Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [237]
Return to beginning of chapter
Sleeping & Eating
Hotel Río Guapi ( 840 0983, 840 0196; s/d/tr COP$32,000/48,000/70,000) A block from where the Aviatur boat leaves for Gorgona, the Río Guapi’s 40 rooms are the best in town. The floors are tile, the walls concrete, and there’s a fan and cable TV. The downstairs restaurant is one of the best places to try ceviche guapense (COP$10,000).
Return to beginning of chapter
Shopping
Several artesanía shops at the airport sell handicrafts at inflated prices.
Aquilino Cuero Solis ( 311 336 8018; cnr Carrera 3 & Calle 7) makes traditional musical instruments, especially drums, including marimbas, tambores, conunos (all types of drum) and guasas (a kind of rainstick). Prices vary greatly. Expect to pay somewhere between COP$80,000 to COP$250,000 for a handmade drum, depending on size.
Eber Mansilla ( 313 603 5196; Calle Segunda) has a good reputation for his work in gold, coconut and tagua. He didn’t have any gold to show us when we were there, but he’s worth checking out.
Return to beginning of chapter
Getting There & Away
AIR
Aeropuerto Juan Casino Solis ( 840 0188) is serviced by Satena with flights to Cali and Popayán. Aexpa also offers a charter service. The coconut and guava sweets on sale at the airport are worth trying.
BOAT
Pacífico Express ( 840 1212, 241 6507, 313 715 3335, 313 655 9059) offers daily services from Buenaventura in a covered speedboat powered by three 200-horsepower outboard motors (COP$80,000, three to four hours).
There are a number of boats that can take you southbound to the village of Charco (COP$35,000, 50 minutes), and from there to Tumaco (COP$85,000, 3½ hours). Inquire on the waterfront.
Return to beginning of chapter
* * *
ISLA MALPELO
This tiny, remote Colombian island has some of the best diving in the world. It’s a mere 1643m long and 727m wide, and is 506km from the mainland. It is the center of the vast Santuario de Flora y Fauna Malpelo (ecoturismo@parquesnacionales.gov.co; admission per day Colombian/foreigner on foreign-flagged boat COP$133,000/75,000, Colombian/foreigner on Colombian-flagged boat COP$75,000/71,000) and is the largest no-fishing zone in the eastern Tropical Pacific, and provides a critical habitat for threatened marine species.
The diversity and, above all, the size of the marine life is said to be eye-popping, including over 200 hammerhead sharks and 1000 silky sharks. It is also one of the few places where sightings of the short-nosed ragged-tooth shark, a deepwater shark, have been confirmed. The volcanic island has steep walls and impressive caves. The best time to see the sharks is January to March, when colder weather drives them to the surface to feed. A small contingent of Colombian soldiers guard Malpelo, and it’s forbidden to set foot on the island.
The quality of the diving is matched only by the difficulty of getting there, and the difficulty of the diving itself. The island can only be visited as part of a live-aboard dive cruise, usually lasting eight days. Travel time is 30 to 36 hours each way from Buenaventura, and there is no decompression chamber on the island. There are strong currents that pull you up, down, and sideways – you may well surface kilometers from where you entered the water.
Only advanced divers with experience and confidence should attempt this trip. You’ll need your own wet suit (minimum 5mm), with hood, gloves, diving computer, dive horn and decompression buoy.
Boats from three countries offer this trip. Your cheapest options are the Colombian-flagged Doña Mariela or Maria Patricia (Click here). Both charge around COP$3,500,000 per diver for eight days. The Inula ( in Germany 49 5130 790326, in Panama 507 6672 9091; www.inula-diving.de), out of Puerto David, Panama, offers the trip for around US$3500 per diver, and the Undersea Hunter ( 506 2228 6613; www.underseahunter.com) out of Puntarenas, Costa Rica charges roughly US$6500 per diver. The Undersea Hunter may stop offering this trip as of 2009. Check their website for the latest.
Only