards through zoo. We saw lot's of birds, and some very sad monkeys. There were also flamingos, and a small (also sad) dolphin enclosure. Because we walked backwards through the zoo, we didn't end up having to pay, but we really were looking for the beach.

Oh, and the sad things about the sad caged monkeys is that on the other side of the island there were a bunch of wild monkeys swinging in the trees. There was never any reason to put any of them in a cage in this zoo. It's a small island and there's nowhere for them to go, so you're bound to see them. I don't really know the story here, but I'm sure it's not a great one...

We eventually found beach with not much time to spare. We didn't think there was enough time to swim so we walked back to boat dock and waited. Well, things were running on island time, so it was probably half an hour to an hour before the boat actually loaded up and left. So while we waited for everyone else to come back we walked out onto the pier and found a bunch of fish underneath, including angle fish and some time of sword fish looking thing. They were neat to watch, and there were hundreds of them.

We drank some water and lemonade while we waited for the others to return. I guess one hour means two in Colombia.

Finally the boat loaded up and we headed back to the shore. We said goodbye to the Belgians and went back to the guesthouse, and it was very quiet. We talked to that nice family again, and Alejandra joined us too.

I went out to buy water and accidentally went the wrong way, and went on a bit of an adventure walk around town before getting my bearings. I walked a long way, but I didn't get mugged, so that's a plus. Really, the town seems alright. There were lots of kids playing in the street. I saw some kids with roller blades held together by twine, and others were playing football in the street.



After showers and dinner, we went straight to bed again. We've got to get up early to catch a bus once again. We're heading all the way to Santa Marta.

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